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Reverend Sam Gardner
An attractive and practical woman, Liz left a life of poverty to become a prostitute, later setting up a chain of brothels with her sister, Kitty Warren. Unlike her sister, she has the manners and appearance of a respectable woman, and left the business once she had earned enough money to live comfortably without working.
Liz Quotes in Mrs. Warren’s Profession
The Mrs. Warren’s Profession quotes below are all either spoken by Liz or refer to Liz. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Author's Apology Quotes
The notion that prostitution is created by the wickedness of Mrs Warren is as silly as the notion—prevalent, nevertheless, to some extent in Temperance circles—that drunkenness is created by the wickedness of the publican. Mrs Warren is not a whit a worse woman than the reputable daughter who cannot endure her. Her indifference to the ultimate social consequences of her means of making money, and her discovery of that means by the ordinary method of taking the line of least resistance to getting it, are too common in English society to call for any special remark. Her vitality, her thrift, her energy, her outspokenness, her wise care of her daughter, and the managing capacity which has enabled her and her sister to climb from the fried fish shop down by the Mint to the establishments of which she boasts, are all high English social virtues. Her defence of herself is so overwhelming that it provokes the St James Gazette to declare that "the tendency of the play is wholly evil" because “it contains one of the boldest and most specious defences of an immoral life for poor women that has ever been penned." Happily the St James Gazette here speaks in its haste. Mrs Warren's defence of herself is not only bold and specious, but valid and unanswerable. But it is no defence at all of the vice which she organizes. It is no defence of an immoral life to say that the alternative offered by society collectively to poor women is a miserable life, starved, overworked, fetid, ailing, ugly. Though it is quite natural and right for Mrs Warren to choose what is, according to her lights, the least immoral alternative, it is none the less infamous of society to offer such alternatives. For the alternatives offered are not morality and immorality, but two sorts of immorality.
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Shaw reacts to the prevailing idea that prostitution is caused by the immorality of individual women who decide to become prostitutes instead of pursuing “honorable” professions. He explains that his play does not seek to justify prostitution, but rather to point out that prostitution is the result of a lack of economic opportunity for women. He suggests that Mrs. Warren is no worse than her daughter; both women are shrewd, energetic, and far-thinking. Shaw suggests that, if Mrs. Warren had Vivie's opportunities, she might have a career just like Vivie's, while Vivie might have been no better able than her Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. U
Act 2 Quotes
MRS WARREN [indignantly] Of course not. What sort of mother do you take me for! How could you keep your self-respect in such starvation and slavery? And whats a woman worth? whats life worth? without self-respect! Why am I independent and able to give my daughter a first-rate education, when other women that had just as good opportunities are in the gutter? Because I always knew how to respect myself and control myself. Why is Liz looked up to in a cathedral town? The same reason. Where would we be now if we'd minded the clergyman's foolishness? Scrubbing floors for one and sixpence a day and nothing to look forward to but the workhouse infirmary.
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Vivie has asked her mother if she really wouldn’t recommend that Vivie work in a factory or as a maid, instead of becoming a sex worker, if they were still as poor as Mrs. Warren was when she was growing up. Mrs. Warren answers Vivie definitively in the negative. The conditions that prevail in other jobs available to poor women are so exploitative, she says, that they deprive women of self-respect, and are essentially slavery. Mrs. Warren is implicitly suggesting that self-respect is more important than the respect of others in society, or respectability. She thinks that the very low Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestia
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Liz Character Timeline in Mrs. Warren’s Profession
The timeline below shows where the character Liz appears in Mrs. Warren’s Profession. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 2
...herself a widow, but had four daughters from different husbands. Mrs. Warren and her sister Liz were good-looking, while their two sisters were ugly, but honest. One of her half-sisters, Jane,...
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Mrs. Warren and Liz both went to a church school, until one night Liz ran away. The people at...
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...in Waterloo station, working long hours for low wages. One night when was very tired, Liz came into the bar to buy Scotch, looking elegant and well-dressed and with lots of...
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Vivie exclaims to hear about her aunt. Mrs. Warren says that Liz is a very good aunt to have: she lives respectably now and chaperones girls to...
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That night in the bar, Liz had told Mrs. Warren to come to work with her instead of wearing herself out...
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...felt ashamed. Mrs. Warren answers that it’s expected by society to feel ashamed. She says Liz always got angry at her for talking about their work and society’s hypocrisy. Liz was...
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...sees that Vivie had thought her full of nonsense before. Mrs. Warren continues, saying that Liz always thought her full of nonsense too, and now she imagines Vivie will treat her...
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Act 4
...leave her business once she had made enough money to do so, like her sister Liz. Mrs. Warren says it was easy for Liz because she has the air of being...
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