Major Barbara Essays

  • Comparing Characters in Major Barbara and Pygmalion

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    Comparing Characters in Major Barbara and Pygmalion Andrew Undershaft and Alfred Doolittle, two characters from Bernard Shaw's plays Major Barbara and Pygmalion, have a similar nature but strikingly different views of morality and poverty. Undershaft is an "unashamed" capitalist, and nothing clouds his view of his business plans. Doolittle is a man who would much rather have a life of poverty than be troubled with the responsibility of being well-off. Although their perspectives differ, they

  • Idealism and Realism in Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara

    1283 Words  | 3 Pages

    Idealism and Realism in Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara Submerged in their own ideas about idealism and realism, Barbara and her father Undershaft are at odds with one another in Major Barbara. In this Bernard Shaw play, minor characters are important in exemplifying these conflicting values. The moral perplexities of capitalism and charity are explored through the words and actions of Undershaft’s family, his future sons-in-law, and the common folks at the Shelter. Thriving in the British upper

  • Lessons of Major Barbara, Good Woman of Setzuan, and Madwoman of Chaillot

    2219 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lessons of Major Barbara, Good Woman of Setzuan, and Madwoman of Chaillot Philosophers all over the world have pondered over the idea of evil.  This brings up another extremely essential question, “how should we live?”  Because we know that evil is existent in our world, does that mean we must live with the knowledge, accept it and conform to society’s ideal that only the cunning survive?  Or do we keep our original identity of purity and goodness at heart in our everyday lives.  The three

  • Hypocritical Christianity Exposed in Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hypocritical Christianity Exposed in Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara Bernard Shaw reveals in his plays a type of religious standard that is not unlike Christianity but with what most people see as a stereotypical view of hypocritical Christianity. Shaw's concept of Crosstianity , as he calls it, shows a religion in which the church preaches what the rich and powerful tell it, scoundrels are treated as equals, and punishment is concerned with prosecution rather than salvation. "Poetic justice" rules

  • Symbols and Symbolism - A Comparison of Nicknames in A Doll's House and Major Barbara

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symbolism of Nicknames in A Doll's House and Major Barbara The use of nicknames in literature is an important tool in which the author can provide insight into the attitudes of the characters toward each other and to provide illumination as to the nature of specific characters. Two such pieces of literature in which these attitudes and illumination can be evidenced are A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen and Major Barbara by Bernard Shaw. The attitudes of the characters in A Doll's House, more

  • The Way the Learning of Science Aids in the Structure of Society

    1254 Words  | 3 Pages

    connecting the way the learning of science aids in the structure of society and how literature helps develop the individual. Upon reading the novel “Major Barbara” by Bernard Shaw I came by this quote “Well you see, my dear boy, when you are organizing civilization you have to make up your mind whether trouble and anxiety are good things or not” . Major Barbra was an idealist who worked in the salvation army; she believed that everyone can be saved by religion and that by praying she could solve world

  • Religion and Morality in Major Barbara

    1008 Words  | 3 Pages

    dependent than the church (church of England) on rich people who would cut off supplies at once if it began to preach dispensable revolt against poverty which also must be a revolt against riches”. Shaw makes the above comments in the preface to Major Barbara. He presents this view of religious organizations role playing as tools of social engineering for the rich among other controversial views on morality and religion, particularly directed on Christian beliefs of the Salvation Army, one of the foremost

  • Critique of Barbara Huttman’s A Crime of Compassion

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Critique of Barbara Huttman’s “A Crime of Compassion” Barbara Huttman’s “A Crime of Compassion” has many warrants yet the thesis is not qualified. This is a story that explains the struggles of being a nurse and having to make split-second decisions, whether they are right or wrong. Barbara was a nurse who was taking care of a cancer patient named Mac. Mac had wasted away to a 60-pound skeleton (95). When he walked into the hospital, he was a macho police officer who believed he could single-handedly

  • Comparison Between Piano Concert By Barbara Wieman And Sacramento Cham

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Comparison Between Piano Concert by Barbara Wieman and Sacramento Chamber Orchestra On Feb 20,1997, I attended a piano concert that was performed by Barbara Wieman. The performance was held at the American River College Music Department choir room. The choir room holds about 100 people and every seat was taken and students were seated on the floor. The audience was dressed casual as everyone was students trying to do their concert papers. Barbara Weiman was also dressed casual but nice

  • A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August

    2805 Words  | 6 Pages

    A Summary of Barbara W. Tuchman's The Guns of August “The Guns of August” was written by Barbara W. Tuchman in 1962. The book details the causes of the first World war and describes the first month of the war. The book clearly illustrates how a local war became an entire European struggle by a call to war against Russia. Soon after the war became a world issue. Summary of the Book Plans The Beginning (Chapters 1-5) The book begins at the funeral procession of King Edward VII of England

  • Barbara Anderson's First Fieldwork

    663 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barbara Anderson's First Fieldwork Précis: “First Fieldwork” 1. Where did Barbara Anderson’s fieldwork take place and what was the goal of her research? Barbara Anderson’s fieldwork took place in the fishing village of Taarnby, Denmark on the island of Amager in the Oresund in the 50’s. The goal of her research was to publish the unseen side of fieldwork. She wanted to share the personal and professional sides of fieldwork with the reader. She went to the island to help her husband study

  • Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone The title of Barbara Blaugdone’s memoir is An Account of the Travels, Sufferings and Persecutions of Barbara Blaugdone, with “travels” highlighted by its enormous size. Indeed, when reading the book the reader is perhaps most struck by Blaugdone’s excessive, nearly constant travel habits. It may even be argued that at its heart the book is a travel narrative and not a memoir or even a religious account. She traipses about

  • The Use of Irony in Barbara L. Greenberg's The Faithful Wife

    676 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Use of Irony in Barbara L. Greenberg's The Faithful Wife "The Faithful Wife" by Barbara L. Greenberg is a fascinating, satirical account of what the speaker would do if she were unfaithful to her husband. Upon the first reading of this poem, I thought the woman in this poem was saying that her husband was irreplaceable and because of that she would never be unfaithful. Also I thought that if she did betray him, she would choose someone totally different from him, which somehow wouldn't dishonor

  • Beyond Orgasmatron by Keesling, Barbara

    510 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beyond Orgasmatron “...We’re walking around with a complete health care system inside our own body.” Keesling does a pretty good job of emphasizing the this idea throughout the entire article. I must admit that from personal experience I do indeed agree with Keesling in that sex is great for the mind and body, as well as the fact that it could even be used as therapy for menstrual problems. She also makes a point of stating that “...sex also creates an emotional and physical bond that is essential

  • Major Themes In Barbara Harlow's Exploration Of Resistance Literature

    3122 Words  | 7 Pages

    1 Barbara Harlow’s Resistance literature is to become engaged in the promise of an exciting journey through literary territory that few American literary critics have charted. Harlow draws us into the world of literature as political allegory with the warning that the exploration will challenge what is known about the ways in which we have access literature. Harlow counsels that the exploration of resistance literature , "like the resistance and national liberation movements which it reflects and

  • Barbara Stoller Miller's Bhagavad Gita

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita This modern day translation of the Bhagavad Gita, written by Barbara Stoller Miller, focused briefly on Krishna’s Counsel in Time of War. It was a fairly short yet in depth description of Hindu beliefs and the conflicts that humans encounter when deciding which path to follow. The translation is in poetic form, and is divided between eighteen teachings, or chapters if you will. Each teaching focuses on one discipline of the mind, revealed through the Hindi god Krishna

  • Balancing the Individual with the Community in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

    2143 Words  | 5 Pages

    In an interview with Barbara Kingsolver by David Gergen, editor-at-large for U.S. News & World Report, Kingsolver states, I think everything I write is about the idea of community and about the special challenge in the United States of balancing our idealization of the individual, or glorification of, of personal freedom and the individual with the importance of community, how to balance those two offices. (Qtd. by Gergen) I found this idea of Kingsolver's to be the basis of her book The Bean Trees

  • Motherhood in Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Motherhood in The Bean Trees In the novel, The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver, we watch as Taylor grows a great deal. This young woman takes on a huge commitment of caring for a child that doesn't even belong to her. The friends that she acquired along the way help teach her about love and responsibility, and those friends become family to her and Turtle. Having no experience in motherhood, she muddles through the best she can, as all mothers do. Marietta was raised in a small town in Kentucky

  • The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

    2538 Words  | 6 Pages

    (meaning living above Mexico) in population. There is also said there was about three hundred languages spoken at the time. Anthropologists have tried to summarize “the cultural practices and reduce the cultural complexity and they have come with twelve major cultural areas. But, material artifacts and mode of subsistence give a geographical area rather than on social organization or a people’s way of life, including their family relationship.” ( Mindel, 1998, p.382) The similar family structures can be

  • Facing the Village by Lenore Look and A Fist in the Eye of God by Barbara Kingsolver

    1779 Words  | 4 Pages

    Facing the Village by Lenore Look and A Fist in the Eye of God by Barbara Kingsolver Common human attributes are normal to acquire, yet Americans seem to pick and choose how they want to acquire these traits, whether it’s excessively or minimally. In both readings, “Facing the Village” by Lenore Look and “A Fist in the Eye of God” by Barbara Kingsolver, the authors present many human attributes and the pros and cons of how Americans act. In “Facing the Village,” Lenore Look starts out being the