Major Barbara

Barbara Undershaft is a devoted Salvation Army officer who finds real meaning in feeding and saving London’s poor, until her estranged father, a fabulously wealthy manufacturer of cannons and explosives, walks back into her life. When his donation rescues her struggling shelter, Barbara is forced to confront an uncomfortable question: does it matter whether the money that does good was earned by doing harm? Her father counters that poverty, not sin, is the true evil, and that his well-paid workers live better than any convert she has rescued. Shaw turns this collision of faith, capital, and social reform into a bracing argument with no easy winner. First staged in 1905, it remains one of his sharpest plays. This free PDF and EPUB edition includes his preface.