Eighteenth-Century Literary Precursors of Mrs Warren's Profession

Abstract

Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession is almost solely discussed in terms of its portrayal of prostitution in relation to the theatre of its day. In this light, his work is defined as a decisive break with what came before it. But Shaw warned against this tendency to label literature that challenges contemporary norms as necessarily original. Instead, he called on his audience to recognize the cyclical nature of literature, noting that what is new to one generation is most often merely that which was discarded by the previous one. By adopting the longer view, this essay examines Mrs Warren's Profession alongside some well-known prostitute narratives of the eighteenth century to argue that while Shaw might have overturned one tradition, there is much to suggest that he concurrently tapped into another.