Major Barbara

The drama traces a wealthy household's domestic and moral disputes as a mother presses her grown son to take responsibility for the family's financial future while daughters' prospective marriages and a daughter's dedication to a religious rescue movement expose uncomfortable truths. One daughter joins a social-improvement corps and becomes engaged to an intellectual ally; the children's father is revealed as fabulously wealthy because of the perpetual presence of war, forcing characters to confront whether prosperity built on violence can be reconciled with charitable ideals. Through sharp conversation and comic tension the play examines social duty, the uses of money, and the uneasy compromises between idealism and practical power.