Bernard Shaw's Remarkable Religion: A Faith That Fits the Facts

140 Bernard Shaw’s Remarkable Religion
bald statement of its implications still shocks the very people who regard
themselves as the champions of liberal democracy.
Foundations are not pretty, and Undershaft represents the foundation
of the same principles of which Barbara embodies the superstructure. He
makes this clear in the brief exchange he has with her in the final scene. He
saved her soul from the crime of poverty and allowed her to become Major
Barbara, to become a champion of spirit and saver of souls. Foundations,
however hard to look at, are essential. You cannot free the soul without
first freeing the body; you cannot serve others without first serving yourself;
you cannot give to others if you have impoverished yourself. And you
can only choose from the alternatives which are presented to you. Undershaft
says:
I had rather be a thief than a pauper. I had rather be a murderer than
a slave. I dont want to be either; but if you force the alternative on me,
then by Heaven, I’ll chose the braver and more moral one. I hate
poverty and slavery worse than any other crimes whatsoever. (3: 174)
Make no mistake, when Undershaft says that poverty and slavery are
crimes, he means that the pauper and slave are criminals. By accepting the
degradation society has imposed on them they are guilty of unspeakable
sins against the Life Force that can be redeemed only by the courage to
rebel against it. Undershaft offers them the means. When bloodshed is the
only alternative to degradation of oneself, “Thou shalt starve ere I starve”
becomes the foundation of all ethics. 5 What is wanted is “courage enough
to embrace this truth” (3: 173).
That is why Andrew Undershaft needs Barbara. Undershaft points out
that he “can make cannons: [he] cannot make courage and conviction” (3:
169). That is what is wanted. He can provide the means for those who are
willing to risk their lives in order to save their souls, but he cannot give
them the will to do it. That is the truth about his own well-fed, comfortably
housed, and self-satisfied workers. He has not only saved them, like
his daughter, from the crime of poverty; he has saved them from the need
to fight their way out of it. There is no reason to believe that they would
have had the necessary courage and conviction if he had not. If the conviction
needed is faith in their own equality, they would fail the test; Undershaft
is the only one who thinks of the workers as equals: they want nothing
to do with such radical notions. Andrew comments that the mosaic in
the William Morris Labor Church, “No Man Is Good Enough to Be Another
Man’s Master,” shocked his men. Obviously, the motto was his idea