Suggestions

Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
  • Shakespeare dark gray
    • No Fear Shakespeare Translations
    • Shakespeare Study Guides
    • Shakespeare Life & Times
    • Glossary of Shakespeare Terms
  • Literature dark gray
    • No Fear Literature Translations
    • Literature Study Guides
    • Glossary of Literary Terms
    • How to Write Literary Analysis
  • Other Subjects dark gray
    • Biography
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Computer Science
    • Drama
    • Economics
    • Film
    • Health
    • History
    • Math
    • Philosophy
    • Physics
    • Poetry
    • Psychology
    • Short Stories
    • Sociology
    • US Government and Politics
  • Test Prep PLUS dark gray
    • Test Prep Lessons
    • AP® English Literature
    • AP® English Language
  • Teacher dark gray
    • SparkTeach
    • Teacher's Handbook
  • Blog
My PLUS Dashboard
  • My PLUS Activity dark gray
    • Notes
    • Bookmarks
    • Test Prep PLUS
    • No Fear Translations & Audio
    • Mastery Quizzes
    • Flashcards
    • Infographics
    • No Fear Graphic Novels
  • Account Details
  • Subscription & Billing

Please wait while we process your payment

Reset Password

  • Please wait while we process your payment

    Log in Sign up

    Sparknotes

  • By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.

    Don’t have an account? Subscribe now

    Create Your Account

    Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial

    • Ad-free experience
    • Study notes
    • Flashcards
      & Quizzes
    • AP® English Test Prep
    • Plus much more

  • Already have an account? Log in

    Your Email

    Choose Your Plan

    BEST VALUE

    Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!

    Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?

    Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!

  • Price

    $24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax

    Subtotal $37.48 + tax

    Save 25% on 2-49 accounts

    Save 30% on 50-99 accounts

    Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.

    Your Plan

    Payment Details

  • We're sorry, SparkNotes Plus isn't available in your country.

  • Payment Details

    Payment Summary

    SparkNotes Plus

    You'll be billed after your free trial ends.

    7-Day Free Trial

    Not Applicable

    Renews February 13, 2023 February 6, 2023

    Discounts (applied to next billing)

    DUE NOW

    US $0.00

    SNPLUSROCKS20  |  20% Discount

    This is not a valid promo code.

    Discount Code (one code per order)

    SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.

    Choose Your Plan

    Payment Details

    Payment Summary

    Suggestions

    Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.
    • My Account Icon My Account white
      • My PLUS Activity
        • Notes
        • Bookmarks
        • Test Prep PLUS
        • No Fear Translations
        • Mastery Quizzes
        • Flashcards
        • Infographics
        • No Fear Graphic Novels
      • Account Details
      • Subscription & Billing
      My PLUS Dashboard
    • Shakespeare white
      • No Fear Shakespeare Translations
      • Shakespeare Study Guides
      • Shakespeare Life & Times
      • Glossary of Shakespeare Terms
    • Literature white
      • No Fear Literature Translations
      • Literature Study Guides
      • Glossary of Literary Terms
      • How to Write Literary Analysis
    • Other Subjects white
      • Biography
      • Biology
      • Chemistry
      • Computer Science
      • Drama
      • Economics
      • Film
      • Health
      • History
      • Math
      • Philosophy
      • Physics
      • Poetry
      • Psychology
      • Short Stories
      • Sociology
      • US Government and Politics
    • Test Prep PLUS white
      • Test Prep Lessons
      • AP® English Literature
      • AP® English Language
    • Teacher white
      • SparkTeach
      • Teacher's Handbook
    • Blog
    • Help

    Please wait while we process your payment

    expired-logo

    Your PLUS subscription has expired

    • We’d love to have you back! Renew your subscription to regain access to all of our exclusive, ad-free study tools.
    Renew your subscription

    Please wait while we process your payment

    expired-logo

    snpromo-logo
    • Get 20% off of AD-FREE study tools!
      Use Code: SparkPLUS20

    Major Barbara

    George Bernard Shaw

    Study Guide Full Text
    • Study Guide
    • Full Text
    • Summary
      • Summary & Analysis
      • Act I: Part One
      • Act I: Part Two
      • Act II: Part One
      • Act II: Part Two
      • Act II: Part Three
      • Act III: Part One
      • Act III: Part Two
      • Act III: Part Three
      • Act III: Part Four
      • The Trafalgar Square Demonstration and Riot of 1886
      • Full Book
      • Full Book Summary
      • Key Facts
    • Characters
      • Character List
      • Barbara Undershaft
      • Andrew Undershaft
      • Adolphus Cusins
    • Literary Devices
      • Themes
      • Motifs
    • Quotes
      • Important Quotes Explained
    • Quick Quizzes
      • Book
      • Full Book Quiz
      • Act 1: Part One
      • Act 1: Part Two
      • Act 2: Part One
      • Act 2: Part Two
      • Act 2: Part Three
      • Act 3: Part One
      • Act 3: Part Two
      • Act 3: Part Three
      • Act 3: Part Four
        • More
        • Context
        • Plot Overview
        • Character List
        • Analysis of Major Characters
        • Themes, Motifs, and Symbols
        • Essays
          • Mini Essays
          • Suggested Essay Topics
        • Further Study
          • Suggestions for Further Reading
          • George Bernard Shaw and Major Barbara Background

        Please wait while we process your payment

        snplus-logo

        Unlock your FREE SparkNotes PLUS trial!

        Unlock your FREE Trial!

        Sign up and get instant access to bookmarks.
        • Ad-Free experience
        • Easy-to-access study notes
        • Flashcards & Quizzes
        • AP® English test prep
        • Plus much more
        Already have an account? Log in
        Characters

        Character List

        Characters Character List
        • Andrew Undershaft

          The great arms industrialist of Europe. Undershaft returns to his long abandoned family with to wreak havoc with his new gospel of man's salvation. He is a man of "formidable reserves of power, both bodily and mental, in his capacious chest and long head." His gentleness is that of a "strong man who has learnt by experience that his natural grip hurts ordinary people." Undershaft understands that he is a man who has bent the world to his will, and a man who determines the course of civilization and history.

          Read an in-depth analysis of Andrew Undershaft .

        • Barbara

          Robust, jolly, and energetic, Barbara begins the play as a major for the Salvation Army. She is peacefully convinced of her mission to redeem mankind. Her father's arrival will force her to recognize that the wealthy, rather than God, hold the world and its salvation in their hands. Undershaft underscores the "inspiration" that truly defines her as the savior of all. The daughter of a foundling, Barbara ostensibly lacks social class and comes "straight from the heart of the whole people."

          Read an in-depth analysis of Barbara .

        • Adolphus Cusins

          A "slight, thin haired, and sweet voiced" student of Euripides. Cusins is determined to marry Barbara and enthralled by the excesses and ecstasies of the Dionysian spirit. In his determination, he has joined her in the Salvation Army to bring this spirit to the power, but ultimately converts to Undershaft's gospel, becoming Andrew's heir at the Armory. Shaw describes Cusins as a "determined, tenacious, intolerant person" who presents himself as he is, "considerate, gentle, explanatory, even mild and apologetic, capable possibly of murder, but not of cruelty or coarseness." It is not love that drives him to Barbara, but an unmerciful "instinct."

          Read an in-depth analysis of Adolphus Cusins .

        • Lady Britomart Undershaft

          A "very typical managing matron of the upper class," a woman with "plenty of practical ability and worldly experience." Around fifty years old, she is "limited in the oddest way with domestic and class limitations." Upon Undershaft's arrival, the family—and Stephen in particular—will abandon her as she is too set in her ways to participate in the revolution he brings. Shaw affectionately imagines her through a series of paradoxes: Lady Britomart is at once well dressed and careless in her dress, well bred and reckless of her breeding, well-mannered and yet appallingly outspoken.

        • Stephen Undershaft

          Lady Britomart's only son. Stephen is a "gravely correct young man" who takes himself and his sense of morality very seriously. He remains in some awe from his mother from "childish habit and bachelor shyness" but quickly comes to assert his majority in planning his future.

        • Charles Lomax

          A stereotypical "young man about town." Lomax suffers from a "frivolous sense of humor which plunges him at the most inopportune moments into paroxysms of imperfectly suppressed laughter." A comic figure, he suffers the scolding of Lady Britomart throughout the play for his tactlessness and inarticulate speech. He also repeatedly declares his allegiance to the Anglican Church and other moral platitudes, though these declarations only mask his somewhat mercenary propensity to align himself with the wealthy. He is engaged to Sarah on a lark.

        • Sarah Undershaft

          Barbara's younger sister. Sarah is a "slender, bored, and mundane" society girl. She is extraneous to the play.

        • Bronterre O'Brien Price

          A young, unemployed, and opportunistic "poser." Price appears incapable of honesty and altruism. He exemplifies the agile "humbugs" that take advantage of the Salvation Army.

        • Rummy Mitchens

          Already looking sixty at the age of forty-five, Rummy is a "commonplace old bundle of poverty and hard-worn humanity." Like Price, has embellished on her down-and-out condition to pander to the workers of the Army.

        • Peter Shirley

          A "half hardened, half worn-out" old-timer. Shirley has just lost his job to a younger laborer. He figures as the play's "honest poor man," weeping in shame over having to take a hand-out, pledging to get back on his feet, and abhorring the injustices of the wealthy.

        • Bill Walker

          A "rough customer of about twenty-five" who appears at the Army shelter to reclaim his converted girlfriend and bully its staff. Bill speaks a thick Cockney accent that Shaw marks as "horribly debased" when at its worst. The swaggering, menacing Bill is quickly cowed and disgraced by the shining Major Barbara. Indeed, if not for her father's intervention, Barbara would have won his soul through his devastating humiliation.

        • Jenny Hill

          An overwrought "Salvation lass" who earnestly believes in her cause and her patron, Major Barbara. She suffers an assault from Bill in Act II.

        • Mrs. Baines

          A Salvation Army Commissioner. Baines is an "earnest looking" middle-aged woman with a "caressing, urgent voice" and an "appealing manner." By accepting the donations of the wealthy as necessary to the work of salvation, she surrenders the Army to millionaires like Bodger and Undershaft.

        • Bilton

          A foreman at Undershaft's armory.

        • Morrison

          The longtime family butler who hesitantly announces Undershaft's return to the household.

        Next section Barbara Undershaft
        Test your knowledge

        Take the Character List Quick Quiz

        Take a study break

        QUIZ: Is This a Taylor Swift Lyric or a Quote by Edgar Allan Poe?

        Take a study break

        The 7 Most Embarrassing Proposals in Literature

        Did you know you can highlight text to take a note? x

        Please wait while we process your payment

        snplus-logo

        Unlock your FREE SparkNotes PLUS trial!

        Unlock your FREE Trial!

        Sign up and get instant access to creating and saving your own notes as you read.
        • Ad-Free experience
        • Easy-to-access study notes
        • Flashcards & Quizzes
        • AP® English test prep
        • Plus much more
        Already have an account? Log in

        Popular pages: Major Barbara

        • Barbara Undershaft: Character Analysis CHARACTERS

        • Important Quotations Explained QUOTES

        • Themes LITERARY DEVICES

        • Review Quiz FURTHER STUDY

        Take a Study Break

        • QUIZ: Is This a Taylor Swift Lyric or a Quote by Edgar Allan Poe?

        • The 7 Most Embarrassing Proposals in Literature

        • The 6 Best and Worst TV Show Adaptations of Books

        • QUIZ: Which Greek God Are You?

        Sign up for our latest news and updates!
        By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from SparkNotes and verify that you are over the age of 13. You can view our Privacy Policy here. Unsubscribe from our emails at any time.

        SparkNotes—the stress-free way to a better GPA

        • Quick Links
        • No Fear Shakespeare
        • Literature Guides
        • Other Subjects
        • Blog
        • Teacher’s Handbook
        • Premium Study Tools
        • SparkNotes PLUS
        • Sign Up
        • Log In
        • PLUS Help
        • More
        • Help
        • How to Cite SparkNotes
        • How to Write Literary Analysis
        • About
        • Contact Us
        • Advertise

        Copyright © SparkNotes LLC

        • Terms of Use
        • |
        • Privacy
        • |
        • Cookie Policy
        • |
        • Do Not Sell My Personal Information