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Scene Study prepares you to perform key scenes for your theater class or audition. We've got all the information you need for a great performance.

Excerpt from Act 3, Scene 1 Monologue: Andrew Undershaft

 

UNDERSHAFT

[with a touch of brutality] 

The government of your country! I am the government of your country: I, and Lazarus. Do you suppose that you and half a dozen amateurs like you, sitting in a row in that foolish gabble shop, can govern Undershaft and Lazarus? No, my friend: you will do what pays US.

Read the full monologue.
 

 

Understanding the Given Circumstances

  • Lady Britomart invites her estranged husband, the wealthy military industrialist Andrew Undershaft, to her home in Wilton Crescent, a fashionable neighborhood of London in 1906. Having separated from Undershaft upon learning he was a foundling, she now wants to discuss family financial arrangements.
  • Undershaft has not seen his children in 20 years. He mistakes his two daughters’ fiancés for his son, Stephen, and spars with his daughter, Barbara, who is a Major in the Salvation Army.
  • The next day, Undershaft visits Barbara at the Salvation Army shelter, observing the degradation and poverty of the people. He makes a very large donation to the shelter, which Barbara views as blood money and an attempt to buy salvation.
  • Two days after his initial visit, Andrew Undershaft joins Lady Britomart in her library to discuss allowances for the girls. His wife insists Stephen should take over the family armament business. Undershaft resists, saying a foundling traditionally becomes the new head.
  • Stephen arrives, wanting no part of the business. Undershaft grills him regarding his aptitude for other professions. When Stephen responds, “I know the difference between right and wrong,” Undershaft sarcastically criticizes his son and the hypocrisy of the English.
  • Stephen defends himself, telling Undershaft, “I am an Englishman; and I will not hear the Government of my country insulted.” Undershaft’s monologue is in response to this statement.

 

Blocking and Movement

In theater, blocking is the process of planning the actors’ physical movements and positions. Be sure to show respect and establish trust when working with scene partners. As you prepare to block this scene, ask yourself the following questions:

  • George Bernard Shaw gives a detailed description of Lady Britomart’s library at the beginning of Act I. For this monologue, what furniture is necessary, if any?
  • Undershaft delivers this monologue to Stephen. Is Undershaft stationary, or does he move? If so, when? Why? Does he start seated or standing?
  • Where would Stephen be so Undershaft can deliver his lines downstage? Does Stephen move during the course of the monologue?
  • Where would Lady Britomart be? Does Undershaft ever see her respond during the course of his tirade? If so, how does Undershaft respond physically?
  • Undershaft epitomizes the military industrialist whose religion is money and whose motto is “Unashamed.” How does this play into his monologue? How does it govern his gestures? 
  • Earlier in the play, Undershaft says, “The more destructive war becomes the more fascinating we find it.” Is this fascination on display in this scene? Is Undershaft also destructive?
  • Is the entire monologue delivered “brutally,” as the stage directions indicate, or are there other nuances of emotion? 
  • How can changes in tempo and gestures emphasize these nuances?
  • What is the dramatic arc of this monologue? Does Undershaft come to a decision, realization, or something else? Does this change his movement or line delivery?

 

Historical Context

In his Preface to Major Barbara, Shaw wrote: “What a man is depends on his character; but what he does, and what we think of what he does, depends on his circumstances. The characteristics that ruin a man in one class make him eminent in another.” Money and power, or lack of both, led to a huge division between classes in Edwardian England. Industrialization created enormous fortunes for members of the business class, affording them access to better education and the finer things of life. Through marriage to members of the upper class, the business class’s money propped up the aristocracy in exchange for respectability, titles, and political influence. Meanwhile, millions lived in abject poverty. They worked under hazardous conditions in factories for long hours and low pay, only to return home to little food and squalid conditions. Exhaustion, disease, and lack of education afforded them little opportunity for advancement.

With his money and power manifesto, Andrew Undershaft transcends class division. Having been born a foundling, he knows firsthand what destitution and subservience mean. To him, as it is to Shaw, poverty is the worst crime, one to be avoided at all costs. A self-made man, Undershaft would rather make money by participating in the death and destruction of the war industry than earn an honest living, as the unemployed craftsman Peter Shirley does, with only his virtue to show for it. In Undershaft’s world, money and power equal righteousness, and he embodies both.
 

Full Act 3, Scene 1 Monologue: Andrew Undershaft

 

UNDERSHAFT

[with a touch of brutality] 

The government of your country! I am the government of your country: I, and Lazarus. Do you suppose that you and half a dozen amateurs like you, sitting in a row in that foolish gabble shop, can govern Undershaft and Lazarus? No, my friend: you will do what pays US. You will make war when it suits us, and keep peace when it doesn't. You will find out that trade requires certain measures when we have decided on those measures. When I want anything to keep my dividends up, you will discover that my want is a national need. When other people want something to keep my dividends down, you will call out the police and military. And in return you shall have the support and applause of my newspapers, and the delight of imagining that you are a great statesman. Government of your country! Be off with you, my boy, and play with your caucuses and leading articles and historic parties and great leaders and burning questions and the rest of your toys. I am going back to my counting house to pay the piper and call the tune.

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