until her mother explains the underlying forces that imposed the choice upon her.
In a similar manner to Mrs. Warren, Shen Te is a poor woman who must fight to survive in a man's world. When Shen Te is provided her smoke shop as a test of faith by the gods, she realizes that she will fail if she does not take a more "masculine" approach to running her business and controlling the riff-raff that populate it when a "female" operates it. Her smoke shop is populated with men who create chaos and threaten the existence of the business and, subsequently, Shen Te's own existence. Shen Te, like Mrs. Warren, is desperate to survive so she creates a "male" cousin alter-ego, Shui Ta, who runs the business with masculine aggression in a cold and rigid manner. Ultimately, like Mrs. Warren does as a prostitute, as a "male" shop-keeper Shen Te will become very successful in running a business.
The forces of capitalism and patriarchy, therefore, are critical in driving the moral and lifestyle choices made by Mrs. Warren and Shen Te. Both are exploited by a capitalistic and sexist society that illustrates how morality is often dictated by economics. Unlike the impoverished girl of her youth, as a successful prostitute Mrs. Warren now controls her life and is able to provide her daughter with the economic and educational opportunities denied her as a young woman. In contrast to the demure and submissive Shen Te, her male alter ego exhibits a strong personality and is able to use his influence to acquire what he desires. In this sense, both Shaw and Brecht are able to link economics, gender and moral dictates. Social conflict theory and Marxist criticism of capitalism maintain that "human history is all about class conflict, a result of the strong-rich exploiting the poor-weak" (Social 1). Groups within a capitalistic society tend to act in a destructive manner because there is little cooperation and no mutual benefit fo...