Vivie, the daughter of Mrs Warren, is an unconventional woman by Victorian standards: she is cold, calculative, and driven by education and money. However, her personality is complex: she is also capable of displaying an empathetic and understanding side. The audience sees the latter when Vivie discovers that her mother was previously a prostitute in order to survive. Vivie’s vulnerable and sensible side is shown briefly; it disappears when Croft states that he and Mrs Warren continue to run a series of brothels across Europe. This event is pivotal to Vivie’s character; from then on, she loses the developing warmth she had for her mother, and completely blocks all romantic feelings from her life. Vivie’s “failure” would be if she were to succumb to these sentimental and romantic feelings and become a totally romantic individual. However, Vivie’s headstrong character will not allow her to lose all of her morals and practicalities, instead, a reasonable “failure” would be for her to realize and keep these sentimental feelings. …show more content…
If that part were to be excised, the audience might be able to witness the beginning of a genuine mother-daughter relationship, as Vivie would still have those sentimental feelings for her mother. If that scene was replaced by a different scene where her mother succumbs to a crippling illness instead, the whole play would be different. Vivie, realizing the new genuine relationship with her mother, will be by her side and would probably not have moved on to her new accounting job so easily. In order for this to happen, Vivie would have to realize that all of her mother’s sacrifices had led up to that point of Mrs Warren’s near death, and Vivie would be empathetic and sentimental towards her mother as she is sick, instead of cold and rejecting as she would be towards her at the end of the