Character: Mrs. Warren

I've always wanted to be a good woman. I tried to work honestly - and I was pushed around like a rag until I cursed the day when I first heard about honest work.

I am your mother, you are my daughter. I have rights to you. Who will take care of me when I get old?

Didn't I raise you to be decent? And how can you stay decent without my money, without my influence?

Do you think that people are what they seem to be, and that everything is as you were taught to think in school, good and right? So no, all this is just a pretense to hold cowardly, humble, ordinary people in their hands.

Well, what have they achieved with their honesty? One worked in a white lead factory for twelve hours a day for nine shillings a week, until she died of lead poisoning. Another was always taken as an example to us because she married a food warehouse worker and kept his room and three boys clean and tidy for eighteen shillings a week ... until her husband got drunk. Was it worth it to be honest?

You yourself would stop seeing yourself if you were starving and working like a convict! And what is a woman and our whole life without respect for ourselves?

Nobody likes to work and make money, but you have to.

What are decent girls taught if not to catch suitors and, by marrying a rich man, live on his money?

Your love is inexpensive. If you do not have the means to support your wife, then this solves the case.

Respect my own daughter? What else would you like?