[2] As dramatist Alan P. Barr notes, "The Morality of Mrs. Dulska belongs to the social-protest literature that irritated the conservative sentiments of turn-of-the-century Europe".

Zapolska's best known work, the enduringly popular play utilizes satiric wit to address the middle-class sensibilities of turn-of-the-century Galicia.

Despite this, he still resents her, particularly after she goes to great lengths to prevent his marriage to Hanka as she is horrified at what it will do to their social standing and their bloodline if he marries a poor peasant girl who is also their maid.

Hesia is laughing hysterically, saying that she has taken the thousand kronen to marry her alleged fiancé back in her home village, a customs man.

'Zapolska's work received praise for its lack of oversimplification and complex examination of this particular middle-class sensibility, rendering it a well-constructed satire of the bourgeois.

Mrs. Dulska’s compartmentalized morals ("she can rent to whores, but not greet them; she can accept immorality if it is hidden indoors, but evicts a tenant who creates a scandal by trying to escape her abusive husband"[1]) reflect the divided lives and roles of her children, particular the son whom she dotes upon to the point of unhealthy possessiveness.

[5] A new term arose in the Polish language: 'dulszczyzna', which roughly translates to "Dulska-ness"[1] and functions as "a catch-all for the litany of reprehensible qualities exhibited by bourgeois philistine Aniela Dulska: double standards, endemic conservatism, excessive self-delusion, poor social conscience, weakness of character, hypocrisy, xenophobia, penny-pinching, vanity, pomposity, crassness, lack of compassion, sadistic self-aggrandizement, and bad taste", as notes translator Teresa Murjas.

[1] Lidia Zamkow's significant 1967 production presented the show with a contemporary set and costumes, departing from the realist depictions of Dulska predominant in theatre.

The production also blurred the lines between the unpleasant characteristics of Mrs. Dulska's personality, making their depiction much more subtle, which sharpened the satiric element of Zapolska's work.

[1] The production also featured a revival of the undercurent sexuality present throughout the work[9] This first performance of the show in Britain was in Hammersmith, London, and was part of Dr. Teresa Murjas's translation project aimed at bringing this well-known Polish play into the English-speaking world.