George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) the versatile dramatist used contemporary social, political and religious problems as subjects for his plays. Pygmalion, perhaps the only one of his many plays in which he points out to his audience and his readers that he has used an ancient classical myth to explore a problem that is not merely contemporary but one that has lasted through time. This myth is the story of Pygmalion – Galatea which has been told and retold by several later writers in differing forms. In the most familiar version of this myth, Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus. He was also a great sculptor who used to make beautiful statues of bronze, marble and ivory. He was devoted to his art and always sought for perfection at any …show more content…
In Shaw’s play Henry Higgins, a professor of Phonetics, is the modern-day Pygmalion, and Eliza (Elizabeth) Doolittle, an uneducated girl who sells flowers in London Street is Gatatea. Shaw’s Pygmalion revolves around the transformation of this poor-ignorant flower girl into a cultured and aristocratic one. Professor Higgins, the Phonetician, had made phonetics as his profession and his hobby. His absorbing passion for the sounds of the language is revealed when he comes in contact with Eliza, who is an “incarnate insult to the English language”. (14) The play begins in a dramatic circumstance. It is 11:15 P.M. in London. Torrents of heavy rain bring various classes of people together in the portico of St. Paul’s Church. Among them is a young poor flower girl, a mother with her daughter and son, a note-taker and one colonel, picking by name. The bystanders present a cross section of London Life. As a flower girl Eliza, young but very dirty, bargains over prices, a bystander points out the presence of a note-taker among them – Professor Higgins. The bystanders are very suspicious and angry but Higgins calms them down by identifying the places to which each of them belongs through the way they speak. He declares that Eliza’s “Kerb stone English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days” then he also says; “Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl of as a duchess at an …show more content…
Dressed in Opera Cloak with diamonds, fan, flowers and all other accessories she passes like a Duchess, creating sensation in the whole atmosphere. Nepummuck, the marvelous interpreter (and Higgins’ previous student also to whom he taught phonetics) identifies her as a Hungarian princess. Thus her success at the ambassador’s reception is overwhelming. But the experiment is followed by its aftermath. As euphoria of triumph is over, Eliza is faced with the stark reality. She has become disclassed, left unfit for her old life and unable for her old life and unable to forge a new one Eliza is tragic in her fear and despair. Higgins is also quite unsentimental and unromantic in his approach to Eliza. Looking to this attitude of Professor Higgins Eliza shouted on him asking; “What am I fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What to become of me? Higgins’ this attitude of indifference drives her to Freddy, who worships her. Eliza leaves Higgins house and so takes decisive step into the future. Shaw explains the sexual attitude of Higgins towards Eliza in terms of the Oedipus Complex. In Appendix he says “If an imaginative boy has a suffering rich mother who has intelligence, personal grace, dignity of character without harshness and a cultivated sense of the best art of her time to enable her to make her house beautiful, she sets a standard for him a disengagement of his
After Higgins, confesses to his undying love for Eliza. Eliza decides to leave Higgins’s home because felt that it would only hurt Higgins more to have her stay another moment in his home because she did not share the same feelings for him. She now resides at the home of Mrs. Higgins.
Eliza changed herself for the better. In act 5, she told the two men to start calling her “Miss Doolittle” and that was the beginning of learning her self worth. She was done being treated like a “live doll” and began to see herself like a Duchess, like Higgins
Eliza now has two suitors; one who is staid and reserved and one who is amiable and gay. While Mr. Boyer sees Eliza as a woman with “an accomplished mind and polished manner”, it is Sanford’s view of Eliza’s exuberant nature that ensures her downfall (10). In Major Sanford’s letter to Charles Deighton, he sees Eliza as a conquest. He writes that she is “an elegant partner; one exactly calculated to please my fancy; gay, volatile, apparently thoughtless of everything but present enjoyment” (18). Sanford does
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a play that shows a great change in the character Eliza Doolittle. As Eliza lives in poverty, she sells flowers to earn her living. Eliza does not have an education. This shows through the way that she does not have the most proper way of speaking. This happens through when Eliza is speaking to the other characters when she meets then when she is still at a low level of poverty in her life. To understand the reasons Eliza is able to change and be changed into an almost Cinderella like character. With Eliza going from and growing and changing through the hardship she faces. In the play Eliza begins with no confidence and works towards having a way to reach trough from learning during her life
There are two different versions. The first version is Shaw’s version. Assuming to position Eliza in a real-life situation, Shaw seems to treat Eliza as an ambiguous character, thus the ending is indefinite. Through Eliza’s effort, she has gradually bridged the gap between herself and the life of the upper class people. Nonetheless, she has to face the dilemma: she may either continue to seek independence by making money on her own or be forced to get married to a rich nobleman. The vague ending has carried an implicit message: the female independence and unfair social relationships are yet to be
One’s class would be one the greatest stereotypical perceptions pertaining to language and groups. In Shaw’s Pygmalion, the storyline starts with a horrible storm. This storm forces classes of all types to crowd together out to seek shelter. Ideally, the higher class would not be caught associating with the lower class. However, a mother sees Eliza talking with her son, Freddy, and immediately goes to investigate. As a mother of that time, it is believed that Freddy should not associate himself with someone like Eliza. Eliza Doolitttle is roughly eighteen years of age, speaks what is called ‘gutter language’, and she sells flowers illegally. Appearance and actions “…reveal speakers’ memberships in particular speech communities, social classes, ethnic and national groups” (Edwards, 21). Due to her obvious state of being lower class, a stereotype is immediately placed on her.
Higgins tries to take all of the credit for Eliza’s transformation into a lady. In his mind, Eliza did nothing and without him, she would not have been able to accomplish this task. Mr. Higgins continues to express his dominance by telling Eliza what to do even though she does not work for him. Eliza does not like the way that Mr. Higgins treats her and leaves his house, angrily. After searching for Eliza, Mr. Higgins finally finds her and tells her that he paid for her services and she needs to finish her job. In this way, he treats her as if she is
In the movie, Higgins targeted phonological features proper of Eliza’s Cockney dialect. According to Higgins, Eliza’s accent should be modified to “transform” her into a fine lady. The undesired behavior was weakened by a series of reinforcements based on punishment and reward. Eliza was offered chocolate, for example, when she correctly pronounced a set of sentences. Once Eliza achieve the “correct” pronunciation she was offered multiple rewards. For example, she attended the Ascot Horse Race, for which she was offered a new wardrobe.
from the start to at the end, and the changes of Eliza, the main theme
However, readers of the play may argue that Eliza and Higgins stop working together and conflict later on so that supports the theory of class struggle by Marxism. But when the two characters conflict with each other it’s not because of class struggle or anything related to hierarchy, it’s because of Eliza not accepting Higgins as a teacher as Higgins starts mistreating her so rather Eliza gives the credit for her transformation to Colonel Pickering and have constant arguments with Higgins now that she have learned the dialect of a higher class. “Mrs Higgins. I’m afraid you’ve spoiled that girl, Henry.” Eliza can also be seen as spoiled because of all those higher class ways and lifestyle she just adapted to. This type of conflict can be related to a house dispute and doesn’t show a behavior of lower class revolting against higher class to gain rights. “Liza. That’s not true. He treats a flower girl as if she was a duchess. Higgins. And I treat a duchess as if she was a flower girl.” “Higgins. The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better.” As for Higgins’s personality, he always treats people with rudeness so
Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, describes Shaw’s viewpoint on social class distinctions in the 1900s by describing characters of the upper, middle, and lower classes in the play. Through the characters’ descriptions, language, and actions, the distinction between classes becomes very prominent. Similarly, Galileo, by Bertolt Brecht, describes Brecht’s take on the social class structure during Galileo’s time and how the differences between classes affected Galileo’s opportunity to do scientific research. Both plays depict a society ruled by the upper-class and a lack of coherence among the upper, middle, and lower classes that leads to eventual conflict. In both Pygmalion and Galileo, the authors highlight the advantages and disadvantages of the different social classes in order to critique how the relationships between people from different classes affect their interactions with each other.
She is there to take lessons for her speech. Colonel Pickering offers to pay full expenses for Higgins to tun Eliza into a lady and pass her off as a duchess. Higgins accepts.
In the Victorian England period, how a person is viewed by society determines everything. What kind of jobs are available, who it is ok to marry, and even who is acceptable to interact with. How a person is viewed can change their life for better or for worse, and sadly women during this period must work twice as hard as their male counterparts to get the crucial social respect needed to succeed in their societies. How a person appears and how they dress plays a big part on how someone is viewed, but flower-girl-turned-duchess Eliza Doolittle must learn the hard way that just because a person fits the outside criteria of a lady does not exactly mean she would be treated as so, by society and most of all her mentor Henry Higgins. Throughout the play, Pygmalion, By George Bernard Shaw, the author makes the theme of prejudice against women very apparent by the way they are treated in society and the unreasonable expectations they are held up to, making it very difficult for women like Eliza Doolittle to move up in society and be seen as equal in the eyes of those above them.
Eliza, in the climax scene vulnerably asks Higgins, why he made her a sophisticated Duchess if her never cared for her, and why did not he thought of the trouble it would make for her, on which Higgins shocking reply says:
Social standing is central to the plot of George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”. The portrayal of class identity in Shaw’s play appears to be a criticism of the distinctions between high society and the poorer classes in Victorian England. Shaw’s aim was to portray how the upper-crust of Victorian society viewed the lower classes, as evidenced by Higgins’ treatment of Eliza upon her first visit to his laboratory; Higgins treats her as though she is too stupid to understand that he is insulting her. The assumption is that the wealthy view the lower classes as being somehow lesser. So what is it that Shaw is trying to impart upon the reader? Shaw appeared to show open disdain not just for the upper class of society but for society in general, and Pygmalion may be interpreted as an open criticism of class distinctions in Victorian England.