Equality and Social Class in Pygmalion

Equality and Social Class in Pygmalion

The idea of ranking individuals based upon their wealth and behaviors has endured through all cultures, countries, and times. George Benard Shaw's Pygmalion addresses an individual's capability to advance through society, an idea as old as social distinction. Shaw does so through the social parable of a young English flower girl named Eliza Dolittle, who after receiving linguistic training assumes the role of a duchess. She receives instruction, as a bet, by a self-absorbed language professor named Henry Higgens. However, Eliza does not take her social ascension alone, as she is joined by her drunken father Alfred P. Dolittle. The manner in which they rise from poverty demonstrates their equality as humans. As illustrated through Shaw's Pygmalion, the innate equality of individuals necessitates their ability to rise from their social class.

An individual's humanity necessitates social equality. The shared human experience imposes innate equality. A person's equality or often inequality in a social setting is often "extrinsic and subjective" (Mugglestone 379). Also, Shaw uses Eliza's character and feeling of self worth to demonstrate the distinctions between the "undeniable facts of innate equality, and the social... fallacies" that prevent its recognition (Mugglestone 377). The rebirth of Eliza from a flower girl to a lady implies that the trivial issue as an accent is the main distinction between classes (Tindall 44). Social constraints prove ineffective at diminishing an inner sense of equality. Eliza, refusing to recognize the demeaning social expectations imposed upon her class, rebukes Higgens rudeness with the declaration of equality ",I've a right to b...

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