The play "Pygmalion" describes the process of the transformation of Eliza, who appears in three images in the story: Eliza begins as a flower girl, then she transforms into a lady with noble accent and in good manners, then an independent woman with self-respect and dignity.
By naming his drama "Pygmalion," Shaw reminds people of the ancient Pygmalion Myth. Pygmalion, a sculptor, makes a beautiful statue and falls in love with his own creation. He prays that life may be granted to it. The gods give him his wish. The statue becomes a living girl named Galatea. In Shaw's play, Eliza, the heroine, is transformed from a flower girl into a graceful lady. This change is like that of a stone into a statue of perfect beauty. But just as Pygmalion can only create the statue while never being able to give life to it, Higgins creates a beautiful object out of crude raw materials, but the last great gift of a living soul is more than he has power to give by himself. The god that transforms Eliza into an independent woman lies within Eliza herself. It is Eliza's evocation of her self-consciousness and her sense of self-respect and dignity that transform her completely.
As a flower girl, Eliza is neither cared for nor loved at home or in the neighborhood. Although she has a father, Eliza is no more than an orphan. Doolittle, her father, is a thorough rascal. He cares nothing for his family responsibility. He is addicted to drink and women. He believes in the philosophy that a strap is the best way to improve his daughter's mind. So Eliza is often beaten by her father when he loses his temper. Among her mates, Eliza has no friends and is often laughed at by other girls. The hard life cultivates her a strong character. She learns to support...
... middle of paper ...
...lf. The problem of how to survive no longer worries her. She struggles for her right to be cared for and to be loved and to live in a dignified way. When the former poor flower girl transforms into a strong-minded independent woman both externally and internally, even Higgins, the stubborn, arrogant scholar respects her heartily: "Now youre a tower of strength: a consort battle ship. You and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors together." Eliza now is regarded as equal to man. She can stand on her dignity as a true woman. The internal transformation is exactly what Bernard Shaw preaches. In this sense, the drama Pygmalion is a play of women's revolt.
Works Cited
Schwartz, Grace Horowitz. "George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion". Beijing: Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press, 1996.
Shaw, George Bernard. "Pygmalion". London: Longman Group Ltd, 1957.
Eliza's assaults against True Womanhood are violations of the virtues submissiveness and purity. When Eliza refuses to ignore the gallantry of Major Sanford in favor of the proposals of Reverend Boyer despite the warnings of her friends and mother, she disregards submissiveness in favor of her own fanc...
Eliza is a slave on a plantation that raises her to be a “good” Christian. To Eliza, her masters
Eliza’s blatant disregard for the concern of those around her contributed heavily to her demise. Had she listened to her friends and family when they told her to marry Mr...
In Pygmalion, the two professors decided to help Eliza Doolittle, only because Professor Pickering made a bet with Professor Higgins that he would be able to change Liza into a lady by the time the ambassador’s garden party came around. Pickering
As to the relationship with their teachers, both students become more self-confident and their teachers become dependent on them, be it in a materialistic or personal way. Yet it is Eliza who complains about Higgins ignorance and carelessness whereas Frank reproaches Rita for her superficiality. At the end Eliza has regained her pride and improved her standard of living although Eliza remaining a social misfit.
Beatrice's refusal to be controlled by men and Hero's subservience carries echoes of modern-day feminism. Comparing this novel to a contemporary society, women have made a substantial amount of progress in terms of gender roles. It is women like Beatrice, and the many others that choose to defy the expectations that are placed upon us by society, that help us progress to a more utopian civilization. This novel can be read by future generations to reflect back on how much we have changed and how much we have progressed, not only as women, but as humans in general. Additionally, this play also serves as one of the world's greatest odes to the single life known to man.
Despite an attractive interpretation that Eliza Wharton deserves her tragic fate because she is too scandalous of a seductress, her fall is actually a result of her desire for autonomy in a society that denies women that right. Also, to view Sanford as a heartless villain would be reductionary. He too, like Eliza, is subject to the judgements, constraints, and values of a flawed society in which he is separated from his true love. Both characters fall as a result of their desire for relational freedoms that early American society denies them.
... as being an ideal and virtuous women because she is dignified and views marriage as a form of prostitution, making her a character that is not sexualized. Because Eliza is embodied as being a perfect woman, she is similar to women in earlier works. The Country Wife is a more ideal representation of what women are because real women are flawed and as the play suggests, women should be allowed to be what they want to be instead of allowing others to decide for them. Despite Pygmalion’s advocacy of equality between men and women, it idolizes flawless women, which contradicts with its’ message of equality.
Eliza, was supposedly deranged from her difficult birth to her daughter and the abuse of her husband.
"You can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can’t take the honky tonk out of the girl.” To some this is a quote and to others it may remind them of a song, but no matter which it reminds a person of the meaning is the same: one may change a person, but they will always have that part of them deep down inside. In this play two men are appalled by how un-ladylike a young flower girl is. The men intrigue the flower girl, which then causes her to approach the men, and take them up on their offer to change her. Over time the men work on turning the flower girl into a true lady. In succeeding such a passion for love develops and causes issues between the lady and one of the men. The issues that were brought up show that even though Professor Higgins changed Eliza’s outward appearance in Pygmalion, he never could change her true character.
Among the number of similarities readers will come across are the likenesses between the two works in character interaction. For example, in both the play and the film, Professor Henry Higgins has an overbearing paternal mentality regarding Eliza Doolittle. In accordance with the dialogue that Higgins speaks in the film regarding Eliza?s filthy disposition, readers of Pygmalion discover practically the same words: ?You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girl?s income, it works out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy guineas from a millionaire? (Shaw 21). In addition, in both the film and the play, Eliza and Colonel Pickering share a bond that stems from her vulnerability and his compassion. For the duration of her stay at 27A Wimpole Street, Eliza often seeks comfort in the sympathetic Colonel because without this ally, she knows that she will not survive the wrath of Henry Higgins. In Shaw?s original version, readers can interpret Eliza?s trepidation through the dialogue. Similarly, in Cukor?s musical adaptation, viewers have the ability to watch Eliza?s facial expressions and body movement to understand her emotions. The videocassette offers the viewers a whole new world that they did not experience during their novel reading. Although the presentation of character interaction differs slightly in Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, the same themes occur.
People are always in the pursuit of erasing their flaws and becoming what society would say is "perfect." In the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw the main character Eliza Doolittle was not content with her life and her lamentable speech and manners. In order to become what she considered "perfect" Eliza relied on Higgins to change her into a proper and sophisticated woman. Higgins pounded lessons of proper speech and how to conduct one 's self with eloquence into Eliza 's head minute after minute and day after day. Although Eliza was being transformed externally, as she continued to grow from her lessons, she also began to transform internally and realize that she deserved respect, whether she was a kerbstone flower girl or a duchess.
In the play, Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw creates many events that consist of comedy, seriousness, sympathy and empathy. These four emotions helps the audience decide what they feel towards
Eliza’s beginning education skills include learning to speak clearly through learning diction, etiquette, and looking proper for society. In addition, from how Eliza feels rich when she has money from the broken flowers and when she is able to be riding in the taxi, her ideas show her strong will and her insistence on marrying Freddy. Both Eliza and Cinderella grow up in poverty, have a stepmother figure, have a fairy godmother figure, arrive at the ball, show confidence, and get married. By comparing and contrasting Eliza to Cinderella, we can better understand why and how Eliza changes. Making Eliza the perfect and ideal model character of a Cinderella like character coming out of the poverty life she had before.... ...