An Individual's Status in Pygmalion

518 Words2 Pages

As reflected in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion, one’s social status depended heavily on one’s speech and appearance. Eliza Doolittle is born into the lower class as reflected by her cockney dialect and seems to be destined to remain in said class until both her speech and dress are changed with help. The fact that her social status can be elevated with the mere change of tongue and cloth points to how obviously artificial the division between classes were and how one could change themselves with poise and ease. Issues about changing one’s status in society have been cause for great debate, especially during the time period that the play is set. The higher class felt that they must be secure in both their money and their titles, and yet so very few actually were. Clara Eynsford Hill is an example of said ‘comfort’ as she was bought up in the upper class society though her family is shockingly poor despite their good and likely historic name. “The daughter [Clara] has acquired a gay air of being very much at home in society; the bravado of genteel poverty” (Act III, pg. 602). No ...

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