What would you expect from a man who is rich, stuck-up, and condescending? George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play, Pygmalion, introduces a phonetician, Henry Higgins, whose abrasive tendencies epitomizes those traits. As the play gains steam, Higgins's character grows on his counterpart, Eliza Doolittle. Though their relationship seems paradoxical, the audience starts to believe that his unlikely pairing will end in wedlock and paradise. This essay delves into the complex character of Higgins, exposing his true traits through his interactions with others. Revealed are flaws such as selfishness, brash candor, and crudeness.
Higgins's description of women includes the words, "jealous", "suspicious", and "a damned nuisance" (Pygmalion, Act II).
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He goes on to say in Act III that woman are complete idiots. When you analyze Higgins's relationship with women, the realization unfolds that he is waving women off; not because they are a hassle, but he believes they are beneath him. He feels that women cannot keep pace with his precipitous intellectual power, and his genius would make women emotionally distraught, leading to their departure from his side. In Pygmalion, this trait is illustrated in Act I when Higgins is mentioning Eliza. Higgins says, "A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live." Horne 2 When this quote is dissected, it is revealed that Higgins is demoting Eliza; not for who she is but rather for her grammar and her accent.
He, in turn, is denoting that he is the perfect man, due to his perfect voice.
When someone embodies the truth, a positive light shines on them. When Henry Higgins speaks the truth, a light filled with rudeness and brash candor is contrastingly displayed. Throughout Pygmalion, Higgins speaks his mind when manners and politeness should prevail. He does not have the ability to control the words that roll from his tongue, leading to the destruction of his target's ego. For example, in Act V, Higgins states in mid-dialogue with Eliza, "If you can't stand the coldness of my sort of life, and the strain of it, go back to the gutter." Though short in words, the meaning of this quote is jarring. Higgins’s lack of empathy for Eliza's background demonstrates that he is selfish and not acting with the decorum taught in his upbringing. He should keep his “truths” to himself, demonstrating respect and regard for Eliza's feelings. He does not just ruin any shred of ego that Eliza has left, but he offends her on a personal level, showing condemnation for her lack of money and social upbringing. He does this by referring to her childhood home as "the gutter". He is figuratively saying her past life was garbage and held no importance. His dialogue also eludes to the fact that he believes Eliza was once trash, but since meeting him, his
influence has transformed her into a duchess. When Higgins forgets to control his tongue, the destruction of everything around him is soon to ensue. When the word crude is used, many words come to mind: boorish, insulting, savage, surly, and blunt. But Higgins is crude in a different way, he demonstrates immaturity. Higgins has not fully developed from his childish state, leading him to deal with situations like he is a Horne 3 petulant child. This trait is seen in Act IV when Higgins and Eliza come home after presenting Eliza as a duchess at a social gathering. Instead of sharing the evening's success with his counterpart, he takes all the glory himself. Childlike, he believes everything is his and belongs to no one else. When the certain time for matureness arises, Higgins won't handle it like a mature adult, but more synonymously to that of a bratty child. As stated by Ed. David M. Galens and Lynn M. Spampinato, "Certainly, Higgins gives no thought to Liza's future after his experiment, and when he gradually loses interest in it, he seems, at least from her perspective, to have disposed of her as well." This statement and many more help illustrate that there are little to no redeeming qualities to Higgins's character. Ultimately, Higgins is portrayed as a flawed man and George Bernard Shaw wanted the audience to understand the same.
Henry VI had a lot of weaknesses with foreign policy, his inability to make decisions, patronage, Richard duke of York, finance and evil council. With foreign policy he showed weakness in defending his country, after his father Henry VII had conquered land in France, he lost it. He lost Normandy and Gascony in 1451 due to defeat in France. This affected morale and the incomes of nobles because they had lost, reducing their reputation, especially as they had lost some of their own land, and the incomes went down because money was spent on war, so less money was available to give as income. This could have been a reason for the outbreak of conflict because the people would not have been happy with their situation. Henry's next weakness was his inability to make decisions.
Social pressures change as time passes, therefore it is interesting to see how these three texts whom differ by almost four hundred years perceive society and the effect this has on the protagonists; Shakespeare’s King Lear which was first performed in 1606 during the Jacobean era, presents a patriarchal society. Whilst, Arthur Miller uses the characters in ‘Death of a salesman’ to show the failure of the ‘American dream’ during the “golden era” of America in the late 40’s. The ‘American Dream’ was a set of ideals which suggested that anyone in the US could be successful through hard work, and had the potential to live a happy life. The sense of the deterioration in the equality of opportunities links to the fall in power and hierarchy in King Lear. Arudanthi Roy, however, uses her contemporary Indian novel to illustrate, using a proleptic and coalesce structure, the lives of the protagonists living in a post – colonial society. In each of these three texts there are characters who fit the stereotypes that society has instilled in them, but then there are those characters who noticeably differ from the norm; According to 19th century novelist Alfred de Musset “how glorious it is – and how painful – to be an exception.” Hence this statement can be seen as applicable to these characters, because in all three texts these characters do end up losing a lot.
...ss. Arthur Miller, on the other hand, was disappointed by critic’s reactions. He claimed, “No critic seemed to sense what I was after, which was the conflict between a man’s raw deeds and his conception of himself”. Not only was he disappointed by critic’s reviews, he was disappointed by the “hostility of New York audiences”.
It was difficult for me to find many parallels between this play and the works that we studied in Canadian Literature because this play does not follow a plot line and does not include many elements that could be relatable to the works we studied. It also does not relate to the themes that were emphasized in our course. However, I found the close analysis of the final scene of a play, acted out forty- three different times to be reflective of the close analysis’ we have done many times in class with poetry and prose. It was interesting to watch these close analysis’ to understand all of the possible interactions these characters could have had. It led me to question the endings of the works that ...
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Susan Glaspell showcases that the female stereotype of the time that “Trifles” was written is invalid by using sexism, setting and symbolism. She provides examples throughout the play of how shallow people can be if invested in society's stereotypes. It doesn’t matter whether a person is male or female, what matters is how they
One of the most important tools that an author uses to convey his message to the reader throughout the text is his language. It plays a vital role in setting the overall tone of the text and helps in foreshadowing with crumbs of symbols and imagery. This essay focuses on the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, first performed on August 8th, 1916.
Higgins and Eliza still sharing the archetypes of the teacher and student get into an argument. The argument starts with Higgins explaining that he does not specifically treat her poorly but treats everyone poorly. Higgins explains, “the question is not whether I treat rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better,” (Shaw, 77). Eliza threatened to leave although Higgins explained that she has no money or skill besides speaking properly and proposes that she marry someone rich. Insulted, Eliza threatened to marry Freddy which deeply bothers Higgins because he feels that the idea is a waste of his work on specifically on someone like him. This particular detail shows how Higgins does value his creation and work of art not wanting it to be wasted. In the end, Eliza leaves and later ends up marrying Freddy who together opens a flower shop. Even though there is some similarity in the theme of loving one’s own creation, Shaw’s Pygmalion does not compare to the archetypes in the myth Ovid’s Pygmalion as the movie did.
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.
Nilsen, Helge Normann. “From Honors at Dawn to Death of a Salesman: Marxism and the Early Plays of Arthur Miller.” English Studies. 1994, 2, pp. 146-156. Web. 27 January, 2013.
Addison, Joseph. “The Spectator, No. 69 The Royal Exchange” The Norton Anthology of English Literature vol. 1. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. and Carol T. Christ, eds. New York: Norton, 2012. 2649-2652. Print.
A cursory first reading of Horace Walpole's Otranto might yield an impression that its characters are thoroughly superficial, shallow, and flat, almost to the point of being laughably so. A single character mold seems to have been applied to each character: Manfred is the incestuous tyrant, Hippolita is the helplessly devoted wife, Matilda is the picture of “tenderness and duty” (38), and Theodore is the chivalrous protector of delicate young ladies. As some critics have pointed out, each character is described heavy-handedly, and the author provides no keys into the inner minds of the characters, relying instead of outward displays of excess emotion (Sedgwick 131). Consequently, Otranto becomes “theatrical” (Napier 33) because of its emphasis on dramatic action and visual display. To the reader, each character and his/her displays of emotion combine in Otranto to make what amounts to a thoroughly ludicrous cast.
Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Reidhead, Julia, ed., pp. 113-117. Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 7, 2nd ed.
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 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.
“Manners are the happy way of doing things” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to Emerson people use manners as a front to make themselves look better. Inherently, this will lead to a contradiction of the front and the reality. One such man who is most concerned with manners is the protagonist of Shaw’s Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins. Higgins is a man who displays contradictions within his character. He is in the business of teaching proper manners, although lacks them himself. In addition, Higgins is an intelligent man, and yet he is ignorant of the feelings of those around him. Another apparent contradiction is that Higgins’ outer charm serves to hide his bullying nature. He manipulates Eliza and others around him to serve his own purposes, without any regard for her feelings.