Twentieth century Britain is dubbed the Victorian era in which the woman is just the female of humanity, and that they have certain things to do in society. It is socially accepted that women care solely for the children, the house, the cooking and the cleaning and the men are the breadwinners and disciplinarians. Writer, Bernard Shaw, who was "dedicated to tearing down what he saw as the oppressive veil of Victorian ideal of womanhood-that women are self-sacrificing, pure, noble, and passive" (2215). Damrosch, Dettmar, and Wicke the editors of The Longman Anthology of British Literature argue that Shaw designates the excitement, vigor, and advancement behind women who have exploded out the confines of domestic duty and into the work force of Britain by sidelining them with the newest ideas'. However, Shaw is suppressing women; the main character in Pygmalion is Eliza Doolittle is a poor, young woman and Professor Higgins is influenced by a bet to turn into a fine young woman by teaching her to speak correctly. Although Higgins is giving her the chance to learn how to speak like a lady, it is not through grammar one moves through social classes but by connections and hard work to gain money. By giving Eliza the gift of grammar, Higgins says she could get a job in a flower shop and pursue her dreams from there. However, Higgins is forcing her to pretend to become a typical Victorian lady; one who courts and then marries a gentlemen like Freddy and stays at home conforming to the Victorian ideals of womanhood.
Pygmalion introduces Eliza as a poor flower girl, hurrying for shelter against the rain. While under a music hall awning for shelter, she interacts with a number of people, including Professor Henry Higgins and Co...
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Eliza seems to have stood up for herself against Higgins and support Shaw's theory of Victorian women breaking the ideals of the housewife and child-rearer but once she is married to Freddy, or to anyone else, and starts a family she will have to go behind the scenes and keep the house and tend to her children. Pulling Eliza from the gutter and making her into a duchess revolves around a friendly bet between Higgins and Pickering. Eliza is passed off as a duchess but as the play draws to a close the bet is uncovered and Higgins and her squabble. The play ends ambiguously, we are told she is going to marry Freddy but their marriage is left up to the reader. However, it is with the understanding of Victorian ideals the reader can hypothesize what is going to happen once they are married; which is taking on the original roles of men and women in the Victorian era.
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...
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...
You could see the helpless and powerless state of women even as far back as the 18th century. The story also exposes the fundamental injustices meted out to women by confining them to a limited domestic sphere. The society dictates the identity and role of the woman; “every young woman is expected to marry a suitable spouse” (Foster 818), take care of her husband and children, while having no voice or rights of her own. Any relationships outside the spheres of marriage is being frowned at. But the man can do as he pleases, even if he is married. While Eliza had to move away from her family and friends because she was pregnant and could not stand the shame and had “become a reproach and disgrace to friends” (Foster 906), Sanford is allowed to continue living his life probably with another vulnerable young woman in the society. While Sanford gets away with his womanizing acts, Eliza is the one who is branded as loose, and termed a coquette; she was the one who lost her life, trying to conceal a pregnancy that was conceived by two people. An unidentified source has this to write about her: “But let no one reproach her memory. Her life has paid the forfeit of her folly. Let that suffice” (Foster
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
The epistolary novel challenges gender roles because in a society where the most accepted form of female writing was letters, the epistolary novel gives a new voice to women. The letters written by the characters especially the women go hand in hand with new republican virtues of society. Women were becoming more educated and their letters became more frequent. The epistolary form gives a sense of realism. It allows the reader to dive head first into the lives and problems of the characters, it is set up in a way where the reader ultimately knows more than the character does. This style of writing allows us to get the story from each character as an individual, which is important because if told from another character, events and emotions might get lost in translation or become skewed. Through reading Eliza’s letters, the audience can get a grasp of her personality, her morals, her humor, and her intentions. Eliza’s voice is strong and as she begins to decline her voice starts to dwindle and become muffled and eventually lost. Through being able to see how her voice gets lost, the reader can get a real sense of her decline as a character. Eliza begins to fade and other characters start to step into the light. Eliza’s letters are what makes her relatable and without these snippets from Eliza, the audience might not want to side with her. William Brown Hill’s preface to The Power of
Eliza Wharton has sinned. She has also seduced, deceived, loved, and been had. With The Coquette Hannah Webster Foster uses Eliza as an allegory, the archetype of a woman gone wrong. To a twentieth century reader Eliza's fate seems over-dramatized, pathetic, perhaps even silly. She loved a man but circumstance dissuaded their marriage and forced them to establish a guilt-laden, whirlwind of a tryst that destroyed both of their lives. A twentieth century reader may have championed Sanford's divorce, she may have championed the affair, she may have championed Eliza's acceptance of Boyer's proposal. She may have thrown the book angrily at the floor, disgraced by the picture of ineffectual, trapped, female characters.
bit of a shame for Higgins, as he is being scolded by someone who he
My fair lady is movie about a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle and a man named Henry Higgins of Phonetics. One night professor Higgins was at the Covent Garden market talking to his friend Colonel Pickering. While Eliza was selling flowers she overheard Higgins and Pickering talking. Higgins told Pickering that he can make anyone fluent in the English language the proper way. Eliza later found where Higgins lived and wanted to him to teach her how to speak like a proper lady in a flower shop. Higgins did not want to. Pickering at that time was at Higgins house and he bet that Higgins could not teach Eliza to how to speak as a proper lady and make her a duchess. Higgins at that moment bet. Higgins bet Pickering that he can teach Eliza to speak and be a duchess within 3 months. Over these several months Eliza who moved into Higgins household is put through depressive lessons. Eliza eventually was ready for the big day when she was tested in her skills. Eliza went to the embassy Ball. She was very beautiful, elegant and well-spoken and she proved to be very successful in Higgins and Pickering’s bet. She especially impressed a man named Freddy Eynsford-Hill falls in love with her. After the ball Higgins, Picke...
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.
... 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.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
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.
ACT II Through the description of Higgins’ laboratory we find out that Higgin is very organized and very unusual , he keeps a life size image of a half human head. We see that throughout the opening scene Mrs. Pearce judge Eliza because of the clothes that she is wearing, but she then starts to pity Eliza and cleans her up and giving her new clothes, making her much more presentable. Higgins believes that the only way for his pupils to really learn something is if they are scared, aware and attentive. Through this quote we understand Higgins view on students, he views them as objects that he has to shape.
“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.