Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Drama performance analysis
Theatre analysis
Chapter 1- The Nature of Theatre
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Drama performance analysis
In George Bernard Shaw’s didactic, Victorian play Pygmalion, Linguistics Professor Henry Higgins’s perceptive ears are offended by the sound of Eliza’s lowly, Cockney accent, so he wishes to change it into a flawless, pleasant voice that would blend in among high society. Higgins is a sarcastic and rude character who treats Eliza badly throughout most of the play, sometimes not even acknowledging her presence. This brings up the question of why she tolerates his rudeness. What drove Eliza to change? Change is desired when we face conflicts that must be resolved. Another question this play presents is: What does it mean to be high class? Is it as Henry Higgins says it is, that it is just the proper way of speaking? Can the “right” sociolinguistics or money or heritage give someone high status?
We can wish to change when wanting to improve ourselves, to satisfy others who we hold in esteem, to meet demands placed upon us, but most importantly, a successful change must come from self-motivated reasons. A change forced upon a person is like no change at all. After the pressure, the expectations, the possible threat of that comes with authority, have all been removed, a change can only last if the subject being changed had wanted to be changed in the first place. Initially, she wanted to improve her speaking voice so that she could find a better job, and with a better job, better prospects in every part of her life. She realizes that she can do this with Higgins’s help—she recognizes his expertise in this subject, but he is unwilling to help her until she pays him a high sum that she cannot afford. Higgins’s peer Colonel Pickering’s attention is brought to Eliza’s plight and he feels for her, so he strikes up a wager with Higgins and ...
... middle of paper ...
...see any kind of challenge in Freddy, so he was not of so much interest to her. George Bernard Shaw’s message, though, is that affection for another person should not be disguised as distaste, for eventually, the person we love will move on to somebody else who treats him or her as he or she deserves to be treated. In a way, Eliza’s plan to marry Freddy is a type of poetic justice against Higgins, who, even though exhibits the proper grammar and speech of gentility, is not truly a gentleman. His behavior and attitude are just inexcusable for a heroine like Eliza. From this irony and dark humor in Pygmalion, we learn that we should be genuine and reveal our true feelings for a love interest eventually, even if it is slowly to keep ourselves from being hurt—we do not want to meet Higgins’s lonely fate. He could have had Eliza, but his caustic behavior kept them apart.
To conclude, in the poem “Changes” by D. Ginette Clarke, the use of repetition, word choice, and punctuation revealed the persona in a well-thought out and respectable manner. Clarke was very clever in the way that she had used these elements to not only reveal the persona, but also to make the poem as amazing as it is. The persona started off as a curious man, then came off as serious, only to turn out to be a demanding and vehement person; but in the end, the persona’s special characteristics were clear. Therefore, the use of repetition, word choice, and punctuation revealed and represented the persona and his curious, eager, and desperate personality.
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...
How do you think a “poor flower girl’s” internal thoughts would be? Do you think they would change based on her appearance and her associates? Who is Eliza? Eliza Doolittle is a character in the play Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw , who played as a young adult was poor and didn’t keep up with herself. She was a flower girl who wasn’t well respected. Eliza changes throughout the book because in Act I, she was dingy and didn’t feel clean or look clean. Her speech was very bad. She got help from a man named Henry Higgins and his mother Mrs.Higgins. But now, in Act V, she is highly dresses catching others’ eyes when she’d walk in the room. She respects herself more than she did in the past. However, Eliza Doolittle’s thoughts has changed
"It is impossible to conceive of a human creature more wholly desolate and forlorn than Eliza, when she turned her footsteps from Uncle Tom's cabin. Her husband's suffering and dangers, and the danger of her child, all blended in her mind, with a confused and stunning sense of the risk she was running, in leaving the only home she had ever known, and cutting loose from the protection of a friend whom she loved and revered. "
George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, is a humorous, yet moral, play that portrays the active social classes and lifestyles in Britain. The play features the main character Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who embarks on the formidable task of teaching a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, how to speak English properly, and then passing her off as a duchess at the royal ball. Pygmalion was later adapted into the film, My Fair Lady in 1964, and although there are many differences between the two, the play delivers Shaw’s central message of social criticism, which is not to interfere within other social classes and not to meddle in society, more effectively than the movie.
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.
The classic play Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw is his analysis of the prevailing society of the time. The title comes from the Greek myth of Pygmalion, who was a renowned sculptor and created a flawless statue whose beauty remained unmatched. At the sculptor’s request the God put life into the work of stone and thus the statue Galatea came to life. Accordingly Shaw adapts the myth to suit his own purpose. The statue in this case is Eliza Dolittle, who sells flowers in Convent Gardens. Since she is from the lower strata of the society, her accent is marked by a distinct flavor of its own, thereby pointing out that social hierarchy of that time was clearly dependent on public behavior, which included the way one spoke. Professor Henry Higgins plays the role of Pygmalion, who teaches Eliza how to talk properly (since he is an expert in languages, particularly accents) along with instilling good manners and a proper code of conduct in her. In the end Eliza, who has learnt how to be a ‘lady’ ends up with a flower shop in the upper section of the society but is married to a poor man who is studying to be an accountant. Yet she makes a good living and that is the moral of the story. It is interesting to note that class and manner play an important part in this play. Thus one will attempt to show through the characters of Eliza and Henry that class in the sense of social hierarchy does not equate with class in the sense of manners, tact and dignity. Eliza as mentioned earlier is one the principle characters of the play, along with Higgins, comes from an extremely impoverished background. She speaks the gutter language: “Aint no call to meddle with me, he aint” (1). She is not an epitome of good manners by any definition of the...
The characters in the play Pygmalion follow very stereotypical traits and qualities that are anticipated by society, however the author disputes with these stereotypes and shows how society perceives people based on what they appear to be. “She is no doubt as clean as she can afford to be; but compared to the ladies she is very dirty.” This quote is a transcript describing Eliza Doolittle who is a lower class lady selling flowers. Eliza is instantly recognized to be poor and therefore irrelevant to high-class citizens. The author doesn’t classify her as a lady, which is signifying that she is not the equivalent to the wealthier. It is instantly assumed she is poor by the way she looks and is described as dirty. When she is transformed to what society classifies as high class in terms of behavior she is instantly more valued and respected. Mr. Higgins who teaches Eliza these esteemed qualities is of higher class and it is an exception, in terms of society, because of the fact that he would involve himself with a lower ranked being. “It’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul.” This quote shows that Higgins sees the help he is offering Eliza to be an experiment and how this teaching is a fundamental opportunity to test the social class system.
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.
Bernard Shaw’s comedy Pygmalion presents the journey of an impoverished flower girl into London’s society of the early 20th century. Professor Higgins proposes a wager to his friend Colonel Pickering that he can take a common peddler and transform her into royalty. Eliza Doolittle is the pawn in the wager. But little does Higgins know the change will go far beyond his expectations: Eliza transforms from a defensive insecure girl to a fully confident,strong, and independent woman. When the audience first meets Eliza Doolittle she is a flower girl peddling at 11 PM in front of St. Paul’s Church. The audience’s first impression is one of sympathy because she is dressed in rags and pedestrians are unkind to her. Higgins calls Eliza "you squashed cabbage leaf, you disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns, you incarnate insult to the English language." (p. 21) The audience’s sympathy is intensified when we see Eliza’s wretched lodgings. These lodgings are much contrasted to those of Higgins in Wimploe S...
As mentioned briefly above, this passage is about Eliza’s decision in the play concerning her potential departure. There is a lot of character development within this passage as we see the selfishness in Henry and the weakness in Eliza. It starts by Henry retaining a selfish and crude attitude towards Eliza. This is also where some of the humor within the passage comes in. Henry jokes about Eliza lacking any form of feelings and Eliza constitutes that “[she has her] feelings same as anyone else”, Henry disrupts the conversation and addresses only Pickering asking if he “see[s] the difficulty […] to get her to talk grammar”. This proclamation by Henry is extremely rude and it shows how little respect he has for Eliza and people of her standards. It is only when Eliza threatens to leave that he softens up and offers her chocolates. This is because his interest in proving himself to Pickering makes him realize that he needs to be gentler to Eliza in order of achieving anything with her.
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.
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.
He thinks that his habits of walking over everyone around him and being outrageously blunt are too ingrained in him to be changed. However, the whole play is about how he transforms Eliza. He believes he can change her so dramatically that she can pass as a duchess, but he does not believe that even he can start to act like a decent person. Shaw's depiction of Eliza's transformation from a Cockney flower girl to a duchess is rather interesting. Higgins' irony and comedic relief adds a light-hearted tone to the serious themes presented in the play.
In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Henry Higgins, an expert in phonetics, makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he will be able to change Eliza Doolittle from a poor, uneducated Cockney flower girl into an eloquent duchess in just six months. It is stated that Higgins wins the bet if Eliza can pass off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. In the end, Eliza’s training is successful, for everyone at the party believes that she is indeed a duchess and Higgins wins the bet. Due to her lessons, she changes significantly throughout the course of the play. Her self-esteem, for instance, is low when she is first introduced but it gradually progresses as she turns into a confident woman. The way she speaks changes too, for she no longer speaks with a thick Cockney accent and her grammar is proper, thanks to Higgins’ knowledge in phonetics. Additionally, Eliza goes through a great change, outwardly. She is transformed from a poor, dirty flower girl into a clean, beautiful woman. Overall, the primary aspects that change about her are self-worth, speech, accent, and appearance. Out of the aforementioned points, Shaw makes it clear that her self-esteem improving is the most important transformation of them all.