1Pygmalion by George Bernhard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion Play 1912 Two old gentlemen meet in the rain one night at Covent Garden. Professor Higgins bets the other that he can transform the flower girl Eliza into a woman as well-spoken as a duchess. Eliza wants to speak properly enough to work I a flower shop. Pickering is agreeing to cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins can pass Eliza off as a duchess at an ambassadors garden party. For a number of moths, Higgins trains Eliza to speak properly. Eliza has to pass through two tests. (1. At Higgins mothers home, 2.trial: ambassadors party). The second one is a real success. Higgins and Pickering are now bored with the project, which causes Eliza to be hurt. The following morning, Eliza has run away. The two men find her in Mrs Higgins house. Higgins starts to admire her. We do not know, if Eliza returns to Higgins at Wimpole Street or not. The play ends with Higgins laughter as he says to his mother, Shes going to marry Freddy. Ha ha! Freddy! Freddy! Ha ha ha ha ha !!!!

19. Parallel between Cinderella and Pygmalion Cinderella= Eliza -both = beautiful -poor girls from the underclass who rise in he society -peak of the story: ball and ambassadors garden party Difference: ball= end (marries with the prince) a.g.p= beginning (tries to be independent) Colonel Pickering= Cinderellas stepmother: -Thanks to them that they can get out of their poor situation Prince= Higgins -If Eliza had married H., she would have had a higher social status Mr. Doolittle= Cinderellas stepmother -Only figures of authority Cinderella complex: womans fear of independence -Eliza: just after the ambassadors party -Cinderella: cant change her situation by her own, must be helped by the prince or by her Godmother Family: -we dont know much about their mother -Both: poor figure of authority -Cinderella: stepmother= evil, favors her two other daughters -Eliza: Mr Doolittle: sells Eliza for 5 pounds (lack of morality) -Eliza: Doesnt care about her until she goes to Higgins Criticism of the society: -Pygmalion: -Society divided into classes -Women are like objects in the Victorian society -Ideals of the V.S.: completely backwards Eynsford Hill family: live as they were rich -Cinderella: -social injustice (stepmother) -materialism (Daughter choose clothes to wear for ball)

2Pygmalion by George Bernhard Shaw

20. The evolution of the relationship between Mr Higgins and Eliza

21. Character analysis: Mr Doolittle Physical and psychological description: -Elizas father, had had at least 6 wives, alcoholic, no morality: sells his daughter for a few pounds, honest character: doesnt hide himself behind appearance/ talk, doesnt work hard, doesnt want much money 1. Description: -poor Doolittle, hes in the costume of his profession, not self-confident 2. Description: -the rich one, resplendently dressed as for a fashionable wedding, flower in his buttonhole, silk hat, leather shoes, more self-confident His evolution: Clothes, social class, status some problems: he violates the principles of the bourgeois provokes audiences into rethinking conventional views about moraliy: illegitimate daughter, lives with a woman who is not his wife no choice to marry this woman life becomes moral -more self confident and how he considers his daughter: beginning: his property, object // End: his daughter Relationships D.- Pickering &Higgins: D. wants only money, he can take Eliza with him but he wont. Higgins only wants to be alone gives him money 2. complains about his money (Higgins wanted to annoy him worked) Pickering: like a support to him (wish youd come with me (wedding)) They take the paternal and fatherly role of Doolittle D.-Eliza: 1. Sells, beats and is aggressive with her object ; they dont depend on each other; very formal the girl my father CHANGE: Because both civilized: He worries what she thinks of him (new clothes) : dad Eliza accepts to go to the wedding (stepmother threw her out) real family relationship D.-his women: 1. Beats her, dont know if she died, dont come back until you are drunk and loving-like, never married, change: doesnt beat his woman and becomes respectable, marry his woman His role in the play: not a big role to do little Why does he appear in these moments?: 1.E. wants to be indep. 2.is free What does he represent? Shaws voice criticizing society

3Pygmalion by George Bernhard Shaw

22. The importance of class distinction -main topic and superficial prove: low class girl pass for a duchess Victorian society: Upper class: most privileged, nobility and relatives of royal families, well-born, very rich, dont have to work: working for money= degrading Special clothes, jewellery, proper form of address, manners= Etiquette Appearance, speaking properly, using formal expressions= important Middle class: respectable jobs, enough money (decent life), no title, Etiquette not essential, butler, housekeeper Lower class: dangerous, dirty jobs, work hard for little money, little education, not supposed to talk to a member of the upper class How Shaw pictures Victorian social classes: Includes members of all social classes Clothes: many details, SUPERFICIALITY (ex Lisa: beginning: dirty, poor common, very common, Japanese kimono her dad doesnt recognize her, end: lady, admire her) (ex. Higgins: boots= reveal that he is a gentleman) (ex. Doolittle: dressed as a bridegroom: gentleman: dustman! Oh no, sir: a gentleman) Accent: beginning: H. able to guess each persons origin, higher class: must be able to hide place where one comes from, bad language stops anyone to get a better rank in society: the English that will keep her in the gutter, also important what E. says, perfect language: upper class Manners and morality: Higgins gives himself the freedom toward class distinction, people from diff. classes dont understand each other habit of a working girl to call a stranger Freddy or Charlie, drinking and not to by married: immoral, but Doolittle: advantages social distinctions= superficial (Eliza and Doolittle) money and birth doesnt make you a better person value of a person: doesnt depend on social class, but on self-respect and personality

23. The women of the play Pygmalion the myth: Pygmalion made a sculpture galatea beautiful, fell in love, change into a real woman, Venus had given to Pygmalion the woman of his dreams Pygmalion: Shaw: bringing to life Eliza, she can realize her dreams, becomes ladylike, becomes a new person Difference: Eliza expresses feelings, E leaves her creator (modern end) Elizas background: gutter, independent,.. E. transformation: wants to change her class (remarkable), takes English lessons, transforming way of thinking, bath: physically clean and washing away her old life, she does a sacrifice 1. Accent 2. Accent and physically change 3. Behavior 4. Way of thinking doesnt change, leaves Higgins at the end Eliza realize that her price to become what she is now was her freedom, Mrs Pearce: middle class, housekeeper, worries about Eliza, helps H. Mrs Higgins: upper class, strict (teatime), perfect manners in every situation, worries about Eliza Clara Eynsford Hill: genteel poor, act like sn from the upper class but without money, depend on a good marriage to survive Mrs Eynsford Hill: does all she can to make sure her daughter finds a husband in the upper class, not as rich as her friends

4Pygmalion by George Bernhard Shaw

24. The relationship between the men and the women of the play