George Bernard Shaw and Pygmalion

George Bernard Shaw and Pygmalion

Emily Deloria

Saugus High School AP Literature Author Comparison Project

George Bernard Shaw

Pygmalion

Table of Contents

Biography

Summary of Pygmalion

Style Elements

Feminist/Archetype Essay

Other Analytical Reads

Quiz

Works Cited

Annotated Bibliography

Additional Links

Biography

Born in 1856 in Dublin, Ireland, George Bernard Shaw grew up in poverty. His dad was an alcoholic and his mother ignored him. In 1873, his mother fled to England with George Vandeleur Lee, a musician. Two years later, Shaw also went to London. He worked in the British Museum for eight years and taught himself politics, economics, and music. Because he taught himself, Shaw also formed his own opinions. He was a music critic and tried to write novels, but all of his novels were rejected.

Shaw’s political life reflects his self-formed opinions. He converted to Marxism after reading on it, but eventually joined the Fabian Society, a middle class socialist group. Shaw believed in dismantling private property, changing the voting system radically, and reforming the English alphabet. After he became a famous playwright, he became a public speaker. In one speech, Shaw was “interrupted by laughter 13 times in the course of 350 words” (French).

Shaw’s fame as a playwright escalated after he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend. His first plays were published in 1898, but his most successful plays were published in the early twentieth century: Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Androcles and the Lion, and Pygmalion. Pygmalion is what Shaw is remembered most for, and it has been turned into a musical and movie, My Fair Lady.

Summary of Pygmalion

In Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle transforms from a poor flower girl to a socially acceptable lady. Sitting on a curb where Eliza sells flowers, Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, listens to her speak so he can add to his studies. Higgins meets Colonel Pickering, a noted Indian dialect linguist, while observing Eliza. Higgins bets Pickering that he could pass Eliza off as a duchess in six month’s time. The two men leave. The next morning, Eliza requests speech lessons from Higgins, who makes fun of her cockney dialect. Pickering brings up the bet again: If Higgins can pass Eliza off as a duchess at the ambassador’s garden party in six month’s time, he will pay for all of her lessons. Higgins, easily amused, agrees and sends Eliza to clean up and get new clothing. Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s father, demands that Higgins return Eliza, but he really only wants money so he can buy some whiskey. Higgins, again amused, gives Doolittle five pounds, and he leaves.

Eliza and Higgins work on phonetics and speech for a few months. Higgins presents Eliza to his mother, who has the Eynsford Hills family over for brunch. Eliza speaks perfectly, but the content of her speech is not considered socially acceptable. Freddy Eynsford Hills falls in love with Eliza. Mrs. Higgins warns Pickering and Higgins that they cannot toy around with Eliza, but they ignore her. At the ambassador’s party, Eliza succeeds in acting like a duchess. After the party, Higgins and Pickering do not appreciate Eliza, who feels hurt and scared because she does not know what she can do with her life at this point. She cannot return to selling flowers on the street and she cannot actually be a duchess. Higgins tells her to marry someone, but she gets more upset and leaves the house.

Eliza goes into hiding at Mrs. Higgins house. Higgins eventually goes to his mother’s looking for her, and Alfred Doolittle follows him. At Mrs. Higgins’s house, Doolittle reveals his inheritance from a deceased American millionaire, who liked Doolittle because of Higgins’s recommendation on Doolittle’s morals. Eliza enters, and Higgins begins to respect her because of her rhetoric. Doolittle announces that “middle class morality” prompted him to marry his girlfriend. As Eliza leaves for the wedding, Higgins barks some errands at her. It is unclear in the play whether Eliza will return to Higgins.

Style Elements: Irony

The main literary element in Pygmalion is irony. There are many accounts of dramatic, situational, and verbal irony in the play.

Example 1: In the beginning of the play, Higgins is sitting down and observing Eliza. People begin to question him, and he starts naming off the places where they were all born. One bystander says, “I can tell where you come from. You come from Anwell.” Hanwell Country Asylum is a place for the insane. This bystander uses verbal irony to show Higgins as a crazy, obsessed man.

Example 2: Alfred Doolittle is a man of poverty: “Undeserving poverty is my line.” At the end of the play, the audience learns that Doolittle inherits millions of pounds, and suffers from “middle class morality.” This is an example of situational irony.

Example 3: Higgins tells Eliza: “I have never sneered in my life” as he makes fun of her. This is verbal irony as it is clear his previous line imitating Eliza’s horrible speech is sneering.

Example 4: In the beginning, Eliza wants to learn to speak properly so that she can move off the streets. At the end, she exclaims, “Oh! if I only could go back to my flower basket!” This is an example of situational irony.

Example 5: Mrs. Higgins calls Pickering and Higgins stupid for playing around with Eliza. She warns them that she will not be able to live on her own after her time is up. At the end, this is the exact situation Eliza is in. This is dramatic irony because the audience knows Eliza will end up a mess, but none of the characters do.

Pygmalion and My Fair Lady: True Feminism?

According to Greek mythology, Pygmalion lived as a king on the island of Cyprus. He thought all women were impure, so he sculpted his own ideal woman, Galatea. Pygmalion constantly prayed to Aphrodite to transform Galatea into a living woman; the goddess was so touched by Pygmalion’s love that she turned the statue into a woman. Pygmalion and Galatea married and started a family (Parada). Like Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion morphs Eliza Doolittle into his version of a proper gentlewoman. Taking on the archetypal role of the artist, Higgins recreates Eliza; in Pygmalion and its film version, My Fair Lady, Eliza asserts her independence as a lady, which is a direct contrast to Galatea’s decision.

Higgins assumes the archetypal artist role in both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. Pickering bets Higgins he cannot change Eliza from a poor and improper flower girl into a lady for the ambassador’s garden party in six month’s time because of her horrendous speech and unacceptable manners. After accepting the challenge, Higgins fully becomes Pygmalion to transform Eliza. He tells his mother that a “loveable woman is something as like you as possible” (Shaw 411). Eliza’s model is therefore assumed to be Higgins’s mother: a socially acceptable lady. Higgins completes his “job,” but does not fully think of the repercussions of the effects on Eliza.

Pygmalion and My Fair Lady show two different versions of the character Eliza. With the climatic, final argument in Pygmalion with Higgins, Eliza tells him, “But I can do without you: don’t think I can’t” (Shaw 452). Higgins replies, “I know you can. I told you you could” (Shaw 452). One of his last assertions, Higgins tries to regain control of his Pygmalion-Galatea relationship. Higgins gave Eliza the ability to speak and act like a lady; however, it is Eliza’s decision on how to proceed with her life after the ambassador’s garden party. The audience hopes that Eliza will return to Higgins romantically, but instead she chooses to marry Freddy. In Shaw’s final closing remarks, he explains his reasoning for the ending:

Put [a mother-rival] along with her resentment of Higgins’s domineering superiority, and her mistrust of his coaxing cleverness in getting round her and evading her wrath when he had gone too far with his impetuous bullying, and you will see that Eliza’s instincts had good grounds for warning her not to marry her Pygmalion. (461-2).

Shaw later states that Eliza opens her own flower shop, which was the reason she wanted speech lessons in the beginning of the play. Eliza’s independence in Pygmalion shows that a woman who has her mind set on goals can achieve them. In My Fair Lady, the last argument between Higgins and Eliza is the same, but Eliza returns dutifully to Higgins to fetch him his slippers. The audience might be pleased with her final decision because they do make an entertaining couple, but Eliza’s final argument seems hypocritical. She claims to want independence from a dominating man, like Higgins or her father, but she still returns to Higgins.

Higgins’s and Eliza’s relationship parallels that of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion and Higgins both create their ideal women. For Higgins, Eliza becomes an equal as she does venture out on her own successfully in Pygmalion. In My Fair Lady, Eliza’s decision to give up her freedom and return to Higgins refutes the last line of Shaw’s masterpiece: “Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable” (Shaw 473).

Other Analytical Reads

Historical

Written during reign of Queen Victoria →”Victorianism”

High priority of high society

Domesticity

Expansion of knowledge

Eliza wants to learn proper English so she can better herself in society and open her own flower shop

Higgins suggests Eliza marry someone (domesticity)

Biographical

Socialism → class problems. Eliza wants to open a flower shop, but can’t. She also will never be fully acceptable by high society.

Mother’s weird relationship with father and musician → Odd relationships between Eliza and Higgins and Eliza and Freddy.

Reader-response

Sympathy with Eliza → alcoholic father, sneering Higgins

Adoration of Freddy as a school boy type crush

Eliza should marry Higgins → good and entertaining couple

Quiz

1. Which of the following are examples of Shavian wit phrases?

I. He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.

II. I never resist temptation because I have found that things are bad for me do no tempt me.

III. England and America are two countries divided by a common language.

a. I only

b. III only

c. I and II

d. II and III

e. I, II, and III

2. Which of the following does Shaw not utilize in his writing?

a. Satire

b. Paradox

c. Hyperbole

d. Allusion

e. None of the above

3. George Bernard Shaw is best known for his

a. Novels

b. Poems

c. Plays

d. Lyrics

e. Ballads

Questions 4-5 are based on the following passage.

PICKERING We’re always talking Eliza.

HIGGINS Teaching Eliza

PICKERING Dressing Eliza

MRS. HIGGINS What!

HIGGINS Inventing new Elizas.

4. The passage shows which of the following?

a. Higgins and Pickering treat Eliza like a pet

b. Higgins and Pickering treat Eliza like a game

c. Higgins and Pickering treat Eliza like a proper lady

d. Higgins and Pickering have crushes on Eliza

e. Both a and b

5. Mrs. Higgins’s interjection shows which of the following?

a. She thinks Pickering is a true gentleman

b. She is in awe over her son’s experiment with Eliza

c. She disapproves of the two men dressing Eliza

d. All of the above

e. None of the above

6. After the garden party is over, Higgins says, “Yes: that’s what drives me mad: the silly people don’t know their own silly business.” Which of the following literary devices is exemplified in the quote?

a. Sarcasm

b. Hyperbole

c. Situational irony

d. Dramatic irony

e. Verbal irony

7. The title, Pygmalion, uses which literary device?

a. Simile

b. Allusion

c. Allegory

d. Conceit

e, Apostrophe

8. All of the following are themes of Pygmalion except

a. Roles of the sexes

b, Social roles

c, Personal Identity

d, Classes

e, The blessings of family life

9. Which of the following archetypal roles does Higgins live up to?

a. Teacher

b. Tragic Anti-hero

c. Sidekick

d. Child

e. Wise Old Man

10. Which of the following archetypal roles does Eliza live up to?

a. Teacher

b. Tragic Anti-hero

c. Sidekick

d. Child

e. Wise Old Man

11. Which of the following archetypal roles does Pickering live up to?

a. Teacher

b. Tragic Anti-hero

c. Sidekick

d. Child

e. Wise Old Man

12. Which of the following characters reflects Shaw’s teetotaler attitude?

a. Pickering

b. Higgins

c. Eliza Doolittle

d. Alfred Doolittle

e. Mrs. Higgins

13. What might have been a primary influence on Eliza’s love triangle with Higgins and Freddy?

a. Shaw’s father was constantly drunk when Shaw was growing up

b, Shaw’s mother leaving to be with another man in London

c. Shaw’s loveless childhood

d. Both a and b

e. None of the above

14. Which theme shows Shaw’s socialism influence?

a. Roles of the sexes

b, Social roles

c, Personal Identity

d, Classes

e, The blessings of family life

15. “No Irishmen could do anything if he stayed in Ireland.” Which authors does this quote relate to?

I. Oscar Wilde

II. George Bernard Shaw

III. James Joyce

a. I only

b. II only

c. II and III

d. None of the above

e. I, II, and III

16. George Bernard Shaw’s early plays did not succeed because they were almost too intelligently nagging on which topics?

a. Prostitution

b. Hypocrisy of the middle class

c. The folly of war

d. None of the above

e. All of the above

17. “My genius for hurting women is extraordinary,” said Shaw. Even though Shaw felt he hurt women’s feelings, he is said to be a defender of women’s rights. Which of the following characters best shows Shaw as a defender of women’s rights?

a. Eliza Doolittle

b. Mrs. Higgins

c. Clara Eynsford Hills

d. Mrs. Eynsford Hills

e. None of the above

Use the following passage to answer question 18.

MRS. HIGGINS Well, you never fall in love with anyone under forty-five. When will you discover that there are some rather nice-looking young women about?

HIGGINS: Oh, I can’t be bothered with young women. My idea of a loveable woman is something as like you as possible

18. Which of the following analytical reads would best appreciate the passage?

a. Biographical

b. Historical

c. Feminist

d. Freudian

e. Archetypal

19. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

a. Higgins is married.

b. Mrs. Higgins approves of Higgins’s wife

c. Mrs. Higgins believes Higgins will never marry.

d. Higgins wants to marry his mother literally.

e. None of the above

20. At the end of the play, Eliza knows she cannot return to the streets to sell flowers and she cannot pretend to be a duchess. This predicament satirizes

a. the socially acceptable because they are born into their class

b. the socially unacceptable because they have bad grammar

c. the socially unacceptable because

d. middle class hypocrisy

e. both a and d

21. Which of the following is not one of Shaw’s plays?

a. Mrs. Warren’s Profession

b. Pygmalion

c. Major Barbara

d. Androcles and the Lion

e. An Ideal Husband

22. At the end Pygmalion, Eliza says, “Perhaps I could make something of [Freddy]. But I never thought of us making anything of one another; and you never think of anything else. I only want to be natural.” This shows

a. The reversal of roles as Eliza takes on the artist archetype

b. That Eliza is ungrateful for Higgins’s lessons

c. Eliza wants to marry Freddy

d. Eliza wants Higgins to love her

e. Eliza wishes she were left as a flower girl

Question 23 is based on the following passage.

HIGGINS Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we throw her out of the window?

23. Which of the following literary devices is used in the passage?

a. Analogy

b. Allusion

c. Consonance

d. Personification

e. Metaphor

24. At the beginning of the play, Eliza is said to be “cockney speaking.” The word cockney most likely refers to Eliza’s

a. Dialect

b. Modesty

c. Kindness

d. Perfection

e. Arrogance

25. At the end of the actual play and before Shaw’s closing remarks (which an audience would not hear), Eliza marries

a. Freddy

b. Pickering

c. Higgins

d. No one

e. The ambassador

Works Cited

Parada, Carlos. "Pygmalion Myth - Greek I." 15 Jun 2006. Pygmalion Design. 2 Apr 2008 <http://www.pygmalion.ws/stories/greek2.htm>.

Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion and Three Other Plays. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

Annotated bibliography

Burgess, Anthony. "Books: The Life Force. " The Atlantic 1 Oct. 1988: 91. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about the Fabian Society and Shaw’s reforms.

French, Sean. "Books: Pursuing Bernard Shaw. " Rev. of: Bernard Shaw: Pursuit of Power. New Statesman & Society 15 Sep. 1989: 33. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about Shaw’s sexual and flirtatious relationships.

French, Sean. "The Winnowing of Mr Holroyd. " New Statesman & Society 16 Sep. 1988: 37. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about Shaw’s novels and early fascination with the theatre.

Friedman, Melvin J. "The Young G. B. S. “ The Progressive 1 Feb. 1989: 43. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about the influence of Ireland on Shaw.

"George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)." Books and Writers. 2003. 11 Apr 2008 <http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gbshaw.htm>.

This website talks about George Bernard Shaw’s life.

Jenkyns, Richard. "The Distant Shaw. “ The New Republic 14 Nov. 1988: 38. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about Shaw’s talents and potential.

Paul, Angus. "Shaw's Early Career. " The Chronicle of Higher Education 7 Dec. 1988: A11. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about Shaw’s novels and early fascination with the theatre.

Teachout, Terry. "Man of the Century -- Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy, 1918-1950 by Michael Holroyd. " . Commentary 1 Feb. 1992: 56. Gold Periodicals. ProQuest. 11 Apr. 2008 <http://www.proquest.com/>

This article talks about the influence of Socialism on Shaw.

Additional Links

Shavian Wit Quotes

Nobel Prize Page on GBS

Fabian Society

Pygmalion Myth

My Fair Lady

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