Theme Of Pygmalion
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The document discusses the theme of class relations in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, noting that there is a distinct variance in class relations and how early 20th century Britons were perceived based on their speech, money, manners, and appearance. It provides the example of Eliza Doolittle, a young homeless woman who aspires to become a respected lady after Professor Henry Higgins agrees to teach her to speak properly in an effort to transform her class status. However, questions are raised about identity and whether an individual is truly defined by their speech and interactions or if there is a deeper amalgamation of factors that define
Theme Of Pygmalion
- 1. Theme Of Pygmalion This play is one which has been adapted many times since its first performance in Vienna in 1913. From a musical version, to countless interpretations of the plot in movies and television shows, the story is one which is almost universally recognizable, if not necessarily in its original context. The aim of this production will be to stay true to the original play, while transferring it into a modern setting. This will highlight the many ways in which it is still thoroughly relevant to modern audiences, particularly in reference to the implicit points made about the treatment of women, and those who are on the lower levels of society. While the play itself may seem somewhat dated, seeming to be rooted in social hierarchies which are obsolete, specifically in Ireland, the themes it deals with are as relevant today as they were when Shaw first wrote them in 1913. From the treatment of those who are vulnerable in a society, to the nature of identity itself, Pygmalion gives an excellent template to discuss and expand on these issues as they appear in our own...show more content... Individuals are more than just the way they speak, act, interact or think, but rather an amalgamation of all of those together. In Pygmalion Higgins endeavours to transform Eliza into what he considers to be the diametric opposite to where she starts out, but he does so by simply attempting "to teach her how to speak properly" (Shaw, p.26). In doing this, "Higgins may change Eliza's linguistic and even physical selves (...), but Eliza herself changes her psychological and philosophical selves, largely through the auspices of her sociological self interacting with others such as Mrs. Higgins and Colonel Pickering" (Kennell, p.76). By showing the distinction between how Eliza's selves are changed, the topic of identity can be explored in a unique way in a production of this Get more content on HelpWriting.net
- 2. Pygmalion Essay Pygmalion An interpretation of Class Relations in Pygmalion In Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, there is a distinct variance in class relations and the way that early 20th century Britains were perceived as being different by their speech, money, wealth, style, manners, and appearance. Being a lady or a gentleman was an acquired status desirable among most of London's society. However, in Pygmalion, Shaw tells a story about the transition of a homeless young woman with the aspiration to become a respected lady. Eliza Doolittle is an 18 or 19 year–old young women, making a living from selling old flowers on the streets. When she comes across a rude Professor, named Henry Higgins, he sarcastically offers her to "learn how to speak...show more content... Another example is when Eliza goes to get in the taxi and the driver is trying to keep her out, assuming that she has no money to pay for the ride. When Higgins meets Eliza, he comes across as very rude, saying: "Woman; cease the detestable boohooing instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship......A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere – no right to live.... this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter till the end of her days...Well sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party....." He then goes on to call her names like "squashed cabbage leaf" ; "disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns" and an "incarnate insult to the English language". With obviously no respect for the poor girl, he would say anything that he wants to her, with no spare to her feelings at all. An example related to this scenario can be compared to "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", by Peggy McIntosh. In this article, she describes how gender, race and sexual preference are a problem in America. In this case, however, it is more a subcultural problem, but it is related to the way classes differ. She discusses how white people, males particularly, have "skin color that was an asset for any move one was educated
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- 4. Essay On Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) the versatile dramatist used contemporary social, political and religious problems as subjects for his plays. Pygmalion, perhaps the only one of his many plays in which he points out to his audience and his readers that he has used an ancient classical myth to explore a problem that is not merely contemporary but one that has lasted through time. This myth is the story of Pygmalion – Galatea which has been told and retold by several later writers in differing forms. In the most familiar version of this myth, Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus. He was also a great sculptor who used to make beautiful statues of bronze, marble and ivory. He was devoted to his art and always sought for perfection at any...show more content... Dressed in Opera Cloak with diamonds, fan, flowers and all other accessories she passes like a Duchess, creating sensation in the whole atmosphere. Nepummuck, the marvelous interpreter (and Higgins' previous student also to whom he taught phonetics) identifies her as a Hungarian princess. Thus her success at the ambassador's reception is overwhelming. But the experiment is followed by its aftermath. As euphoria of triumph is over, Eliza is faced with the stark reality. She has become disclassed, left unfit for her old life and unable for her old life and unable to forge a new one Eliza is tragic in her fear and despair. Higgins is also quite unsentimental and unromantic in his approach to Eliza. Looking to this attitude of Professor Higgins Eliza shouted on him asking; "What am I fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What to become of me? Higgins' this attitude of indifference drives her to Freddy, who worships her. Eliza leaves Higgins house and so takes decisive step into the future. Shaw explains the sexual attitude of Higgins towards Eliza in terms of the Oedipus Complex. In Appendix he says "If an imaginative boy has a suffering rich mother who has intelligence, personal grace, dignity of character without harshness and a cultivated sense of the best art of her time to enable her to make her house beautiful, she sets a standard for him a disengagement of his Get more content on HelpWriting.net
- 5. Pygmalion Allusion A.) An allusion is an indirect or direct reference to anything that is a source outside of that work of literature or the situation. B.) Pygmalion was a Greek sculptor who lost interest in women due to prostitutes. Pygmalion then carved a realistic statue of a women out of ivory, gave it the name of Galatea and soon fell in love with it. He went to the altar of Aphrodite and asked for a bride and the Goddess of love took petty upon him and brought his statue to life. When he came home to embrace his statue he realized that it was warm and that the ivory was no longer as hard as it used to be. Galatea and Pygmalion got married and eventually have a child and they both are forever grateful to Aphrodite and bring her gifts throughout their lives. Get more content on HelpWriting.net
- 6. Feminism In Pygmalion Pygmalion (...through a Feminist Lens) "Pygmalion was written to challenge the class system, traditional stereotypes and the audience's own views." To begin with, George Bernard Shaw was an early and outspoken advocate for the rights of women, and as a playwright he created some of the most distinctive women characters of his day. He was deeply influenced in this aspect of his writing by Henrik Ibsen. This play deals with a lot many themes. To cite a few: Rewriting the tale of Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, Class, language and phonetics and Independence. From the very beginning of the play, we can see the unequal relationship between Mr. Higgins (the man) and Eliza (thewoman). This difference can be seen by the parallelism between these two...show more content... She retorts back by replying, "You want me back only to pick up your slippers and put up with your tempers and fetch and carry for you." Eliza is mere domestic helper for Higgins, a helping hand to Mrs. Pearce even if Eliza can be much more than that. This is the crude reality of the patriarchal setup. Women, how much ever is qualified, is better than the opposite gender when it comes to education, the opposite sex will always take her as a house maid or a person working under him. Eliza, in the climax scene vulnerably asks Higgins, why he made her a sophisticated Duchess if her never cared for her, and why did not he thought of the trouble it would make for her, on which Higgins shocking reply says: "Would the world ever have been made if its makes had been afraid of making trouble?" (Act V, 127) Making life means making troubles. He still finds faults with Eliza,' you are an idiot I waste the treasures of my Miltonic mind by spreading them before you." Higgins thus suffers from intellectual snobbery. He belongs to the world of Shakespeare and Milton. All throughout the play, Higgins behave rude with Eliza. Eliza, in the last act as a representative of all women trapped in patriarchal setup says the below quote to Higgins, who is the representative of all the patriarchal men in the Get more content on HelpWriting.net