Pygmalion

By George Bernard Shaw

 Who is
George Bernard Shaw?
 George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was born into a
poor Protestant family in Dublin,
Ireland, on July 26, 1856. Despite
childhood neglect (his father was an
alcoholic), he became one of the
most prominent writers of modern
Britain.
His mother introduced him to music and
art at an early age and after 1876, when
he moved to London to continue his self-
education, she supported him for nine
more years. During this period Shaw wrote
five unsuccessful novels. Then, in 1884,
he met William Archer, the prominent
journalist and drama critic, who urged him
to write plays.
Shaw's plays were frequently banned by
censors or refused production (both their
themes and their expansive scope made
them difficult to stage), so he sought
audiences through open readings and
publication.
After the turn of the century, Shaw's plays
gradually began to achieve production
and, eventually, acceptance in England.
Shaw received the Nobel Prize for literature in
1925, which was considered to be the high point
of his career (although he was still to write
seventeen more plays).
In later life, he remained a vigorous symbol of
the ageless “superman” he proclaimed in his
works, traveling extensively throughout the world
and engaging in intellectual and artistic pursuits.
In September, 1950, however, he fell from an
apple tree he was pruning, and on November 2
of that year died of complications stemming from
the injury.
 Victorian Era
• An era regarded as history of theatre. During this
era England was ruled by Queen Victoria from
1837 to 1901. It was a time during which
literature and theatre flourished.
• During her reign many new theatres were built
along with theatre schools. It was also during her
reign when political reforms came into practice
which led to the openness of theatre and
literature.
• Theatre openly displayed and played dramas
relating to social problems. Generally it was a
period which brought prosperity to the middle
class of England, and started to challenge the
old hierarchical order of country.
 Victorian Drama
• Nearly all playwrights of the Victorian era tried to introduce
laughter in their work. Comedies in Victorian era were mostly
a combination of high and low comedy. The plots were
usually full of coincidences, mistiming and mistaken
identities.
• Main characters in drama during this time were usually
dealing with some sort of identity crisis, trying to figure out
everyday life.
• Humor often consisted of vulgar jokes and jokes with sexual
innuendos. The extremes of humor range from exaggeration
to understatement. The physical actions on the stage
included slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps,
and collisions.
• One of the most famous comedies of the Victorian era was
“The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. It is
probably one of the most played comedies with the same
absurd situations. It is a social satire. It shows a world where
no character has the slightest responsibility or can be
counted to say or do the usual thing.
 Victorian Romance
“Pygmalion” is classified as a Victorian romance.
Victorian refers to the time period in which it was
written. The Victorian period refers to Queen
Victoria and lasted from the late 1800’s into the
early 1900’s.
Romance in literature focuses on relationships
and heroic deeds. They typically have witty
dialogue and convey a strong moral. They are
somewhat fanciful or extravagant. In addition,
Victorian romances usually focus on a strong,
moral female character. Victorian romance male
characters usually portray that money and
character do not necessarily go hand in hand.
Romance (…in terms of literature)
Romance in literature actually means a
literary work that has a mix of humor and
male-female relationship issues that are
central to the work. While a “romance” to
some is simply a love story, a “romantic
comedy” delves into deeper issues about
human relationships while maintaining a
witty tone.
 What did Victorian Literature
Focus On?
Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of
difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance,
love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be
rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished.
They tended to be of an improving nature with a
central moral lesson at heart. While this formula
was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction,
the situation became more complex as the
century progressed.
 The Victorian Romance
In addition to the witty dialogue and the
relationships between men and women, Victorian
romances, such as Pride and Prejudice and Jane
Eyre, also set out to examine social issues.
They often showcase leading ladies who are
impoverished, yet inherently moral, and male
protagonists who learn that money and character
do not necessarily go hand in hand.
George Bernard Shaw is a Victorian playwright
who makes these same issues central to
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts.
 Victorian Writers
While in the preceding Romantic period poetry had been the dominant
genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian period.
Charles Dickens dominated the first part of Victoria's reign: his first
novel, Pickwick Papers, was published in 1836. The three Brontë sisters
also published significant works in the 1840s. A major later novel was
George Eliot's Middlemarch, while the major novelist of the later part of
Queen Victoria's reign was Thomas Hardy.
Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson were Victorian England's most
famous poets. Algernon Charles Swinburne is also considered an
important literary figure of the period, especially his poems and critical
writings. Early poetry of W. B. Yeats was also published in Victoria's
reign.
With regard to the theatre it was not until the last decades of the
nineteenth century that any significant works were produced. This began
with Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, from the 1870s, various plays
of George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) in the 1890s, and Oscar Wilde's
(1854–1900) The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895.
 Before Reading
When you first meet someone, what types
of things do you judge that person on?
What traits or aspects make an impression
on you and help you to determine what the
person is like and how you feel about that
individual?
 “Pygmalion”
Pygmalion is a comedy about a professor
who, as a kind of social experiment,
attempts to make a lady out of an
uneducated, poor flower-girl. Although not
as intellectually complex as some of
Shaw’s other plays, Pygmalion
nevertheless probes important questions
about social class, human behavior, and
relations between the sexes.
 Character Development
• Character development is the technique of
adding depth to a character in a work of
fiction through confrontations with other
characters and conflicts. Depending upon
the extent to which a character changes
as a result of these confrontations, he or
she is said to be either a static character
or a dynamic character.
• Which characters can be classified as
dynamic in this play?
 Theme
• The theme of a work of literature is a
common thread or repeated idea that is
incorporated throughout a literary work. A
theme is a thought or idea the author
presents to the reader that may be
moralistic. Generally, a theme has to be
extracted as the reader explores the entire
work.
• What are some of the themes you see
throughout Pygmalion?
 Satire
• Satire is a literary technique that dates
back to ancient Greek and Roman drama.
It combines humor with criticism to expose
flaws and shortcomings in institutions or
human beings.
• What do you believe is the target of
Shaw’s satire in this play?
 Irony
• Irony is a literary element in which words are
used in such a way that their intended
meaning is different from the actual meaning.
It may also be a situation that may end up in
quite a different way than what is generally
anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference
between the appearance and the reality.
• What ironic moments can you identify within
this play?
• About the Play:
Pygmalion takes place in London, England
in the early 1900’s. There was a strong
class system in existence at this time and
it is portrayed in the play. Because of the
large variation of education between the
class systems, there were many different
ways of speaking in London at the time, or
many different dialects. This is the basis of
the play Pygmalion: the differences in
class system and they way people speak
and are judged by their speech.
• About the Characters:
There are three main characters within this
play: Professor Henry Higgins, Eliza
Doolittle, & Colonel Pickering. Here is a
little information on each of them.
• Colonel Pickering studies language and
phonetics and he is part of the upper
class. He is first seen as “Gentleman” in
the play.
• Higgins is first seen in the play as
“Notetaker” but we soon come to find out
his identity through dialogue. He is a
professor of phonetics which means he
studies and is an expert of people’s
speech patterns. He is of the middle class.
• Eliza Doolittle is a very poor and dirty
flower seller who belongs to the lower
class. She is first seen as “Flower Girl”
• This play is very representational of how
Shaw perceived the social and economical
class system in London during his years
there, but it is also somewhat of a comedy.
Higgins is a very sarcastic, dry witted man
who has an answer for everything.
Matched up with the whiny ignorance of
Eliza, there are many comedic scenes.
 “Pygmalion”
The title of the play comes from the myth of
Pygmalion, from the Greek playwright Ovid's
Metamorphoses.
In Ovid's tale, Pygmalion is a man disgusted with
real-life women who chooses celibacy and the
pursuit of an ideal woman, whom he carves out
of ivory. Wishing the statue were real, he makes
a sacrifice to Aphrodite, who brings the statue to
life.
• About the Movie:
Pygmalion was adapted in a very popular
movie version entitled My Fair Lady in
1956. The movie version, which is a
musical and a little different from the play,
stars Audrey Hepburn and won 8
Academy Awards the year it came out.
Famous songs from the movie version
include, “The Rain in Spain,” I Could Have
Danced All Night,” and “On the Street
Where You live.”
• Many movies and tv shows today use this
play as a reference or basis for current
ideas. Pretty woman is based on this play
and even Family Guy has spoofed
Pygmalion .
 “Pygmalion”
Pygmalion takes place in
London, England in the
early 1900’s. It provides
a glimpse of what city life
was like at the time, as
well as a glimpse of the
class system that existed
at this time.
 British Class System
in the early 1900’s
In addition to the differences in wealth
and social status between the middle
and upper class there was also a huge
difference in education which created a
large gap between these two classes.
The working class of England spoke in
varying accents which were called
dialects. A person’s dialect was a dead
giveaway as to where a person lived.
 Characters
• Colonel Pickering – first introduced to us as
“The Gentleman” Colonel Pickering is a very
wealthy man. He is not royalty, but he is
amongst the highest class of English society.
• Prof. Henry Higgins – first introduced to us
as “The Note-taker” Higgins is a highly
educated and wealthy man, Prof of
phonetics.
• Eliza – first introduced to us as “The Flower
girl” she is very poor and uneducated and
has a horrendous dialect.
 ACT II
• Why has Eliza come to Higgins’ home? What
is it that Eliza wants to achieve?
• What bet do Pickering and Higgins make?
• What role does Mrs. Pearce play in this Act?
What are her three major concerns about
Eliza staying in Higgins’ home?
• Describe Higgins’ treatment of Eliza. Does
Eliza understand Higgins’ sarcasm and
insults?
• What role does Pickering serve in this odd
duo? Why is his character necessary?
 The Doolittle Scene
1) Why does Doolittle come to Higgins’
home? What is it that he wants?
2) What is Higgins’ impression of Doolittle?
What does he think of him?
3) What is the relationship between Eliza
and her father like? How does she feel
about him and vice versa?
 Doolittle
• How would you sum up the creed of
Eliza's father, the dustman Alfred
Doolittle?
• What does he have against "middle-class
morality," and why?
• Why do you believe Shaw included the
Doolittle character in the play? What
purpose does he serve?
 ACT IV: Turning Point
Act IV marks a pivotal point in the play for
our main character, Eliza Doolittle. In a
writing of two well thought out paragraphs,
explain what makes this scene the climax of
the play and then analyze Eliza’s mental
state and make a prediction of what she will
choose to do in the final Act. Use specific
lines from the play that helped you to come
to this conclusion. Be specific in your
prediction of her actions.
 Conclusion
• How has becoming Middle Class affected
Doolittle? (List at least 3 ways)
• What does Eliza thank Pickering for in Act V
and why do you think she feels the need to
credit him with this?
• What does Eliza say she wants from Higgins?
• What sort of relationship does Higgins want
with Eliza?
• From the limited information given to us at the
end of the play, what can you assume becomes
of Eliza’s life?
 Writing
Analyze Eliza as a dynamic character and
then decided whether you believe Higgins
is a static character or a dynamic
character and explain why. Make sure to
use specific evidence from the play and
refer to specific actions and scenes.
 Final Thoughts
After reading “Pygmalion” and seeing the
path that each of the characters follows,
what can be learned from this play? What
do you think the moral of the play is? In
your own words, explain what you think
the message of this play is, and explain
where in the play you developed the idea
from. What characters or actions can we
see this message in?