Pygmalion

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Pygmalion

• the Sequel and
• Conclusion

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11/23 Class Discussion Questions (2)

• 3. Everyone Which endings do you like that of
  Act V, of the Postscript, of the film, or the
  musical My Fair Lady? What meanings does the
  ending produce for the whole text
• as a Pygmalion (creation/transformation)
  story,
• as a story of a self-made woman
• (re. education),
• as a comedy of manners?

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The Sequel

• Romance, Elizas decision Higgins
• Consequences Elizas and Freddys marriage and
  families, their residence and livelihood, their
  education.
• Clara
• ? Do you agree with Shaw?

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Starting Questions

• In what ways does the Sequel revise Pygmalion
  as a romance? Or deny that it is a romance?
• What are the reasons added here against Elizas
  staying with Higgins as a soul mate?

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1. Conventions of Romance Denied

• 1. Our imaginations have been enfeebled by their
  dependence on the ready-mades and reach-me-downs
  (made for nobody in particular) of the ragshop in
  which Romance keeps its stock of "happy endings"
  to misfit all stories.
• 2. Elizas transformation Not an uncommon story.
• 3. Does the hero have to marry the heroine? (Do
  the married couple live happily ever after?)
• 4. Eliza and Freddys marriage and their shop.

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2. Factors in Elizas Decision

• Elizas Status
• (111) Her decision depends on whether she is
  really free to choose. She is, since she is
  young and pretty.
• Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry Higgins.
  It does not tell her to give him up. What does
  this mean?
• Higgins
• His love of his Mother
• Typical of an imaginative boy with an
  intelligent and graceful mother. (112)
• Leads to a disengagement of his affections, his
  sense of beauty, and his idealism from his
  specifically sexual impulses
• b. His interest in Milton and the Universal
  Alphabet (113)

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2. Factors in Elizas Decision

• 2. Higgins 113
• her resentment of Higgins's domineering
  superiority,
• her mistrust of his coaxing cleverness in getting
  round her and evading her wrath when he had gone
  too far with his impetuous bullying.
• (113) Eliza and Freddy
• He is a gentleman
• He is weak, thus attracted to Eliza as a strong
  woman.
• (conclusion 115 Will she look forward to a
  lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a
  lifetime of Freddy fetching hers? Unless
  Freddy is biologically repulsive to her . . .)
  
• Do you agree with Elizas or with Shaws
  reasons?

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Do you want to marry one that is weaker than you,
or stronger? (ref. p. 114)

• When a lion meets another with a louder roar "the
  first lion thinks the last a bore." The man or
  woman who feels strong enough for two, seeks for
  every other quality in a partner than strength.
• weak people want to marry strong people who do
  not frighten them too much and this often leads
  them to make the mistake we describe
  metaphorically as "biting off more than they can
  chew."

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2. Factors in Elizas Decision

• Kates personal views
• Agree-- strength not the most important factor
• 1. There is a lot to consider in choosing ones
  spouse. (Besides love, pattern of relationship,
  status, sexual attraction, money, ones age and
  the choices available.)
• 2. Eliza should not stay with one who is
  domineering and refusing to change.
• Disagree
• Does the strong one really want to marry a weak
  one? Or maybe there is attraction of two who are
  congenial to but different from each other.
• Why are there just these two choices for Eliza?
  Couldnt she work and wait a bit? (But at that
  time staying single may not be a choice for
  her.)
• Why is there only description of Elizas secret
  affection for Higgins (124), but not the other
  way around?

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Higgins Secret Affection

• For his mother? (Oedipal attachment to his
  mother)
• For Pickering?
• There is no absolute difference between
  homosexuality and homosociality esp. at a time
  when sex was a taboo.

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2. Consequences

• Money
• Freddy no money, no job.
• Doolittle not willing to offer support.
• Honeymoon would have been penniless without Ps
  support
• Uses the gift of 500 pounds for a long time
  keeps getting supported by the two bachelors
• Residence
• Considers living with the two bachelors
• Occupation
• Opens a flower shop with the support of
  Pickering. (117)
• Finally earning money.
• Education (122) (to write, shorthands and
  polytechnic (??) class
• Not really helpful.

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Elizas Relation with Higgins after her marriage

• Still lives in Wimpole Street still nagging
• Still jealous of other women
• Cannot become a professional phonetician (no
  right to meddle with his knowledge.
• her secret wish to be alone on a "desert island"
  with Higgins to seduce him.

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Clara

• 1. changed under the influence of Elizas
  transformation, H. G. Wells and the novelist
  Galsworthy to realize the vanity and unimportance
  of her class
• 2. works at a furniture store.

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Conclusion

1. Pygmalion Romance
2. Comedy of Manners -- Language and the Other
   Social Markers//Appearance vs. Reality
3. Pronunciation, Handwriting, Dress, manners,
   interest,
4. Marriage and Family
5. Morality Class-bound? Prudery made fun of.
6. Class Differences Social Mobility
7. The ways upper class is presented useless or
   fashionable
8. The background Shaw offers (in Act I and the
   Sequel) of social climbing
9. Elizas, Doolittles and Claras different kinds
   of changes
10. Scientific Creation, Education Human Concern
11. Professionalism (with Ideals) Higgins vs.
    Nepommuck
12. The Roles of Money
13. Respect for others

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Conclusion (2)

• 5. Other Possible Readings (For your reference
  ONLY)
• -- Higgins as one suffering from Aspergers
  syndrome (a kind of autism) (Weintraub)
• --Aspergen has difficulties in social
  interaction, lacks empathy, or has difficulties
  with it, has trouble with social role-taking and
  has unusual responses to the environment similar
  to those in autism. --can achieve success in
  some specialized academic subjects. E.g.
  computer programmers, dentists, scientists.
• -- examples
• of Higgins insensitivity to Elizas feelings Act
  II
• of his rude social behavior, lack of manners
  Acts I III
• of his exclusive interest in languages and
  accents

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Do you agree?

• Class
• -- Eliza The difference between a lady and a
  flower girl is not how she behaves, but how's
  she's treated.
• -- Higgins The great secret, Eliza, is not
  having bad manners or good manners or any other
  particular sort of manners, but having the same
  manner for all human souls in short, behaving as
  if you were in Heaven, where there are no
  third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as
  another. (1236) --generalization
• Manners
• -- Peoples saying what they think they
  ought to think is bad enough, Lord knows but
  what they really think would break up the whole
  show. . . . We are all savages . . . (Act 3)
• Life
• -- What is life but a series of inspired
  follies? (Act 2) rhetorical questions
• -- If you cant appreciate what youve got, youd
  better get what you can appreciate. (Act 5)
  sententia (????,??see Notes)

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Notes Sequel

• H. G. Wells (who influences Clara) a socialist
  and Utopia novelist (work The Time Machine)
• Passionate concern for society led Wells to join
  the socialist Fabian Society in London, but he
  soon quarreled with the society's leaders, among
  them George Bernard Shaw.
• Kew Gardens (p. 122 Combination of London School
  and Kew Gardens) -- the Royal Botanic Gardens
• Nell Gwynne (1650-1687)-- who originally sold
  oranges in the precincts of the Drury Lane
  Theatre
• -- became an actress at the age of only fifteen
• -- became the mistress of King Charles II,
• from 1670 until his death, and
• thus popular to the public.

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Good Luck for your Midterm Exam (2)!!!