Pygmalion

1
Pygmalion

• Act II Act III (Part I)
• Elizas Education
• Purposes and Manners

2
Act II Elizas Education

• 0. Education (1) Higgins as a Scientist
• Education (2) Purposes-- Who Wants it, why and
  how?
• The Views of Elizas Education
• Education (3) Mr. Doolittle as a foil, who does
  not want improvement
• Education (4) Comedy of Manners
• Pronunciation, Rhetoric and Comic Elements
• Act III Characters and Manners

Education
3
11/14 Class Discussion Questions --Act II
On Act II III Post your group responses before
class

• Group 11 12 Stage Direction (Act II) ? What
  does the stage description on pp. 26-26 reveal
  more about Higgins? Do you find him a likeable
  person? Can you recreate the scene in class (on
  your ppt)?
• Group 9 10 Theme Elizas Education What do
  Mrs. Pearces Pickerings cautions against
  Higgins say about themselves and about Higgins?
  Which do you agree with more?

4
1. Stage Directions ?Characters Higgins vs. the
Others

1. What does the stage description on pp. 26-26
   reveal more about Higgins?  

5
Setting Higgins

• a fireplace, leather-covered easy-chair at the
  side of the hearth nearest the door, and a
  coal-scuttle a clock on the mantelpiece a stand
  for newspapers.
• a telephone and the telephone directory. a grand
  piano,
• On the piano is a dessert dish heaped with fruit
  and sweets, mostly chocolates.
• Eliza ostrich feathers in orange, sky-blue, and
  red

6
Setting (1184-85) a scientists room

• two tall file cabinets
• on the writing table a phonograph, a
  laryngoscope??, a row of tiny organ pipes with a
  bellows??, a set of lamp chimneys????????? for
  singing flames with burners attached to a gas
  plug in the wall by an india rubber tube, several
  tuning-forks of different sizes,
• a life-size image of half a human head, showing
  in section the vocal organs,
• a box containing a supply of wax cylinders for
  the phonograph.
• On the walls, engravings mostly Piranesis and
  mezzotint (????) portraits. No paintings. (a
  contrast to Mrs. Higgins)

7
Art works in Higgins Living Room

• Giovanni Battista Piranesis Etching (source
  Wikipedia)

• mezzotint (????) portrait

8
Stage Direction ? Higgins

• Well-off, a lot of furniture, etchings but not
  paintings
• Scientific a lot of machines in his drawing
  room.
• a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of
  forty or thereabouts
• a professional-looking black frock-coat
• heartily, even violently interested in
  everything that can be studied as a scientific
  subject
• careless about himself and other people,
  including their feelings.
• Childish described as babylike twice sweets
• like a very impetuous baby "taking notice"
  eagerly and loudly upon seeing Eliza
  baby-like, making an intolerable grievance of it
• so entirely frank and void of malice that he
  remains likeable even in his least reasonable
  moments.
• GBSs bias for Higgins.

9
2. Characters in a Tug of War (1) Higgins vs.
the Other 3 Characters

• i. What does Eliza want to achieve? 
• And how about Higgins? 

10
Discussion as a tug of war (pp. 27-37) H winning
1. Higgins not interested ? 2. Eliza makes a move with money offered
3. Higgins on money ? 4. Eliza shocked by the idea of paying 60 pounds ? in tears (But I ain't got sixty pounds.)? keeps handkerchief
5. Pickering provides an incentive (31)? Higgins gets carried away ? 6. Eliza shocked and hurt
7. Intervention (1) by Pearce and Pickering (32) ?Higgins softens 8. Higgins rhetoric confuses Eliza ? makes her way to leave (33)
9. H persuasion (1) Higgins stops her, and, knowing that she does not have parents, asks to take her upstairs 10. Intervention (2) (34) Whats to become of her shes got feelings? H throw her out ? ? Eliza rejecting (1) (35) ?
11. Higgins persuasion (2) with chocolate, taxi, gold and diamond (35) Intervention (3) by Pearce and Pickering (36) her future ?
12. Higgins clarifies the deal (36) ? Eliza, I wont stay if I dont like taken upstairs wont go near the king...
11
Battle of willtug of war (1)
12
Battle of willtug of war (1)

13. Higgins clarifies the deal 1) having your
head cut off as penalty 2) 7 and 6 pence as award
13
Eliza to be a lady in a flower shop
Theme (1) Education Theme (2) Scientific
Ideal vs. Human Caution
14
11/14 Class Discussion Questions --Act II
On Act II III Post your group responses before
class

• Group 7 8 Mr. Doolittle (Act II) Language and
  Rhetoric What are the rhetorical skills used by
  Mr. Doolittle?
• Why are his statements funny?
• Choose 2 of his ideas and 1 of Higgins and
  discuss how you agree and/or disagree with them.

15
Mr. Doolittle Another Way of Life

• Work Fun He drinks, does his job (as a navvy,
  unskilled laborer or digger, ??) only once in a
  while, and tries to get money out of others. (53)
  So he is a disgrace to Eliza.
• Honest He is straightforward (after the first
  trick of claiming to get his daughter back
  fails) about what he wants, about his being
  undeserving. (48-50)
• Not Greedy He will make good use of the 5
  pounds, and does not want more.
• Just one good spree (??) for myself and the
  missus, There won't be a penny of it left by
  Monday I'll have to go to work same as if I'd
  never had it. It won't pauperize me
• 10 pounds will make him prudent like.

16
Education (3) Morality vs. Mr. Doolittle

• Mr. Doolittle a reversal of Victorian morality.
  
• His View about Marriage and Family
• Does not want to protect his daughter wants
  money for drinking.
• Feel bound to his woman because they are
  unmarried  
• Money happy with 5 pounds
• His Rhetoric-- Higgins finds his argument
  irresistible (p.50). How about you?

17
Act II Pattern

• Two Parts two verbal encounter (or fights)
  showing Eliza vs. Higgins Higgins vs.
  Doolittle
• Similarities discussion with Higgins which is
  similar to a tug of war,
• Intention Both Eliza and Doolittle go there
  desiring something, but almost fail to get it.
• Contradictions (in action or in words) Eliza
  wants both to leave and to stay Doolittle is all
  talk.
• Higgins willful, getting what he wants and
  paying when he likes to.
• Major Difference Eliza wants education, while
  Doolittle wants only money.

18
Pygmalion
Class Mobility vs. Relative Opposition between
Middle () and Lower Classes (-)
19
Education (4) The Comical The Play as a Comedy
of Manners

• The comical Manners or lack of it shown to an
  absurd degree to reveal human foibles.
• Lack of it Elizas responses and her Ah-ooo.
• Higgins exaggerated manners (42) his dialogue
  with Mrs. Pearce (Only this morning, sir, you
  applied it dirty word to your boots, to the
  butter, and to the brown bread) his treatment
  of Eliza.
• The use rhetoric e.g.
• pp. 47-48 Mr. Doolittles Governor. Well, what's
  a five pound note to you? And what's Eliza to me?

20
Doolittles Use of Rhetoric

• Review of Bro. Kosss Points ingratiating,
  negotiating, self-asserting, being honest, using
  parallelism rhetoric questions
• pp. 48-49 being undeserving poor I'm playing
  straight with you. I ain't pretending to be
  deserving. I'm undeserving and I mean to go on
  being undeserving. I like it and that's the
  truth. Will you take advantage of a man's nature
  to do him out of the price of his own daughter
  what he's brought up and fed and clothed by the
  sweat of his brow until she's growed big enough
  to be interesting to you two gentlemen? Is five
  pounds unreasonable? I put it to you and I leave
  it to you.
• HIGGINS rising, and going over to Pickering
  Pickering if we were to take this man in hand
  for three months, he could choose between a seat
  in the Cabinet and a popular pulpit in Wales.
• PICKERING What do you say to that, Doolittle?

21
Higgins Proverbs

• Woman (41)-- I find that the moment I let a woman
  make friends with me, she becomes jealous,
  exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I
  find that the moment I let myself make friends
  with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical.
  Women upset everything. When you let them into
  your life, you find that the woman is driving at
  one thing and youre driving at another.
• (re. Elizas education) Ambition in Life
• (31) -- What is life but a series of inspired
  follies? The difficulty is to find them to do.
  Never lose a chance it doesnt come every day. I
  shall make a duchess of this draggle-tailed
  guttersnipe.

22
Higgins Proverbs

• 36 -- do any of us understand what we are doing?
  If we did, would we ever do it?
• 42-- Take care of the pence and the pounds will
  take care of themselves is as true of personal
  habits as of money. (????????,????????,????)
• 61-62 -- "we're all savages" speech. 

23

11/14 Class Discussion Questions --Act III
On Act II III Post your group responses before
class

• Group 5 6 (Act III) How does Mrs. Higgins
  look at Higgins experiment differently from
  Higgins and Pickering?
• Group 3 4 Stage Direction (Act III)? What does
  it reveal about Mrs. Higgins. Again, try to
  recreate the setting.
• Group 1 2 Education and Manners What has she
  achieved in the first part of Act 3 (the at-home
  party), and where does she fall short? Any
  interesting plot reversals? (67 68-70) How do
  they shed light on Victorian manners?

24
Mr. Higgins vs Mrs. Higgins Rooms

• Instruments file cabinet
• a life-size image of Human head with vocal cord
• Portraits
• engravings

• Morris wallpaper
• chintz (????) window curtains

Giovanni Battista Piranesi
25
Mrs. Higgins Room Painting and Nature

• Burne Jones paintings
• Cecil Lawson landscape painting,
• three windows looking on the river
• A balcony with flowers in pots

26
Mrs. Higgins Room Well-Designed Furniture
There is a Chippendale chair further back in the
room between her and the window nearest her side.
At the other side of the room, further forward,
is an Elizabethan chair roughly carved in the
taste of Inigo Jones.

• Chippendale chair--chair made by or in the style
  of Thomas Chippendale (1718?-79), English
  cabinetmark and influenced to some extent by
  Louis XV.
• Elizabethan (Indigo Jones) chair

27
Mrs. Higgins

• Wise and with more sense of style, or taste
• brought up on Morris and Burne Jones once
  rebellious
• There is a portrait of Mrs. Higgins as she was
  when she defied fashion in her youth in one of
  the beautiful Rossettian costumes which, when
  caricatured by people who did not understand, led
  to the absurdities of popular estheticism in the
  eighteen-seventies.
• Cares about social occasion such as at-home tea
  party and its proper manners

28
Mrs. Higgins blue and white Arts and Crafts
garden Room

Image source http//www.rosso-ubarri.com/blog/
29
Higgins about His Mother

• Emotionally attached obedient to his mother.
  (58)
• His idea of a loveable woman something as like
  you as possible young women all idiots
• MRS. HIGGINS. Do you know what you would do if
  you really loved me, Henry?  
• HIGGINS. Oh bother! What? Marry, I suppose?
• MRS. HIGGINS. No. Stop fidgeting and take your
  hands out of your pockets. With a gesture of
  despair, he obeys and sits down again. Thats a
  good boy. Now tell me about the girl.

30
Higgins Manners

• His rudeness pp. 59-63
• to Mrs. Eynsford Hill I havent the ghost of a
  notion where but Ive heard your voice.
  Drearily It doesnt matter. Youd better sit
  down. (59)
• To Pickering -- over his shoulder We were
  interrupted damn it! (60)
• To Freddie -- looking at him much as if he were
  a pickpocket (61)
• Curses coarse movements (63)

HIGGINS suddenly By George, yes it all comes
back to me! They stare at him. Covent Garden!
Lamentably What a damned thing! MRS HIGGINS
Henry, please! He is about to sit on the edge of
the table. Don't sit on my writing-table You'll
break it. HIGGINS sulkily Sorry. He goes to
the divan, stumbling into the fender and over the
fire-irons on his way extricating himself with
muttered imprecations and finishing his
disastrous journey by throwing himself so
impatiently on the divan that he almost breaks
it. Mrs. Higgins looks at him, but controls
herself and says nothing.
31
Higgins His Frankness

• (61)
• What one really thinks--not decent
• HIGGINS What they think they ought to think is
  bad enough, Lord knows but what they really
  think would break up the whole show. Do you
  suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to
  come out now with what I really think?
• MISS EYNSFORD HILL gaily Is it so very cynical?
• HIGGINS. Cynical! Who the dickens said it was
  cynical? I mean it wouldn't be decent.
• MRS EYNSFORD HILL seriously Oh! I'm sure you
  don't mean that, Mr. Higgins.
• We not civilized
• We can be pretentious in small talks, while not
  really knowing the subjects (e.g. of poetry,
  science, medicine, etc.)

we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed
to be civilized and culturedto know all about
poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so
on but how many of us know even the meanings of
these names?
32
1. Characters and Manners

• iii. Elizas Performances The Eynsford Hills
  Responses

33
Elizas Performances

• Higgins work I've taught her to speak properly
  and she has strict orders as to her behavior.
  She's to keep to two subjects the weather and
  everybody's health (58)
• -- how she pronounces, but not what she
  pronounces
• Mrs. Higgins comments (pp. 58-59) (outsides vs.
  insides)
• Eliza (62-65)
• Weather like weather forecast
• Aunt sb did her in --Higgins new small talk
• Fatherchronically drunk Wives getting their
  husbands drunk to make them fit to live with.

Ha! ha! how awfully funny!
puzzled Done her in?
How dreadful for you!
sniggering
34
Freddy, Mrs. Eynsford Hill Clara Stage
Direction

• Freddy shaking hands with Mrs. Higgins Ahdedo?
• --forced and unnatural pronunciation
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill The mother is well bred,
  quiet, and has the habitual anxiety of straitened
  means.(59)
• Clara The daughter has acquired a gay air of
  being very much at home in society the bravado
  of genteel poverty.

35
Freddy, Mrs. Eynsford Hill Clara Their
Responses

• Freddy infatuated, not comprehending. (63)
• Clara needs to be in the marriage market ?
  eager to please others and follow the trends
• To her mother if you are not used to the small
  talk, People will think we never go anywhere or
  see anybody if you are so old-fashioned.
• ' Nobody means anything by it. It's so quaint,
  and gives such a smart emphasis to things that
  are not in themselves very witty. I find the new
  small talk delightful and quite innocent' (66)
• Rejects early Victorian prudery (67)
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill
• not used to Claras talking about men as
  rotters, and calling everything filthy and
  beastly (65)
• cannot take Elizas.

36

Lets Take a Break
10 30 1045 Break 1045 1100 Group !

37
11/14 Every Group
About the story you chose, or Pygmalion
Finalized Script

• What is the theme and main message of your work,
  as opposed to the original one? (They can be the
  same.)
• Which scene do you want to focus on in your text?
  How do you skip some?
• How much dialogue? Among whom? Are you going to
  fill out the gaps in the original texts?
• Setting location and main props
• Line Reading

38
3. Review Education the Characters

• Eliza, Higgins, Pickering and Mrs. Pearce What
  do they each want or care about?
• What are the threes influences on Eliza?

39
Higgins and Elizas Desires

• Higgins
• 1) described as a baby twice
• 2) bad-tempered impetuous, but likable (?)
• 3) Only scientific interest in humans (as accent
  27) not interested in Eliza before 1) Elizas
  offer 2) Pickerings bet.
• 4) Takes up the challenge (to turn a
  draggletailed guttersnipe ??????????(??)?????i
  nto a lady) without consideration of human
  feelings.

• Eliza
• Wants to sell flowers in a flower shop
• Willing to spend 2/5 of her income to do so.
• Cannot fully comprehend all of whats been
  discussed.
• (35) Refuses to be bullied insists on her right.
  
• (37) repeatedly asserts herself with the limited
  language she has or learns on the spot (e.g.
  good girl has feelings).

40
Pearces and Pickerings Cautions
Higgins elated with the idea and his elocution -- You can adopt her. -- She can return to the gutter. -- Have some chocolate. -- Does not think E has feelings or understand anything.(35) -- Does not want to think about consequences.(36) -- cannot stand women. Pearce practical (34) -- where to put her -- He does not know her family -- Whats to become of her -- Her status in the house -- Youre tempting the girl.
Higgins elated with the idea and his elocution -- You can adopt her. -- She can return to the gutter. -- Have some chocolate. -- Does not think E has feelings or understand anything.(35) -- Does not want to think about consequences.(36) -- cannot stand women. Pickering (36, 40)sympathetic but interested in the experiment -- places the bet -- the girl has feelings -- woman not be violated
41
Three Pygmalions (pp. 40-43)
Act 3 p. 69 pronunciation and cultural taste
p. 39. Clean and respectable lady
42
Summary Their Influences on Eliza

• Higgins analysis training scolding
• Mrs. Pearce not just a housekeeper, but a
  mother figure in this house.
• Higgins Here I am, a shy, diffident sort of
  man. Ive never been able to feel really grown-up
  and tremendous, like other chaps. (43)
• Bathing and dressing her properly
• (1195-96) Asks Higgins to behave himself in
  language (not to swear), dressing, table
  manners(to wipe his hands on his dressing gown),
  etc, in front of Eliza.
• Pickering
• Offers a spiritual support (54-55) like a buffer
  zone between the two.
• Teaches her self-respect-- courteous, calls Eliza
  Ms. Doolittle (29 36 53)

43
Elizas Education

• From Rags to Riches-- The First Few Things she
  learns
• Material base the advantage of bathing wearing
  night gown
• Self-Image the Mirror ? needs to get used to it
  (? Self-image, vanity, sexual identity)
• Self-Respect being called Miss Doolittle (53)
  it sounded so genteel.
• something to shew (snobbery)
• Take a taxi to put the girls in their place a
  bit. I wouldnt speak to them, you know.
• the fashionable (53)
• 5. Pronunciation (54)

44
6. Overview Emerging General Issues

• Class differences and social mobility
• How are class differences marked? ? And changed?
• Money, dresses, boots, whistle sound, taxi.
• Language Accent ? Place (Lisson Grove, Wimpole
  Street, Earlscourt, etc.) rooms
• Jobs (flower girl, dustman) and activities
  (drinking, theatre-going, at-home day, parties)
  
• Ways of survival and sense of Morality
• a woman or ladys positions e.g. Eliza, Clara,
  Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Pearce and Mrs Eynsford Hill
• Transformation Class Mobility Eliza, Mr.
  Doolittle, The Eynsford Hills.

Appearance manners
Reality
45
Overview Emerging General Issues

• 4. The play as a comedy of manners
• 5. The play as a romance vs. gender relations
• How does Shaw re-define romance?
• Changes of Elizas relations with Higgins
• "that thing," "insect" "squashed cabbage leave"
  draggle-tailed guttersnipe

46
Plot Development

• Acts III V a series of transformation and
  reversals

III Eliza on the rise (princess) the beginning of Claras education
IV No longer an artificial duchess, Eliza leaves Wimpole, changing to walking dress.
V Elizas argument with Higgins on equal positionanother tug of war Mr. Doolittles transformation
Se-quel Eliza Higgins, Freddie Eliza Higgins. Claras changes
47

See you next time!!!

48
Next Time

• Read Act III (pp. 71-87) Act V
• Answer 1 question online and in class
• the script finalwith all the lines ready and
  stage directionsideas about stage prop (Act II
  III, split stage?) subtitles?
• 11/28 noon -- theatre meeting with the backstage
  crew

49
11/21 Class Discussion Questions
On Act III Post your group responses before class

• Characters Manners
• Group 9 10 Elizas Education What has she
  achieved respectively in the two parts of Act 3,
  and where does she fall short?
• Group 11 12 Any interesting plot reversals?
  (67 68-70 75)
• Group 5 6 What do they shed light on Victorian
  manners?
• Group 3 4 The original theatrical version does
  not show the climatic scene of the Embassys
  party. Do you know why?

50

11/21 Class Discussion Questions
On Act IV Post your group responses before class

• Group 7 8 Scientific Creation vs. Human
  Concern
• i. Higgins, Pickering Eliza Why is Eliza
  angry at the beginning of Act IV?
• Why are Higgins or Pickering ignorant about it?
• What are the clues to their lack of
  comprehension?
• ii. Higgins Eliza What do you think about the
  fight between the two? What does Eliza want and
  can Higgins come to terms with her? What do they
  each care about? Where are the turning points in
  their dialogue? Are there signs of affection?
• Group 1 2 What about Freddy? Is he Elizas
  Way Out? Arent their meeting and kisses at
  night dangerous or scandalous?

51
11/21 Class Discussion Questions for all

1. Now with the plot finalized, can you describe the
   theme of your performance?
2. How does the stage setting, or any of the props,
   help you convey the theme?
3. Character Performance one character memorizes a
   few lines to perform in class

52
Your Choices
Group 1 2 Act 5Group 3 4 Act 3Group 5
6 Act 1Group 7 8 Act 4 Group 9 10 Act 3
(At-Home Party, maybe with practice of
manners)Group 1112 Act 2
53
Mini Play Contest Tentative Schedule
Play Group
10?31? General Introd Job Division
11?7? Act I and Act II. (pp. 11-37) Character Analysis Theme
11?14? Act II III (pp. 38-71) Line Reading Creative Adaptation (script 1st draft ready)
11?21? Act III-IV (pp. 71-87 Act V) Performance Set and Prop
11?28? Act V and Postscript Theme and Overall Presentation
12?5? Mini Play PreparationPoetry I Lyric and Tone Rehearsal 12/10 (1215-330)
12?12? Performance Day
54

See you next time!!!