Pygmalion

1
Pygmalion

• By George Bernard Shaw

2
What do these stories have in common?
Pretty Woman
Shes All That
Stewie teaches Eliza how to lose her accent
3
Why the title?

• Playwright George Bernard Shaw adapted a Greek
  myth, Pygmalion into his own modern story.

4
Pygmalion The Original Myth

• Pygmalion was a sculptor from Cyprus who had no
  interest in the local women. He found them
  immoral and frivolous. Instead, he concentrated
  on his art until one day he ran across a large,
  flawless piece of ivory and decided to carve a
  beautiful woman from it.

5
Pygmalion The Original Myth

• When he had finished the statue, Pygmalion found
  it so lovely and the image of his ideal woman
  that he clothed the figure and adorned her in
  jewels. He gave the statue a name Galatea,
  sleeping love.
• He begged Aphrodite for a wife as perfect as his
  statue. She took pity on him, and allowed Galatea
  to come to life.

6
Pygmalion (play) Themes

• Roles of the Sexes What does it mean to be a
  lady or gentleman of society?
• Class Distinctions What purpose do they serve?
  How are they maintained?
• Manners Important or ridiculous?
• Personal Identity Is one what society perceives
  one to be or something controlled by the self?
• Speech What does it say about us?

7
Characters

• Henry Higgins - a phonetics expert and a
  scientist who loves anything that can be studied
  as a scientific subject.  His enthusiasm for the
  study masks his human qualities.
• Eliza Doolittle - an uneducated, streetwise
  Cockney flower girl.  Her intelligence allows her
  to recognize her self-worth and the worth of
  others.
• Alfred Doolittle - Eliza's father, "an elderly
  but vigorous dustman..." who can borrow money
  from his most miserly friends.  Doolittle
  describes himself as "the undeserving poor".
• Mrs. Higgins - Henry Higgins's  mother, kind,
  sympathetic, understands those she encounters
  well.  She is the gracious lady of the house.

8
Characters

• Frederick Eynsford Hill - Eliza Doolittle's young
  suitor from the upper class.  Freddy shows
  complete devotion throughout the play.
• Miss Clara Eynsford Hill - sister of Freddy, very
  comfortable in society, though without the wealth
  to actually support the lifestyle.
• Mrs. Eynsford Hill - mother of Freddy and Clara,
  very socially conscious and interested in those
  people her children associate with.

9
PYGMALION CHARACTERS

• Nepommuck - Henry Higgins's first language
  student, adept in several languages.
• Mrs. Pearce Henry Higgins housekeeper, a
  practical, proud woman.  Mrs. Pearce is not
  afraid of Henry, but conscious of her middle
  class status.
• Colonel Pickering - An acquaintance of
  Higgins who has lived in the British Colonies in
  India and become very adept at the Indian
  dialects.  Pickering becomes the  caring, kind
  voice in Higgins scientific experiment. He views
  Eliza Doolittle as a person worthy of respect.

10
Influences on Shaw (the author)

• The outbreak of war in 1914 changed Shaw's life.
  For Shaw, the war was a tragic waste of young
  lives under the guise of patriotism.
• He expressed his opinions in a series of
  newspaper articles but he was treated as an
  outcast, and there was even talk of his being
  tried for treason.

11
Shaws Ideology

• Shaw believed in socialist ideas. He thought
  capitalism wouldnt last, and wanted to help the
  working class achieve rights.
• He went on to revolutionize the English theater
  by concentrating his writing on various social
  issues at a time when most other playwrights were
  writing sentimental romances.