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Comparing Pygmalion And The Makeover By George Bernard Shaw

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In Pygmalion and The Makeover, a lower-class person desires to move up the social ladder in order to land a better job; the individual seeks assistance in the areas of class, pronunciation, and speech from two experts. Throughout both stories, the person receives a complete makeover of their appearance and behavior. However, the two stories differ in context and in certain plot elements. In Pygmalion, a play written by George Bernard Shaw, Eliza Doolittle is poor girl selling flowers on the street, but she desires to work in a flower shop like a proper lady. Due to her poor upbringing, she has little manners and a horrible accent that is hardly comprehensible. One rainy night, Eliza is selling flowers and runs into Freddy Eynsford Hill and his family. She also meets Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering, a linguist of Indian …show more content…

One of the most obvious being the difference in gender of the characters; the sexes and names of the characters have been changed. Pygmalion occurs in London during the 1800s while The Makeover is set in Boston during modern times. Even though both Elliot and Eliza approach Higgins for lessons, Elliot is deceived by Higgins. Elliot believes he is being prepared to become a representative for his beer company when, in fact, he is being prepared for Congress. Eliza is transformed into a duchess while Elliot is converted into a politician. Throughout the story, Hannah Higgins also begins to be change by Elliot while Henry remains the same arrogant snob he was in the beginning. In The Makeover, Hannah is the only one to fall in love with Elliot, and they end up being together. In contrast, Henry and Pickering both become infatuated with Eliza, but she chooses to run off with Freddy instead. All in all, both stories contain the central theme of social climbing and transformation, but plot differences distinguish

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