Essay on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion

ELIZA: You’re right I didn’t but you treated me as if I didn’t. You can change the appearance of Eliza but you can’t change Eliza Doolittle.

Eliza changed herself for the better. In act 5, she told the two men to start calling her “Miss Doolittle” and that was the beginning of learning her self worth. She was done being treated like a “live doll” and began to see herself like a Duchess, like Higgins

1. Shaw and Barry distinguish two different forms of utilitarianism. What are these two forms? Briefly describe each and use examples.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a play that shows a great change in the character Eliza Doolittle. As Eliza lives in poverty, she sells flowers to earn her living. Eliza does not have an education. This shows through the way that she does not have the most proper way of speaking. This happens through when Eliza is speaking to the other characters when she meets then when she is still at a low level of poverty in her life. To understand the reasons Eliza is able to change and be changed into an almost Cinderella like character. With Eliza going from and growing and changing through the hardship she faces. In the play Eliza begins with no confidence and works towards having a way to reach trough from learning during her life

One’s class would be one the greatest stereotypical perceptions pertaining to language and groups. In Shaw’s Pygmalion, the storyline starts with a horrible storm. This storm forces classes of all types to crowd together out to seek shelter. Ideally, the higher class would not be caught associating with the lower class. However, a mother sees Eliza talking with her son, Freddy, and immediately goes to investigate. As a mother of that time, it is believed that Freddy should not associate himself with someone like Eliza. Eliza Doolitttle is roughly eighteen years of age, speaks what is called ‘gutter language’, and she sells flowers illegally. Appearance and actions “…reveal speakers’ memberships in particular speech communities, social classes, ethnic and national groups” (Edwards, 21). Due to her obvious state of being lower class, a stereotype is immediately placed on her.

I believe that James Shaw is a hero in our society. I believe this because he made an act of honor. Even though there was a man that was shooting, he decided to help the man out because he was hurt. James Shaw have a family and he never want to lose his family, but he believed that helping others is good and is better than seeing someone die. Being able to help someone is courageous and a generous act. James Shaw could have let the man die or help save the man and he chose to the man out. James Shaw is someone that deserves respect and that will always have respect due to his actions of honor.

This sudden change in character shows that an upgrade in social class not only changes the way that people look at you but that it can also have many benefits as well. Going against the thesis, there is one character, Colonial Pickering. Colonial Pickering is a friend and a safe haven to Miss Doolittle. She trusts him, and with good reason, from the beginning to the end of the play, he treats her the same, like a lady. ?Colonial Pickering is a compete contrast to the character of Henry Higgins in terms of manners and behaviour. Colonial Pickering is Shaw?s evidence that wealth and poverty can mix.? (Galens and Scampinato, 245). Most characters in Pygmalion expect the rich and poor to stay separate except for the open hearted and minded, Colonial Pickering.

Higgins tries to take all of the credit for Eliza’s transformation into a lady. In his mind, Eliza did nothing and without him, she would not have been able to accomplish this task. Mr. Higgins continues to express his dominance by telling Eliza what to do even though she does not work for him. Eliza does not like the way that Mr. Higgins treats her and leaves his house, angrily. After searching for Eliza, Mr. Higgins finally finds her and tells her that he paid for her services and she needs to finish her job. In this way, he treats her as if she is

Shaw and Brecht both used invention and radical ideals as stimuli for their protagonists to radically change society’s overall perception by eliminating its inherent prejudices passed down through generations. In Galileo, the central flaw in society’s perception was that society saw the earth as the center of the universe, and it saw any challenges to this long-held belief as heresy. Galileo worked relentlessly in order to gain society’s acceptance of his profound discovery; however, he had to disprove decades of scientific theory and understanding, essentially having to work past layers of society’s thoughts and understanding of the fundamental nature of science to allow them to see the truth, independent of long-held beliefs and biases. Similarly, in Pygmalion, Higgins attempts to disprove society’s perception that the upper-class possesses an intangible intellectual property that distinguishes them from the lower-class. In this case, the fundamental flaw in society’s perception lies in the fact that society self-imposes supposedly insurmountable boundaries within itself to artificially create social hierarchy. However, Higgins disproves the existence of these boundaries by transforming Eliza, a common girl, into a duchess. This purge of society’s prejudices and biases passed down through generations essentially places society in a dynamic state of continual reform, constantly changing and evolving its perceptions.

In the movie, Higgins targeted phonological features proper of Eliza’s Cockney dialect. According to Higgins, Eliza’s accent should be modified to “transform” her into a fine lady. The undesired behavior was weakened by a series of reinforcements based on punishment and reward. Eliza was offered chocolate, for example, when she correctly pronounced a set of sentences. Once Eliza achieve the “correct” pronunciation she was offered multiple rewards. For example, she attended the Ascot Horse Race, for which she was offered a new wardrobe.

The different classes in both plays had their advantages and disadvantages; however, some classes had more benefits than others. In Pygmalion, the upper-class was the most privileged money-wise. Henry Higgins was an upper-class educated man who had quite a reputation and enough money to take on the challenge of transforming Eliza, a lower-class woman, into an upper-class citizen. As a member of the upper-class, Higgins had access to “chocolates, and taxis, and gold, and diamonds” that members of the lower-class didn’t necessarily have (Shaw 19). These objects are associated with

She is there to take lessons for her speech. Colonel Pickering offers to pay full expenses for Higgins to tun Eliza into a lady and pass her off as a duchess. Higgins accepts.

In the Victorian England period, how a person is viewed by society determines everything. What kind of jobs are available, who it is ok to marry, and even who is acceptable to interact with. How a person is viewed can change their life for better or for worse, and sadly women during this period must work twice as hard as their male counterparts to get the crucial social respect needed to succeed in their societies. How a person appears and how they dress plays a big part on how someone is viewed, but flower-girl-turned-duchess Eliza Doolittle must learn the hard way that just because a person fits the outside criteria of a lady does not exactly mean she would be treated as so, by society and most of all her mentor Henry Higgins. Throughout the play, Pygmalion, By George Bernard Shaw, the author makes the theme of prejudice against women very apparent by the way they are treated in society and the unreasonable expectations they are held up to, making it very difficult for women like Eliza Doolittle to move up in society and be seen as equal in the eyes of those above them.

All throughout the play, Higgins behave rude with Eliza. Eliza, in the last act as a representative of all women trapped in patriarchal setup says the below quote to Higgins, who is the representative of all the patriarchal men in the

Social standing is central to the plot of George Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”. The portrayal of class identity in Shaw’s play appears to be a criticism of the distinctions between high society and the poorer classes in Victorian England. Shaw’s aim was to portray how the upper-crust of Victorian society viewed the lower classes, as evidenced by Higgins’ treatment of Eliza upon her first visit to his laboratory; Higgins treats her as though she is too stupid to understand that he is insulting her. The assumption is that the wealthy view the lower classes as being somehow lesser. So what is it that Shaw is trying to impart upon the reader? Shaw appeared to show open disdain not just for the upper class of society but for society in general, and Pygmalion may be interpreted as an open criticism of class distinctions in Victorian England.