Pygmalion was a mythological character who liked to sculpture. He made a statue of his ideal woman - Galatea. The statue was so beautiful that he prayed to the gods it would be brung to life , his wish was granted.
Have you ever had to learn how to speak fluently, in a brand new language that you are not used to ? This is one of many problems for a flower girl Eliza Doolittle. In this story Professor Henry Higgins makes a bet that he would get her to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility , the most important element of which, he thinks, is impeccable speech. Throughout the play, many characters develop new problems and they all tie into each other. Since Eliza is the newest character
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At first he shows her that he has no interest in helping her with this transformation, then he eventually came around to accepting because his friend made it more of a challenge that he could not do it. The first thing he does is welcomes her into her new home as she will be staying with him for 6 months to see if she can actually change before she can make it to London to pose as the Queen. Next , she is given a bath and starts to scream like she is being tortured, this is because she has never had to be washed up because she lived in such a poor place before. Now , everyone around her must use proper language all the time so that she will know to never break this habit of using slang and sounds to speak with people. Eliza’s father ; Alfred Doolittle now enters the play , the main reason is because he wants to get money out of Mr.Higgins. He doesn't seem to care about his daughter's welfare , only himself. He views himself as a member of the undeserving poor, and means to go on being undeserving. With his intelligent mind and not having much of an education, he has an eccentric view of life. He is also aggressive, and when Eliza, sticks her tongue out at him, he goes to hit her, but gets stopped by Pickering (The closest thing Pygmalion has to a father figure. He's a genial
Eliza now has two suitors; one who is staid and reserved and one who is amiable and gay. While Mr. Boyer sees Eliza as a woman with “an accomplished mind and polished manner”, it is Sanford’s view of Eliza’s exuberant nature that ensures her downfall (10). In Major Sanford’s letter to Charles Deighton, he sees Eliza as a conquest. He writes that she is “an elegant partner; one exactly calculated to please my fancy; gay, volatile, apparently thoughtless of everything but present enjoyment” (18). Sanford does
from the start to at the end, and the changes of Eliza, the main theme
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
lady. To do so Eliza has to learn how to speak proper and get rid of her nasty old ways. However, after she is transformed she knows not what is to become of her, but she realizes she does not
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.
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
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
The character I found most intriguing in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was Regulus Black. Regulus Black was the younger brother of Sirius Black, and was quite a minor character in the Harry Potter series. His first appearance was in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, also written by J. K Rowling, in which Sirius showed Harry the Black Family tree. Sirius regarded Regulus negatively, quoted as saying, “…his idiot brother, soft enough to believe [their dark wizard parents]….” (111). Sadly, at that point in the series, we only get a brief and rather biased view of Regulus. It isn’t until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows where it is revealed that Regulus was more than a blind follower of dark magic. The story of his redemption is a reason why this character is one of my favorites, notwithstanding that it is short
After long, excruciating lessons, Eliza starts to get it and begins to talk in perfect English. Now, its time to try her newly learned skills. In the play, Higgins takes her to his mother’s house, while in the musical he takes her to the Ascot Races. Here they learn that she may speak perfectly, but she still can revert to her “flower girl” ways. This is where Freddy Eynsford-Hills falls in love with Eliza. Eliza’s father is forced into Middle Class after he inherits a large sum of money.
However, readers of the play may argue that Eliza and Higgins stop working together and conflict later on so that supports the theory of class struggle by Marxism. But when the two characters conflict with each other it’s not because of class struggle or anything related to hierarchy, it’s because of Eliza not accepting Higgins as a teacher as Higgins starts mistreating her so rather Eliza gives the credit for her transformation to Colonel Pickering and have constant arguments with Higgins now that she have learned the dialect of a higher class. “Mrs Higgins. I’m afraid you’ve spoiled that girl, Henry.” Eliza can also be seen as spoiled because of all those higher class ways and lifestyle she just adapted to. This type of conflict can be related to a house dispute and doesn’t show a behavior of lower class revolting against higher class to gain rights. “Liza. That’s not true. He treats a flower girl as if she was a duchess. Higgins. And I treat a duchess as if she was a flower girl.” “Higgins. The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better.” As for Higgins’s personality, he always treats people with rudeness so
After Higgins, confesses to his undying love for Eliza. Eliza decides to leave Higgins’s home because felt that it would only hurt Higgins more to have her stay another moment in his home because she did not share the same feelings for him. She now resides at the home of Mrs. Higgins.
The transformation of Eliza into a lady includes changes in her dress, pronunciation and manners. When she appears as "a dainty and exquisitely clean young lady in a simple blue cotton kimono", she astonishes everyone with her beauty. This is the first step of her transformation. In the next several months, Eliza receives strict phonetic training. Only the material that suitable for the sculpture can be made a masterpiece. Eliza is the right material. She has "the most extraordinary quickness of ear" and is a "genius" in learning a language. So she learns well and makes great progress. Her quality
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.
Class distinctions are made abundantly clear in Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Eliza is representative of Shaw’s view of the English working class of the day: Crude, crass, and seemingly unintelligent yet worthy of pity. Equal criticism is leveled at the upper classes, who pass judgement upon the poor precipitated by their appearance and mannerisms. Higgins and Pickering’s attitude towards Eliza is one of derision, stemming from their difference in social status. For instance, Higgins’ open mockery of Eliza’s speech: “You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days.” (Shaw.
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.