The play "Pygmalion" describes the process of the transformation of Eliza, who appears in three images in the story: Eliza begins as a flower girl, then she transforms into a lady with noble accent and in good manners, then an independent woman with self-respect and dignity. By naming his drama "Pygmalion," Shaw reminds people of the ancient Pygmalion Myth. Pygmalion, a sculptor, makes a beautiful statue and falls in love with his own creation. He prays that life may be granted to it. The gods give him his wish. The statue becomes a living girl named Galatea. In Shaw's play, Eliza, the heroine, is transformed from a flower girl into a graceful lady. This change is like that of a stone into a statue of perfect beauty. But just as …show more content…
In spite of the hard life, she's still full of hope and dreams for the future, as revealed by the "decoration" on the wall in her shabby lodging and the daydreams she often has in her little piggery. She intends to be a lady in a flower shop instead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road, but is refused because of her dreadful accent. The factor that changes her fate is that Eliza knows how to grasp chances when they favor her. Overhearing Higgins boast that the professor can make her a duchess, she immediately seizes the opportunity and makes a visit to Higgins. This is the turning point of her life; that is, the beginning of her transformation. Without the independent character and the ability to make right decisions as well as right choices, Eliza would have remained a poor flower girl all her life. 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
Another reason why Eliza has changed internally because she now her self worth.Like when she she is talking to Higgins about when he first took her in and how she felt different.In the text it states”Yes that showed me you thought i was something better than a scullery maid”(Pg:119 Act:5) This quote connects because as the reader can see she felt different because she felt as if she was something better than a scullery maid which was kinda her old ways.Finally Eliza has changed internally because the reader can see how she feels about her old self and the new her,In the text it states “But it was from you that i learned nice manners and that is what makes me a lady isnt it, you see it was so very diffcult for me with an example of proffesor higgins always before me i was bought up to be just like him unable to control myself(Pg:118
I want to start off with the transitions that Eliza went through. She had made the most transitions of all the characters. Her first transition was going from a little girl to a young woman, when she falls in love with Joaquin. She gets carried away with the illusion of love, and falls head over heels for him. Her second transition was when Tao Chi’en had made the decision to sneak her off the boat as a Chinese boy. She decided she actually liked dressing in men’s clothes because they weren’t as restricting as women’s. She then
Eliza can be characterized in many different ways, one way is independent. Eliza can be characterized as independent because when her mom left her and her dad, Eliza had to become the person who took care of her father, who was ill with stage 3 cancer. In school, is was just her, she did not have a best friend to lean on or a boyfriend to cry on, and after the fiasco with Peter in the photo room, Eliza became an independent woman with a guise of someone who does not care. Eliza is like a birch tree in a redwood forest. She is like everyone else, but yet everyone else sees her differently because of a rumor that happened a year ago. The guise that Eliza carried around was that she slept around and partied, which was far from the truth, she had been just a girl who’s mom had left her when her father got sick trying to cover up the pain it caused. When Eliza heard those words, she became even more secluded and more independent, fighting for her place in the world. Another way Eliza can be characterized as, is selfless. Eliza can be characterized as selfless because she always put others first, before herself. Eliza did not tell her dad what was happening at school because she always wanted to tell him the good news. She never confronted the rotten girls that started the rumor about her because she cared about Peter. In the book, Eliza said to Andy: “ This may come to a shock to you, but some
That was the beginning climax of Eliza's transformation and the change of her identity. And although she has changed, she still has part of her old identity as a flower girl and her opinions and the way she thinks.
Eliza and Higgins are very alike in the fact that they believe education can provide work. For example “Simply phonetics the science of speech. That's my profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue” -Act 1. Here, Higgins proves a point that the art of education and speech can provide and be used as a tool. Also in his case used as a job and this is exactly what Eliza is looking for a way to use education in her favor. “Well, sir, in three months i could
My artwork takes place in the deep blue sea. The main reason why I choose the ocean over another setting is because when I read the story, Eliza was talking about the drama classroom she said it was empty with no chairs, desks, and just the hardwood floor. The floor made me think of sand and the empty room made me think of the ocean.
Eliza’s reason for changing differed from Gracie’s in the fact that Eliza wanted to change to better herself and Gracie’s was so that she could do her job, not to better herself. Eliza Doolittle wanted to change in order to live a normal life. Eliza’s poor speech was holding her back from being who she wanted to be. Eliza’s wish was to work in a flower shop, but was not able to because she did not sound like a proper lady. She told Professor Higgins “I’m a good girl, I am!”
It starts off with Eliza, a girl who sells flowers on the street and speaks English with a poor vocabulary and a strong cockney accent, and Higgins, a man who is obsessed with phonetics. Higgins becomes Eliza’s teacher with the goal to make her a lady and to pass her off as a duchess in six months time. Higgins teaches her what he believes to be proper English so that she will be accepted by society and viewed in a much more positive light. She eventually is passed off as a duchess and is perceived as a lady by everyone except for Higgins. He will always treat her as the poor flower girl that she once was.
Circumstance shapes people’s initial personalities, while chance decides their destinies. For instance, the two threads running through this book may be the best representatives of chance. When Mr. Shelby decided to sold Harry and Tom, both of them have chance to escape. However, Eliza chose to seek freedom with her son, while Tom did not catch this opportunity and was sold to the South. Eliza and Tom are affable and loyal at first, but the sharp contrast between Eliza and her family’s immigration to the North and
Both Eliza Doolittle from Pygmalion and Natalya Stepanovna from The Marriage Proposal are single and argumentative women with a very strong personality, who share very strong similarities but also some differences. Firstly, Eliza and Natalya are considered lower class citizens by the men around them. On one hand, Eliza is sold to Higgins by her father for five pounds, so he can go by a drink. On the other hand, Natalya’s father gets rid of her by allowing her to marry the neighbor, Lomov. Furthermore, both Eliza and Natalya are stubborn. Eliza refuses to let go off Higgins and insists that he teaches her how to speak proper English. Whilst, Natalya does not accept that Lomov says the piece of land is his, nor that his dog is better than hers.
Eliza wants to work in a flower shop, so she finds the way that the professor teach her a few speech lessons and she offers to pay him for that but the professor Higgins takes Eliza on free of charge. At first, Eliza’s lessons were terrible. She makes no progress and Higgins at that time was exhausted.
Based off Galatea from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion explores the belief that molding humans like clay improves them. Henry Higgins, a man so skilled in phonetics that he could “place [a man] within two miles in London” based off his accent, decides to elevate the poor but principled Elizabeth Doolittle to a gentlewoman and, as a bet, pass her off as a duchess. Higgins, in his characteristic unfeeling manner, pulls her from the gutter, educates her, and treats Elizabeth as a lady, ignoring the damage he may inflict on her future. Once someone rises out of poverty and ignorance, that person cannot return to their former status with the same mindset. Higgins believes, however, that Elizabeth would have enough skills to
Although Higgins starts off as the professor, he eventually becomes the student: “I've learned something from [Eliza’s] idiotic notions.” Eliza evolves from a poverty stricken, lower class, flower girl to a proper and stately lady after Henry’s teachings. Ultimately, Henry’s role of teacher is passed to Eliza when she says, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.” In saying this, Eliza shows Henry that since she has changed, he cannot walk all over her because “she [isn’t] so deliciously low. So horribly dirty,” anymore.
In the book Pygmalion a young flower girl had to sell flowers on the street in order to provide for herself this book was put into visual in the musical “My Fair Lady”. Both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady are very similar but they also show many differences. The story Pygmalion is about a young woman by the name of Eliza Doolittle who is poor and uneducated so her speech is very bad but with the help of Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering becomes a well-spoken and well-mannered woman. Pygmalion is the base of the musical and does not have as much flash as the musical does.
The 1964 award-winning film My Fair Lady is a musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw’s stage production Pygmalion (first performed in the year of 1913). Taking place in Edwardian London, My Fair Lady depicts Professor Henry Higgins (portrayed by Rex Harrison), a misogynistic phonetics professor, and Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), the author of Spoken Sanskrit. Professor Higgins, after coming out of a theatre and hearing Eliza shouting in her harsh ‘Cockney’ accent, places a bet with Colonel Pickering that he can take the Cockney working-class girl and make her presentable in high society within six months. The working-class girl, Eliza Doolittle (portrayed by Audrey Hepburn), agrees to speech lessons from Professor Higgins to improve her job prospects. Eliza grudgingly agrees to Professor Higgins’ lessons after flying into an angry outburst when a man points out the professor copying down her speech. Despite Professor Higgins treats Eliza as a lesser being, his acquaintance Colonel Pickering treats her with constant respect and kindness, therefore treating her as an equal. It is Pickering’s treating Eliza not as a lesser being, but as an equal that allows Eliza to flourish and succeed.