Introduction
Pygmalion is a comedy about a phonetics expert who, as akind of social experiment, attempts to make a lady out of an uneducated Cockneyflower-girl. Although not as intellectually complex as some of the other playsin Shaw's «theatre of ideas,» Pygmalion nevertheless probes importantquestions about social class, human behavior, and relations between the sexes.
Hoping to circumvent what he felt was the tendency of theLondon press to criticize his plays unfairly, Shaw chose to produce a Germantranslation of Pygmalion in Vienna and Berlin before bringing the play toLondon. The London critics appreciated the acclaim the play had receivedoverseas, and, after it opened at His Majesty's Theatre on April 11, 1914, itenjoyed success, firmly establishing Shaw's reputation as a popular playwright.
Accompanying his subterfuge with the London press, Shaw alsoplotted to trick his audience out of any prejudicial views they held about theplay's content. This he did by assuming their familiarity with the myth of Pygmalion,from the Greek playwright Ovid's Metamorphoses, encouraging them to think thatPygmalion was a classical play. He furthered the ruse by directing the playanonymously and casting a leading actress who had never before appeared in aworking-class role. In Ovid's tale, Pygmalion is a man disgusted with real-lifewomen who chooses celibacy and the pursuit of an ideal woman, whom he carvesout of ivory. Wishing the statue were real, he makes a sacrifice to Venus, thegoddess of love, who brings the statue to life. By the late Renaissance, poetsand dramatists began to contemplate the thoughts and feelings of this woman,who woke full-grown in the arms of a lover. Shaw's central character—the flowergirl Liza Doolittle—expresses articulately how her transformation has made herfeel, and he adds the additional twist that Liza turns on her «creator''in the end by leaving him.
In addition to the importance of the original Pygmalion mythto Shaw's play, critics have pointed out the possible influence of other works,such as Tobias Smollett's novel The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle and a numberof plays, including W. S. Gilbert's Pygmalion and Galatea and Henrik Ibsen's ADoll House. Shaw denied borrowing the story directly from any of these sources,but there are traces of them in his play, as there are of the well-known storyof Cinderella, and shades of the famous stories of other somewhat vain»creators" whose experiments have unforeseen implications: Faust, Dr.Frankenstein, Svengali.
The play was viewed as one of Shaw's less provocativecomedies. Nevertheless, Pygmalion did provoke controversy upon its originalproduction. Somewhat ironically, the cause was an issue of language, aroundwhich the plot itself turns: Liza's use of the word «bloody,» neverbefore uttered on the stage at His Majesty's Theatre. Even though they werewell aware of the controversy from its coverage in the press, the firstaudiences gasped in surprise, then burst into laughter, at Liza's spiritedrejoinder: «Not bloody likely!»
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
playwright bernard show pygmalion romance
George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856 toLucinda and George Shaw. His father was a corn merchant who suffered fromalcoholism, and his mother was a house wife and singer. Lucinda ran away toLondon with her voice teacher, George Lee. All her children followed her there.After a fall out with Lee, Shaw's mother pursued an unconventional teachingcareer in singing using the techniques Lee taught her.
Shaw began working as a clerk in a land agency at the age offifteen, but abandoned that career before age twenty and resolved to fashionhimself as a modern Shakespeare. He came of age as a writer in the lateVictorian era, and much of his work demonstrated a rebellion against the moraysof the time. Shaw's first essays into the writing profession were as a musicand art critic, and his success allowed him to expand the range and style ofhis criticism. He developed into an extremely prolific playwright, novelist,and lecturer. Shaw was an active Fabian socialist and a supporter of feministsand homosexuals. His aggressive and diverse social commentaries kept him in thepublic eye throughout his long life. Shaw died in 1950, at the age of 94.
Pygmalion is the most famous and perhaps most beloved ofShaw's many plays. Shaw was often criticized for writing plays full ofunsubstantial, if witty, banter. With Pygmalion, Shaw challenged his critics bymaking both the subject and the content of the play speech. He used phoneticsand Ovid's story of Pygmalion as a means of defending his artistic creation andaddressing feminist issues. Several film adaptations have been made of theplay, one of which garnered Shaw an Academy Award for best screenplay in 1938.
Pygmalion
According to a Greek myth, Pygmalion, an ancient sculptorliving on Cyprus Island, worshipped the goddess of love, Venus. The local womendisgusted him, so sculpted himself the perfect one-Galatea. Higgins undertakesa similar project, to sculpt a duchess by changing the appearance and themanners of a flower girl. In his «Pygmalion,» Shaw teases hisaudience, foreshadowing a Cinderella-like romantic play. He further mocks theaudience by allowing Higgins to be the fairy godmother of this romance,creating his «Cinderella» out of a simple flower girl. After theball, however, it becomes clear that Eliza is as a better person than Higgins.Shaw makes his audience realize that just like Cinderella, Eliza was a duchesseven when her appearance and spoken word were that of a flower girl. Shawfurther manifests that her father will always remain a bum regardless of hisfinances or appearance, and Higgins will live the rest of his life as animpolite bachelor who cares for nothing but his work. By changing theappearance and the social class of his characters while keeping theirpersonalities constant, Shaw makes a critical point-- people can only changetheir image, popularity and wealth, but will always remain the same on theinside. The character of Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father remainsunchanged throughout the play. Shaw depicts him as a bum, in Doolittle's firstappearance in act II, who literally sells his daughter for some inconsiderableamount of money. He is presented as a lowlife nobody, who likes to drink anddoes not like to have any responsibilities. When he appears in act five,however, Shaw dresses him as a gentleman and gives him the wealth of amillionaire. Doolittle's views of life, however, remain unchanged. Havingmoney, forces him to accept responsibility, which he clearly regards as aburden. He longs for the days when he drank without a single care in the world.Shaw emphasizes that his character does not change regardless of his new socialstatus. Shaw is very specific filling Higgins' character as animpolite workaholic whom cares about nothing, other than his phonetics. Fromthe begging of the play, he only talks about his work, bragging that he cantell anyone's birthplace within six miles by his or her dialect. This continuesthrough to the end of the play, when he is more enraged that his«creation» will work for his rival and teach phonetics than the factthat Eliza is leaving him for a dumber but kinder Freddy. Higgins lives in alab with «a student of Indian dialects,» Colonel Pickering. Higgins'manners force even his mother to be ashamed of him in front of her guests andin church where this student of Milton enjoys mocking the dialect of clergymen.It is clear that Higgins does not care about his mother's opinion of him. Hedoes not care about Eliza; he turns her world upside down, creating a duchessbut continues to treat her like a guinea pig rather than a person. Higgins doesnot even care about himself. He always has and always will care only about hiswork. The theme of Shaw's «Pygmalion» lies in such consistency.Higgins is professor of phonetics, a student of Milton and Shakespeare, animprudent and inconsiderate bachelor, forever. Shaw builds thecharacter of Eliza from a simpleminded flower girl living on the street. In theopening act, Higgins shames her: «A woman who utters depressing anddisgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere, no right to live.» Shecries upon the simplest provocation. Just as it is difficult to picture thisstreet bum with a flower basket, as a duchess, it is difficult to conceive howsomeone like Higgins with his grotesque manners can create a genteel duchess,especially from a girl off the street. But Higgins' «Cinderella»nevertheless triumphs at the ambassador's ball. Act four, however brings up anintense conflict between Eliza and Higgins. In this confrontation, Shawportrays Eliza as an intelligent duchess whose manners and dress brought outher individuality. Her creator remains rude and continues to treat her as aguinea pig. Shaw forces his audience to sympathize with Eliza, whose characteris intrinsically better than Higgins'. But how could this artificial creation,which has been intensely programmed to substitute morals for manners surpassher creator, the rude professor of phonetics? Eliza was a duchess before sheever met Higgins or Pickering. She was simply a slave to her poverty and onlyappeared to be simpleminded. Living with two «elite» men, she learnedthe best from each of them, bringing out her individuality. From Higgins, shelearned how to speak correctly, and from the respect granted to her byPickering, she learned to respect herself. Even her «creator» admitsat the very end, she was «like a millstone around [his] neck, [n]ow [she]is a tower of strength, a consort battleship.» Self respect makes theimage of a flower girl off the street to evolve into an image of a duchess,nevertheless, the fact that she surpasses her «creator» proves thatEliza always remains the same person on the inside. Pygmalion (thesculptor) resembles Higgins only on the surface, he builds the perfect woman,while Higgins simply gives a poor duchess an opportunity to change her image.Similarly, all Shaw's characters in «Pygmalion,» change only on thesurface (if at all); they remain the same people on the inside regardless of circumstances.As an unknown ancient writer wrote: «Popularity is an accident, moneytakes wings, those who cheer you today may defame you tomorrow, the only thingthat endures is character.»
Major Characters/> Professor HenryHiggins
Henry Higgins,forty years old, is a bundle of paradoxes. In spite of his brilliantintellectual achievements, his manners are usually those of the worst sort ofpetulant, whining child. He is a combination of loveable eccentricities,brilliant achievements, and devoted dedication to improving the human race. Yethe is completely socially inept; his manners are so bad that his own motherdoes not want him in her house when she has company, and his manners are sooffensive that she will not attend the same church at the same time. Since mannershave always been the subject matter of comedies from the time of Aristophanes,Higgins' view of manners differs greatly from his own actions. His use ofphonetics to make a flower girl into a duchess does not mean that the play isabout phonetics; the play concerns different definitions of manners, and thusHiggins' actions must be taken fully into account.
Henry Higgins is aconfirmed bachelor, and this fact alone should rule out all popularizes whowould create a romantic entanglement between Higgins and Eliza. In addition, heis so set in his ways that he announces to Eliza that if someone doesn't wantto get run over, they had better get out of his way. To accomplish his aims, hewill trample on anyone's feelings — whether that person be a flower girl inCovent Garden or a real duchess or a lady in his mother's elaborate drawingroom. Thus, one of Higgins' claims to equality is not that he doesn't havemanners (it is a foregone conclusion that he has none), but that he treats allpeople alike. However, he only thinks that he does; he is not as egalitarianand democratic as he likes to think that he is. When Higgins first meets Elizain Covent Garden and is taking down her vocal sounds, he is extremely clever —so clever, in fact, that his horribly bad manners are accepted by the audienceas being clever. In his tirade against Eliza, when he vents his wrath againsther, we tend, on first hearing his tirade, to forgive him because he has suchan admirable command of the English language as he simply rips to pieces a«guttersnipe» and «a squashed cabbage leaf.» Note hissuperb language: «A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting soundshas no right to be anywhere — no right to live. Remember that you are a humanbeing with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech… don't sitthere crooning like a bilious pigeon.» Anyone who can deliver suchsplendid invective is admired for his or her brilliant, spontaneous use of theEnglish language, and especially when it is directed against so lowly a personas this flower girl from the slums. But in a play dealing with manners, noproper gentleman would utter such condemnations. Later, we find out thatColonel Pickering treated Eliza properly from the very first. Thus, in spite ofHiggins' claiming to treat all people with the same manners, he certainly doesnot treat Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and Clara with such a display of invective, andboth of these characters represent everything that Higgins abhors; theyrepresent the worst sort of upper-middle-class hypocrisy that both he andDoolittle despise. But in spite of his bad manners, Higgins is clever, and wedo admire his cleverness, even at the expense of a flower girl.
Why else do we likeHiggins? Because he is Shaw's creative rebel who floats through many of Shaw'sdramas. Higgins rejects middle-class moralities. He admires do-nothingDoolittles for their honesty in asserting that they are the undeserving poor,he will devote his scientific skill to changing a flower girl into a duchess,he is ultimately interested in the soul of his creation (Eliza-Galatea) and notin her pronunciation, and he is devoted to improving the human race by his ownscientific methods. And, last, we cannot deny his charm: Mrs. Pearce, hishousekeeper, has often threatened to leave because of Henry's atrocious manners(improper language, improper dress, bad table behavior, etc.), but she isalways charmed by him into remaining with him. Ultimately, Eliza is also socharmed by her association with Higgins (and Pickering) that she does not wantto live with someone else. But if Higgins is charming, he is also a tyrannicalbully; if he is devastatingly intelligent, he is also ignorantly insensitive tothe feelings of others; if he is god-like in his achievements, he is childishlypetulant in his wanting his own way; if he believes in his scientificmethodology, he is also something of the intuitive poet; and if he is a man soconfident of his aim in life, he is also a man so ignorant of his ownpersonality that he really thinks himself timid, modest, and diffident. Thus,his appeal remains partly in the many contradictions that he is heir to.
Eliza Doolittle
Shaw's story of theflower girl from the slums who was taught to speak so properly that she was ableto pass as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party is perhaps one of the bestknown works by Shaw, partly because of the popularity of the play which, inturn, inspired a more sentimentalized version in a popular movie and, later,became one of the world's most popular musical comedies, My Fair Lady, usingShaw's broad outlines, but turning the play from a study in manners to asentimental love story between pupil and master.
The character ofEliza is best seen by the progression which she makes from «a thing ofstone,» «a nothingness,» a «guttersnipe,» and a«squashed cabbage leaf' to the final act where she is an exquisite lady —totally self-possessed, a person who has in many ways surpassed her creator. Inthe opening act, the audience cannot know that beneath the mud and behind thehorrible speech sounds stands the potential of a great „work of art.“This carries through the Pygmalion-Galatea theme in which a crude piece ofmarble is transformed into a beautiful statue. It is not until the third act,when Eliza makes her appearance at Mrs. Higgins' house, that we know that Elizapossesses a great deal of native intelligence, that she has a perfect ear forall sorts of sounds, an excellent ability at reproducing sounds, a superbmemory, and a passionate desire to improve herself.
In the first act,Shaw takes great pains to hide all of Eliza's basic qualities. He shows her notonly as a person who completely violates the English language, but, moreimportant, he shows her as a low, vulgar creature — totally without manners. Wesee her initially as a low-class flower girl who vulgarly tries to solicitmoney from a well-dressed gentleman, Colonel Pickering, and then as a younggirl who is vulgarly familiar to another gentleman (Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who ironicallywants her to be familiar with him when she becomes a lady); last, we see her asa person who is obnoxious in her protestations when she thinks that she isabout to be accused of prostitution. Thus, what Shaw has done is to let uslisten to a flower girl who totally violates the English language and who is atotal vulgarian in terms of language. The change in Eliza's pronunciation willcome about because of Higgins' lessons in phonetics, but the important change,and the real subject of the play, is the change that will come about in Eliza'smanners — something which even Higgins cannot teach her because he has nomanners himself.
Eliza arrives atHiggins' laboratory-living room for rather ironic reasons. She wants to adoptmiddle-class manners that both Higgins and her father despise. Eliza's ideal isto become a member of the respectable middle class, and in order to do so, shemust learn proper pronunciation and manners. But then we notice that in spiteof the original motive, Eliza's monumental efforts to master her lessons havetheir bases in the fact that she has developed a „doglike“ devotionto her two masters — a devotion which Higgins will ultimately reject and whichEliza will ultimately declare herself independent of in the next stage of herdevelopment.
In both Acts IV andV, Eliza is seen as a completely transformed person, outwardly. She is poised,dignified, in control of her once spitfire temper, and she has rejected all ofthe old common vulgarity of her past life. She is no longer willing to beHiggins' creation; she now asserts her own independence. But it is anindependence which demands values from life which Higgins cannot give her.Unlike Higgins, who wants to change the world, Eliza wants only to changeherself. Unlike Higgins, who can and does stand apart from the common aspectsof life, Eliza can be content with Freddy, who simply needs and wants her as acompassionate human being. And whereas Higgins can get along without anyone,Eliza and Freddy need each other. In contrast, Higgins will continue to try toimprove the world, while Eliza will make a comfortable home for herself andFreddy.
Pygmalion (mythology)In Ovid
In Ovid'snarrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory.According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (moreaccurately, they denied the divinity of Venus and she thus ‘reduced’ them toprostitution), he was 'not interested in women', his statue was so fair andrealistic that he fell in love with it. In the vertex, Venus (Aphrodite)'sfestival day came. For the festival, Pygmalion made offerings to Venus and madea wish. „I sincerely wish the ivory sculpture will be changed to a realwoman.“ However, he couldn’t bring himself to express it. When he returnedhome, Cupid, sent by Venus, kissed the ivory sculpture on the hand. At thattime, it was changed to a beautiful woman. A ring was put on her finger. It wasCupid’s ring which made love achieved. Venus had granted Pygmalion's wish.
Pygmalion marriedthe ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Venus’ blessing. They had a son,Paphos, which he took from his home.In some versions they also had a daughter,Metharme.
Ovid's mention ofPaphos suggests that he was drawing on a more circumstantial account than thesource for a passing mention of Pygmalion in Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheke, aHellenic mythography of the 2nd-century AD. Perhaps he drew on the lostnarrative by Philostephanus that was paraphrased by Clement of Alexandria.Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton andfigures in the founding legend of Paphos in Cyprus.
Parallels in Greekmyth
The story of thebreath of life in a statue has parallels in the examples of Daedalus, who usedquicksilver to install a voice in his statues; of Hephaestus, who createdautomata for his workshop; of Talos, an artificial man of bronze; and,according to Hesiod, Pandora, who was made from clay at the behest of Zeus.
The moral anecdoteof the „Apega of Nabis“, recounted by the historian Polybius,described a supposed mechanical simulacrum of the tyrant's wife, that crushedvictims in her embrace.
The discovery ofthe Antikythera mechanism suggests that such rumoured animated statues had somegrounding in contemporary mechanical technology. The island of Rhodes wasparticularly known for its displays of mechanical engineering and automata — Pindar, one of the nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, said this of Rhodes inhis seventh Olympic Ode:
»The animatedfigures stand Adorning every public street And seem to breathe in stone, or movetheir marble feet."
The trope of asculpture so lifelike it seemed about to move was a commonplace with writers onworks of art in Antiquity that was inherited by writers on art after theRenaissance.
Re-interpretationsof Pygmalion
The basic Pygmalionstory has been widely transmitted and re-presented in the arts through thecenturies. At an unknown date, later authors give as the name of the statuethat of the sea-nymph Galatea or Galathea. Goethe calls her Elise, based uponthe variants in the story of Dido/Elissa.
In the Middle AgesPygmalion was held up as an example of the excesses of idolatry, probablyspurred by Clement of Alexandria's suggestion that Pygmalion had carved animage of Aphrodite herself. However, by the 18th century it was a highlyinfluential love-story, seen as such in Rousseau's musical play of the story.By the 19th century, the story often becomes one in which the awakened belovedrejects Pygmalion; although she comes alive, she is initially cold andunattainable.
A twist on thistheme can also be seen in the story of Pinocchio where a wooden puppet istransformed into a real boy, though in this case the puppet possesses sentienceprior to its transformation; it is the puppet and not the woodcarver (sculptor)who beseeches the miracle.
WilliamShakespeare, in the final scene of The Winter's Tale (c 1611), presents whatappears to be a tomb effigy of Hermione that is revealed as Hermione herself,bringing the play to a conclusion of reconciliations.
George Bernard Shawwrote a play titled «Pygmalion». In Shaw's play, the girl is broughtto life by two men in speech — the goal for their masterpiece is for her tomarry and become a duchess. It has an interesting spin on the original storyand has a subtle hint of feminism.
Conclusion
This play by George Bernard Shaw is great for many reasons.It is a social critique that explores the issues of class and love amidst abackdrop of early 20th century England. Shaw's brilliant characterisation ofthe arrogant and rude but highly intelligent Higgins, and the straight-forward,strong and intelligent Eliza lead the audience to love the characters and beabsorbed by the story. Higgins' many insults «squashed cabbage leaf»,«draggle-tailed guttersnipe» to Eliza are cruel, but the audience shouldnot overlook his better points, such as his goal of creating a better societythrough knowledge and elimination of class and all the unfairness associatedwith the latter. Higgins, reflecting Shaw's own beliefs, believes that, byusing phonetics, accents could be eliminated and therefore, with everyonespeaking the same, society would become classless. Note this quote «Thegreat secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any otherparticular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: inshort, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-classcarriages, and one soul is as good as another.» Higgins is sexist, becausehe lives for his subject, and cannot imagine putting anyone or anything secondto his passion. He values companionship, and independence. Eliza, though, wantslove — someone who cares for her and respects her. She finds this in Freddy — who is not worthy for her due to his foolish nature and blind adoration, butshe accepts him anyway. Eliza has shown that education (and money) can elevateone to another class, but is this a complete transformation? It can be seenthat she does not truly belong to either class — she cannot go back to being aflower girl, however she does not feel completely at ease in the middle-class,either. Alfred Doolittle is a good example of the new upwardly mobile middleclass, where criterion of gentility was changing from family and background tomoney. Doolittle provides much comic relief throughout the play. His commentson «middle-class morality» ring true. Pickering is a good foil toHiggins, as a caring and articulate man who treats Eliza well. Shaw's ending isbrilliant as it does not adhere to the usual romantic ending, where the readerwould expect Eliza and Higgins (the other option to Freddy) to have a romanticrelationship. The reason why is explained in the epilogue. The fact is, Higginswas Eliza's teacher and that, as he says himself at the beginning, is a sacredrelationship — «You see, she'll be a pupil; and teaching would beimpossible unless pupils were sacred.» That cements their relationship asunequal. In addition, Higgins' passion would always be phonetics, and learning- all other people and things are second — and this is something that isconverse to Eliza's values — the one she marries must love her foremost. Thoughthey become friends, albeit ones that argue constantly, deep down, they respecteach other. This line seems to sum up Higgins' thoughts of his finished Galatea-«By George, Eliza, I said I’d make a woman of you; and I have. I like youlike this.» The creation has become independent of its creator and he isglad. In conclusion, Shaw's play «Pygmalion» is a well-written playwhich is both a drama and social critique.
Bibliography
1.Pygmalion(play) at the Internet Broadway Database
2.Pygmalion stories & art: «successive retellings of the Pygmalion storyafter Ovid's Metamorphoses»
3. Shaw, Bernard, edited by Dan H. Laurence. Collected Lettersvol. III: 1911-1925