Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw Who is George

Pygmalion By George Bernard Shaw

Who is George Bernard Shaw?

George Bernard Shaw was born into a poor Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland, on July 26, 1856. Despite childhood neglect (his father was an alcoholic), he became one of the most prominent writers of modern Britain.

His mother introduced him to music and art at an early age and after 1876, when he moved to London to continue his selfeducation, she supported him for nine more years. During this period Shaw wrote five unsuccessful novels. Then, in 1884, he met William Archer, the prominent journalist and drama critic, who urged him to write plays.

Shaw's plays were frequently banned by censors or refused production (both their themes and their expansive scope made them difficult to stage), so he sought audiences through open readings and publication. After the turn of the century, Shaw's plays gradually began to achieve production and, eventually, acceptance in England.

Shaw received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925, which was considered to be the high point of his career (although he was still to write seventeen more plays). In later life, he remained a vigorous symbol of the ageless “superman” he proclaimed in his works, traveling extensively throughout the world and engaging in intellectual and artistic pursuits. In September, 1950, however, he fell from an apple tree he was pruning, and on November 2 of that year died of complications stemming from the injury.

Victorian Era • An era regarded as history of theatre. During this era England was ruled by Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901. It was a time during which literature and theatre flourished. • During her reign many new theatres were built along with theatre schools. It was also during her reign when political reforms came into practice which led to the openness of theatre and literature. • Theatre openly displayed and played dramas relating to social problems. Generally it was a period which brought prosperity to the middle class of England, and started to challenge the old hierarchical order of country.

Victorian Drama • Nearly all playwrights of the Victorian era tried to introduce laughter in their work. Comedies in Victorian era were mostly a combination of high and low comedy. The plots were usually full of coincidences, mistiming and mistaken identities. • Main characters in drama during this time were usually dealing with some sort of identity crisis, trying to figure out everyday life. • Humor often consisted of vulgar jokes and jokes with sexual innuendos. The extremes of humor range from exaggeration to understatement. The physical actions on the stage included slapstick, pratfalls, loud noises, physical mishaps, and collisions. • One of the most famous comedies of the Victorian era was “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde. It is probably one of the most played comedies with the same absurd situations. It is a social satire. It shows a world where no character has the slightest responsibility or can be counted to say or do the usual thing.

Victorian Romance “Pygmalion” is classified as a Victorian romance. Victorian refers to the time period in which it was written. The Victorian period refers to Queen Victoria and lasted from the late 1800’s into the early 1900’s. Romance in literature focuses on relationships and heroic deeds. They typically have witty dialogue and convey a strong moral. They are somewhat fanciful or extravagant. In addition, Victorian romances usually focus on a strong, moral female character. Victorian romance male characters usually portray that money and character do not necessarily go hand in hand.

Romance (…in terms of literature) Romance in literature actually means a literary work that has a mix of humor and male-female relationship issues that are central to the work. While a “romance” to some is simply a love story, a “romantic comedy” delves into deeper issues about human relationships while maintaining a witty tone.

What did Victorian Literature Focus On? Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end; virtue would be rewarded and wrongdoers are suitably punished. They tended to be of an improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed.

The Victorian Romance In addition to the witty dialogue and the relationships between men and women, Victorian romances, such as Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, also set out to examine social issues. They often showcase leading ladies who are impoverished, yet inherently moral, and male protagonists who learn that money and character do not necessarily go hand in hand. George Bernard Shaw is a Victorian playwright who makes these same issues central to Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts.

Victorian Writers While in the preceding Romantic period poetry had been the dominant genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian period. Charles Dickens dominated the first part of Victoria's reign: his first novel, Pickwick Papers, was published in 1836. The three Brontë sisters also published significant works in the 1840 s. A major later novel was George Eliot's Middlemarch, while the major novelist of the later part of Queen Victoria's reign was Thomas Hardy. Robert Browning and Alfred Tennyson were Victorian England's most famous poets. Algernon Charles Swinburne is also considered an important literary figure of the period, especially his poems and critical writings. Early poetry of W. B. Yeats was also published in Victoria's reign. With regard to theatre it was not until the last decades of the nineteenth century that any significant works were produced. This began with Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, from the 1870 s, various plays of George Bernard Shaw (1856– 1950) in the 1890 s, and Oscar Wilde's (1854– 1900) The Importance of Being Earnest in 1895.

Before Reading When you first meet someone, what types of things do you judge that person on? What traits or aspects make an impression on you and help you to determine what the person is like and how you feel about that individual?

“Pygmalion” Pygmalion is a comedy about a professor who, as a kind of social experiment, attempts to make a lady out of an uneducated, poor flower-girl. Although not as intellectually complex as some of Shaw’s other plays, Pygmalion nevertheless probes important questions about social class, human behavior, and relations between the sexes.

Character Development • Character development is the technique of adding depth to a character in a work of fiction through confrontations with other characters and conflicts. Depending upon the extent to which a character changes as a result of these confrontations, he or she is said to be either a static character or a dynamic character. • Which characters can be classified as dynamic in this play?

Theme • The theme of a work of literature is a common thread or repeated idea that is incorporated throughout a literary work. A theme is a thought or idea the author presents to the reader that may be moralistic. Generally, a theme has to be extracted as the reader explores the entire work. • What are some of themes you see throughout Pygmalion?

Satire • Satire is a literary technique that dates back to ancient Greek and Roman drama. It combines humor with criticism to expose flaws and shortcomings in institutions or human beings. • What do you believe is the target of Shaw’s satire in this play?

Irony • Irony is a literary element in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is different from the actual meaning. It may also be a situation that may end up in quite a different way than what is generally anticipated. In simple words, it is a difference between the appearance and the reality. • What ironic moments can you identify within this play?

• About the Play: Pygmalion takes place in London, England in the early 1900’s. There was a strong class system in existence at this time and it is portrayed in the play. Because of the large variation of education between the class systems, there were many different ways of speaking in London at the time, or many different dialects. This is the basis of the play Pygmalion: the differences in class system and they way people speak and are judged by their speech.

• About the Characters: There are three main characters within this play: Professor Henry Higgins, Eliza Doolittle, & Colonel Pickering. Here is a little information on each of them.

• Colonel Pickering studies language and phonetics and he is part of the upper class. He is first seen as “Gentleman” in the play. • Higgins is first seen in the play as “Notetaker” but we soon come to find out his identity through dialogue. He is a professor of phonetics which means he studies and is an expert of people’s speech patterns. He is of the middle class. • Eliza Doolittle is a very poor and dirty flower seller who belongs to the lower class. She is first seen as “Flower Girl”

• This play is very representational of how Shaw perceived the social and economical class system in London during his years there, but it is also somewhat of a comedy. Higgins is a very sarcastic, dry witted man who has an answer for everything. Matched up with the whiny ignorance of Eliza, there are many comedic scenes.

“Pygmalion” The title of the play comes from the myth of Pygmalion, from the Greek playwright Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Ovid's tale, Pygmalion is a man disgusted with real-life women who chooses celibacy and the pursuit of an ideal woman, whom he carves out of ivory. Wishing the statue were real, he makes a sacrifice to Aphrodite, who brings the statue to life.

• About the Movie: Pygmalion was adapted in a very popular movie version entitled My Fair Lady in 1956. The movie version, which is a musical and a little different from the play, stars Audrey Hepburn and won 8 Academy Awards the year it came out. Famous songs from the movie version include, “The Rain in Spain, ” I Could Have Danced All Night, ” and “On the Street Where You live. ”

• Many movies and tv shows today use this play as a reference or basis for current ideas. Pretty woman is based on this play and even Family Guy has spoofed Pygmalion.

“Pygmalion” Pygmalion takes place in London, England in the early 1900’s. It provides a glimpse of what city life was like at the time, as well as a glimpse of the class system that existed at this time.

British Class System in the early 1900’s In addition to the differences in wealth and social status between the middle and upper class there was also a huge difference in education which created a large gap between these two classes. The working class of England spoke in varying accents which were called dialects. A person’s dialect was a dead giveaway as to where a person lived.

Characters • Colonel Pickering – first introduced to us as “The Gentleman” Colonel Pickering is a very wealthy man. He is not royalty, but he is amongst the highest class of English society. • Prof. Henry Higgins – first introduced to us as “The Note-taker” Higgins is a highly educated and wealthy man, Prof of phonetics. • Eliza – first introduced to us as “The Flower girl” she is very poor and uneducated and has a horrendous dialect.

ACT II • Why has Eliza come to Higgins’ home? What is it that Eliza wants to achieve? • What bet do Pickering and Higgins make? • What role does Mrs. Pearce play in this Act? What are her three major concerns about Eliza staying in Higgins’ home? • Describe Higgins’ treatment of Eliza. Does Eliza understand Higgins’ sarcasm and insults? • What role does Pickering serve in this odd duo? Why is his character necessary?

The Doolittle Scene 1) Why does Doolittle come to Higgins’ home? What is it that he wants? 2) What is Higgins’ impression of Doolittle? What does he think of him? 3) What is the relationship between Eliza and her father like? How does she feel about him and vice versa?

Doolittle • How would you sum up the creed of Eliza's father, the dustman Alfred Doolittle? • What does he have against "middle-class morality, " and why? • Why do you believe Shaw included the Doolittle character in the play? What purpose does he serve?

ACT IV: Turning Point Act IV marks a pivotal point in the play for our main character, Eliza Doolittle. In a writing of two well thought out paragraphs, explain what makes this scene the climax of the play and then analyze Eliza’s mental state and make a prediction of what she will choose to do in the final Act. Use specific lines from the play that helped you to come to this conclusion. Be specific in your prediction of her actions.

Conclusion • How has becoming Middle Class affected Doolittle? (List at least 3 ways) • What does Eliza thank Pickering for in Act V and why do you think she feels the need to credit him with this? • What does Eliza say she wants from Higgins? • What sort of relationship does Higgins want with Eliza? • From the limited information given to us at the end of the play, what can you assume becomes of Eliza’s life?

Writing Analyze Eliza as a dynamic character and then decided whether you believe Higgins is a static character or a dynamic character and explain why. Make sure to use specific evidence from the play and refer to specific actions and scenes.

Final Thoughts After reading “Pygmalion” and seeing the path that each of the characters follows, what can be learned from this play? What do you think the moral of the play is? In your own words, explain what you think the message of this play is, and explain where in the play you developed the idea from. What characters or actions can we see this message in?