Pygmalion by g b shaw

Story outline
•It is story of poor Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, who has been
raised by Prof. of phonetics Hennery Higgins to speak and
pronounce correctly.
• At St. Paul’s Church Prof. Higgins came to witness peculiarities
of different London dialects spoken by the people gathered to
seek shelter in the Church on a rainy night.
• Colonel Pickering, a military man has come from India to learn
phonetics from Prof. Higgins.
•

Story outline
•There was a scarcity of vehicles as the theatre show was just
over.
•Freddy, the son of Mrs. Eynsford was asked to fetch a taxi for his
sister Clara.
•When he returned Mrs. Eynsford and Clara had already left for
the rain had stopped.
•Eliza hires a taxi and goes to her home in a London slum
namely Drury Lane.

Story outline
•Eliza was warned by one and all not to believe in Prof. Higgins
as he was taking notes to record the people speaking in different
dialects. He was considered spy or a street walker/ prostitute.
•As Higgins invited Colonel Pickering to his residence in
Wimpole Street.
•Her flowers were crushed by Freddy, she even begged Colonel
to buy some flowers but finally Prof. Higgins threw all his coins
in her basket.
•Prof. Higgins had claimed that in three months he can train the
girl to raise her status.

Story outline
• Meanwhile Prof. Higgins and Pickering were busy in teaching
learning process when Eliza arrived with a request to be taught
spoken English so to get a job at flower shop.
• Pickering gets ready to pay the expanses for Eliza to Prof.
Higgins only if he can pass off her as a duchess at a gathering of
aristocratic people.
• Higgins instructed his house keeper Mrs. Pearce to transform
Eliza. In the mean time Alfred Doolittle , a dustman and Eliza’s
father arrived and demanded five pounds from Higgins for
agreeing to his daughter’s staying with him.

Story outline
• When Eliza was brought before Doolittle, he was amazed to see the
transformation of her daughter.
• Higgins finds Eliza bearing receptive ears.
• Prof. Higgins informed his mother that he had invited Eliza to her
residence to see if she can pass off as a lady in high society for she has
been under a training by him.
• Mrs. Hills, Clara , Freddy and Pickering arrived, followed by Eliza
who conducted her self with perfect ease, but she shocks everyone at
her use of the word “ Bloody”.
•It was thought that she needs more time to be able to pass on as a
duchess at an ambassador’s garden party.

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw
 Eliza quickly learnt what all she was taught.
 She created a sensation by beauty and self confidence.
 Nepommuck, an old pupil of Higgins is deceived by
Eliza and took her a Hungarian with royal blood
running in her veins.
 She has been able to pass off not only as a Duchess but
as a Princess.

 Higgins is pleased with the success of his experiment
 Pickering and Higgins express their satisfaction at the
success of their experiment, but poor Eliza was entirely
ignored.
 Eliza picks up the slippers of Higgins and throws
them in his face. Higgins treats the matter lightly.
 Eliza is annoyed and takes off jewellery and changes
her dress, picks up her purse and comes out, meets
Freddy, embraces him and decided to pass the night
together.

 Next morning Eliza drives to the residence of Mrs.
Higgins and narrates to her the story of her ordeal.
 Meanwhile Pickering and Higgins informs the police.
 Before she could be sent for Alfered Doolittle
appeared , he is completely transformed and richly
dressed but complains that all his happiness has been
ruined.
 He wrote a letter to an American Millionaire

 Eliza and Higgins are together for a moment, she
infuriates him by announcing that she proposes to
marry Freddy.
 She further infuriates him by saying that she would
work as assistant to Nepommuck, his former pupil and
the herself give lessons in Phonetics.
 The play ends as she marries Freddy with the help of
Pickering, sets up a flower shop of her own and is
comfortably settled in life.

 TITLE n SOURCE
 The title is attractive and apt.
 Pygmalion was a legendary king of Cyprus who fell in
love with an ivory statue of a maiden, Galatea, which
he himself made. He was a devotee of Aphrodite, the
goddess of youth and beauty, who breathed life into
the statue and Pygmalion married her. In the play,
Higgins is Pygmalion and Eliza is the Galatea of the
Greek legend. Higgins is the creator of Eliza, the
princess, just as Pygmalion was the creator of Galatea.
But Higgins does mot marry Eliza.

 IRONIC SUB - TITLE
 The sub-title of the play, “ The Romance” is ironical as
Higgins is anti- romantic .
 His interest in Eliza is only as an object of his
experience.
 Prose Epilogue has provided entire story of new Eliza.
Epilogue:- It is an inherent part of a story/ poem. It is a literary tool
that acts as the afterword once the last chapter is over. It adds some
interesting features once the major part is over. It also serves as a teaser
trailer to any possible sequels that might be created later.

 Problems
 The play is the play of ideas and problems
 What should be the fate of a person who is educated
and raised above his/her earlier status
 New ways to find
 The poor are divided joys must be provided on merit
 Can one who is raised to middle –class status be given
a proper respect.
 Is ‘middle class morality’ only a bunch of hypocrisy.

 A serious Comedy
 Shaw’s Comedy is a serious Comedy, which makes the
audience roar with laughter, but at the same time
makes them think.
 Pygmalion is a great ‘ Irritant to Thought’

 Paradox based Play: Wit and Humour
 Paradoxical statements are seen all over the play. Wit
is a matter of the clever use of language and in this
play Shaw’s wit assumes the form of paradox.
 There are:
 Humour of character.
 Humour of farce. ( A style of humour marked by
improbabilities with little regard to regularity/ a
ridicule or empty show)
 Humour of situation .

 Alfred Doolittle and his conventional Morality
 Through him Shaw laughs at the conventional
morality of the English, making Doolittle turn it
upside down when he becomes an uncomfortable,
conventional rich man after having been a poor but
happy dustman.

 The Ending
 The ending has been the object of great criticism. The
audience expects that Higgins would marry Eliza for
the play has been called a ‘romance’
 The producers and actors modified the ending of
Shaw’s play by throwing a hint of Higgins and Eliza’s
marriage but Shaw felt deeply annoyed. Shaw wrote an
Epilogue to the play to explain why he had ended the
play without showing Higgins as wishing to marry
Eliza.

Act 1 Critical Summary
 It constitutes the exposition. The principal characters
like Eliza, Prof. Higgins, Pickering and Freddy are
introduced.
 The theme of the play comes at fore with Higgins
taking up a task to transform flower girl Eliza into a
lady fit for the highest society.
 Pickering and Higgins meets accidently and became
life long friends.

 Shaw has introduced lot of humour in the beginning
of the play.
 It arises between Eliza and Higgins as Eliza takes him
as a policeman.
 After the note-maker assures her that he is only taking
down notes, but the flower girl repeatedly pleads that
she is a good girl.
 After a while she announces that the note-maker is no
gentle man and further says that he has no right to
take away her character.

 Higgins sarcastic remarks regarding the flower- girl are
funny, he says, “ Remember that you are a human being
with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your
native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton
and The Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious
pigeon”
 Another sarcastic remark by Higgins : “ Yes, you squashed
cabbage leaf, you disgrace to the noble architecture of these
columns, you incarnate insult to the English language: I
could pass you off as the Queen of Sheba.

 This is a crucial act, the action of the play develops
and characters are unfolded. It is a “drama of ideas”
and the conflict in it is not the clash of personalities,
but the clash between the ideas, views, attitudes and
convictions.
 The central problem of the play is posed by Mrs.
Pearce who asks about future of Eliza. Her rank and
status would change and can she adjust in life.

 Second problem is raised by A. Doolittle that middle class
morality makes no concession in his case and makes no
efforts to help him. He does not want to change his rank
and status in life, for he does not know how he would have
to conduct himself in his changed conditions.
 Further he poses another problem when he says that it is
the woman who does not like to marry, for as soon as she is
married, the husband would have lawful authority over her
and would not care much for her, while as long as they are
not married, she is free from the tyranny of her husband.

 He advises Higgins to marry Eliza quite early, before she begins to
understand these matters.
 Between Higgins and Pickering, the clash of ideas takes on another form
and it clinches the central issue of the play. Pickering wants Higgins to
teach Eliza, Higgins accepts the challenge.
 Doolittle comes to blackmail Higgins but after being discomfited he goes
away.
 Higgins paradoxical remarks further adds the thrill when he remarks
about man woman relationship: “One wants to go north and the other
south and the result is that both have to go east, though they both hate the
east wind. So here I am, a confirmed old bachelor, and likely to remain so”.

 ACT III
 This act further tells us about character-development.
 Mother-son relationship.
 Eliza’s further transformation
 Higgins's success.
 A new Character Nepommuck had been introduced
whose appearance is funny- large moustache, large
whiskers and is called as ‘ Hairy Faced Dick’.
 He is deceived by Eliza, he took her as Hungarian
princess.

 ACT III
 When Higgins declared that Eliza is an ordinary
London girl from slums but taught by expert to speak
and Nepommuck bursts into a laugh and declares
Higgins's claim false.
 Higgins and Pickering further adds humour when in
enthusiasm to praise the abilities and talents of Eliza.
 Phases of education : Partial transformation as she
swears dreadfully and is rather crude in her manner.
 Her transformation deceives all.

 ACT IV
 Shaw has called the play ‘ a romance’ and the element
of romance has been added by the love affair between
Eliza and Freddy.
 Eliza is the creation of Higgins but Shaw has thrived life
and free-will into his characters and that is why he has
not followed the legend.

 ACT V
 The rest of the story is revealed through Epilogue in
prose.
 Shaw has added a Prologue in the form of a prose
Perfect and a prose Epilogue as finishing touch.

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw ( Character Study)
 ELIZA
 Eliza Doolittle, a daughter of a poor
dustman and earns by selling flowers. She
wears a shoddy black coat that reaches
nearly to her knees and a brown skirt with a
coarse apron. She speaks cockney i.e., a
London dialect. Her transformation is
brought about by Prof. Henry Higgins, an
expert of Phonetics. She is a girl who wants
to show off and impress others.

 ELIZA
 Eliza becomes a source of humour. She amuses greatly by
coming to the house of Prof. Higgins and telling his housekeeper
that she wishes to engage the Professor as her tutor to give her
lessons in speaking English. She once assumes airs of importance
by first declaring that she has come in a taxi and then asserting
that she would pay the Professor his fee. When Higgins instruct
Mrs. Pearce to take her into bathroom, strip her naked and scrub
her body clean with a brush and soap, Eliza feels shocked because
she has never before taken off all her clothes as she has never
taken a full bath in all her life. Keeping in view she says angrily, “
You are no gentleman, to talk of such things. I’m a good girl, I’m:
and I know what the like of you are, I do.”

 ELIZA
 She experiences a sense of shame on seeing herself naked in
the mirror. She is good girl who values her chastity and no
temptation seems persuading her.
 She finds the lessons to be an ordeal, but speaks English
well and creates a sensation. From her way of talking, she
appears command over the language and can speak it well.
However, she uses the forbidden word, “ bloody”

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw (Character Study)
 ELIZA
 At embassy reception, she proved herself right. All the guests at the
reception admired her dress, her jewellery and her majestic figure.
Even the hostess proclaimed she must be a princess at least. A.C. Ward
writes, “ Speech, Shaw believed, was the great barrier between social
classes and Higgins experiment with Eliza was intended to support the
proposition that the difference between a flower girl and a duchess is
no greater than the difference between the sounds they make when
talking. ….”
 Eliza seems a pathetic figure when Higgins is happy that his
experiment of making a common girl a duchess is over. Eliza puts
forward some important question and wants Higgins to answer:
 “What am I fit for? What have you left me fit for? Where am I to go?
What is to become of me?”

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw (Character Study)
 ELIZA
 She is the only character in the play that changes and
grows under the stress of circumstances. She develops an
identity and personality of her own. She feels insulted at
their neglect of her and after divesting herself of her
jewellery lest she be accused of theft, she leaves the house,
passes the night wandering about in a taxi with Freddy
whom she loves and proposes to marry.
 Eliza’s love story has not been depicted in the play but
through an appendix which Shaw has added to the play. Her
reasons for preferring Freddy has also been mentioned in
this section.

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw (STRUCTURE)
 Pygmalion is well constructed play.
 Pygmalion is based on three themes or actions
 1. The Phonetic experiment.
 2. The loss of identity.
 3. The quest for a new identity, fresh sense of
belongingness.
 The three strands have been skillfully blended and fused
like a typical organic whole drama.

 According to Eric Bentley, Pygmalion is a well-
constructed play.
 Act 1 the prologue, the play falls into two parts.
 In the first , a duchess is made out of a flower girl.
 In the second, a woman is made out of duchess.
 Pygmalion is essentially theatrical in construction. It is
built in chunks two by two.

 Pygmalion follows the pattern of earlier Shavian work.
An important character is often the representative of
vitality and that he remains constant like a catalyst
while producing change in others, especially in the
antagonist whom he is educating, disillusioning or
converting.
 Education of Eliza in Act 1 to 111 is a caricature of the
true process but in the end Eliza turns the tables on
Higgins for she is the vital one and he is just reduced
to a prisoner of his profession.

 There is a parallel story besides Eliza’s transformation
and that is the story of Alfred Doolittle. But unlike his
daughter there is no transformation in his case. He is
same as the rich as he was as the poor.
 According to C.A. Berst the construction of the play is
neither bad nor inartistic. Following variant patterns the
play progresses from ignorance to knowledge: the myth
faded into the reality, the didacticism turns from phonetics
to life. Eliza’s spirit evolves from darkness to light.

 Act I thrives in chaos, the act 2 plays levels of
comprehension against each other, in the act 3
Eliza is comic in texture as she is mechanical. Act 4
involves humour of lover’s quarrel, with a comic
turn when the underdog triumphs and the master
loses dignity. Act 5 carries it to the greater
personal depths through humour, involving a
psychological and spiritual search in which the
total complex is sensitively analyzed.
 .

 The end of the play has come in for a good deal of
criticism, though it is entirely in keeping with Shaw’s
theory of Life Force.
 The flower girl has been changed into a strong and
independent woman equating to the hero,
therefore, her love and marriage with Freddy
comes as an anti-climax.

PYGMALION BY G.B. Shaw Character sketch of
Prof. Henry Higgins
 Professor Henry Higgins is a genius subject expert of
Phonetics. His command over the subject is superb to
the extent that he can promptly and accurately place a
person in the locality to which he belongs merely by
listening to the few words.
 He is a strong and energetic man about 40 years. His
behaviour varies from genial bullying when he is in good
humour to irritability when anything goes wrong.

Prof. Henry Higgins
 According to Louis Crompton “ Higgins is in many ways a
paradoxical being. He is at once a tyrannical bully and a
charmer, an impish schoolboy and a flamboyant wooer of
souls, a scientist with an extravagant imagination an a man
so blind to the nature of his own personality that he thinks
of himself as timid, modest and diffident. He does bully
Eliza, does not care at all for her feelings, again and again
refers to her as a “ gutter-snipe” or “ squashed cabbage
leaf” without caring in the least for her feelings. His
scientific interest and devotion to his subject make him
entirely forgetful of the human side of the whole affair”

Prof. Henry Higgins
 His manners are crude and unrefined. At social parties he
is blunt to the point of rudeness. He remained blind to
Eliza’s problems. An educationist leads his pupils towards a
new way of life but he is compelled by circumstances to
leave his pupil to fend for themselves. To educate means to
give a new way to the pupil, but Higgins belong to the
category of educationists who unknowingly create such
problems for their pupils.
 He is a short tempered man who gets annoyed over little
things and who feels upset over trifles.

Prof. Henry Higgins
 He is a confirmed old bachelor and his attitude towards
woman is cynical.
 He is a source of humour in the play as well. His use of
strong language and swear words and his untidy habits are
all sources of humour.

 THE END
 Thanks for watching
 Slides prepared by:- Mushtaque B Barq

Pygmalion by g b shaw

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