Pygmalion is the story of phonetics professor Henry Higgins and his bet with Colonel Pickering that he can, through education, teach Cockney woman Eliza Doolittle to speak and comport herself as a Duchess at an upcoming party. The play sharply critiques elements of Edwardian English morality, particularly the class lines drawn by dress, composure, and diction. It also uses the cruel and manipulative Higgins to show the upper class's penchant for seeing those beneath them as subhuman or unworthy of dignified treatment.
Some writings are enhanced by myths and others are built upon them Pygmalion the play written by George Bernard Shaw is a prime example of a literary work that has been built upon a myth and in fact the play would not attain the literary merit it has if not for the myth Metamorphoses In the myth Pygmalion a sculptor falls in love with his scuplture In the play Henry Higgins a phonetics teacher falls in love with his pupil However Pygmalion marries his creation and Higgins does not Shaw uses thi
Changes in Eliza in Pygmalion Before Eliza first encountered Mr Higgins she was simply a dirty yet caring girl in the gutter of London During her time with both Mr Higgins and Colonel Pickering Eliza did change for the fist few weeks of her stay in Wimpole Street she questioned everything that Higgins asked her to do and generally couldnt see how they would help her Later Eliza begins to understand that Higgins as harsh as he is is trying to do his best to teach her and therefore should be resp
Two old gentlemen meet in the rain one night at Covent Garden Professor Higgins is a scientist of phonetics and Colonel Pickering is a linguist of Indian dialects The first bets the other that he can with his knowledge of phonetics convince high London society that in a matter of months he will be able to transform the cockney speaking Covent Garden flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a woman as poised and well spoken as a duchess The next morning the girl appears at his laboratory on Wimpole Stre
Pygmalion Play Analysis Pygmalion derives its name from the famous story in Ovids Metamorphoses in which Pygmalion disgusted by the loose and shameful lives of the woman of his area decides to live alone and unmarried With wondrous art he creates a beautiful statue more perfect than any living woman The more he looks upon her the more deeply he falls in lobe with her until he wishes that she were more than a statue This statue is Galatea Lovesick Pygmalion goes to the temple of the goddess Venu
Plot Summary One rainy evening in London two gentlewomen a mother and a daughter are waiting for Freddy the son and brother of the pair to hail a taxi Theyre standing under the shelter of a portico crowded with people when Freddy carelessly bumps into a flower girl The girl attempts to get the mother to buy the flowers her son has damaged and is successful She then tries to sell her flowers to another gentleman when someone in the crowd warns her that a man is taking notes on what she has been