The Role of Education in Shaw's Pygmalion and Russell's Educating Rita
Both plays show that education can be used as a tool for emancipating working class individuals. Both Eliza and Rita get uprooted and have to give up personal features. Language is linked up with identity and both find a new identity through education. Rita is treated in the way according to her language. Yet pure language training doesn't transform her character and identity profoundly. Her change is simply external. Rita, on the other hand, keeps her way of speaking but develops her character and reaches personal independence. She has been internally changed because of literature. By comparing both plays, we see that education requires both language training and knowledge of literature.
Eliza's transformation demonstrates that social distinctions such as accents are artificial and suggest that class barriers can be overcome by language training. It becomes questionable however if language reveals or forms one's character. Eliza's outcry at the end of the play denies this idea. Yet she understands herself better. Education is connected with social progress. Eliza's problems show that language alone provides only a superficial transformation. She lacks education to become fully integrated. By this, Shaw illustrates the impossibility of moving classes in those days.
Eliza's never thought about becoming educated herself. Rita, on the contrary, wants to use education as a means of complete change, as the means by which people develop their potential. She succeeds in leaving her working class environment behind. Is education only liberating? As Rita adopts a new culture and becomes alienated, she might be regarded as limited, just like Frank, who has no understanding for people of a different class.
DiLorenzo, Thomas. The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War. Three Rivers Press, 2003.
Abraham Lincoln is perhaps the most revered American that has ever stepped foot on United States soil. Countless books have been written about him, and even today there are still authors who write their own take on his fascinating and unique life. Yet, for as famous and significant as this man was and continues to be, he is still a tremendous enigma. Historians have sought to know who the real man was ever since his life was prematurely ripped away by an actor whose heart was with his “country.” Of the many intriguing aspects of Lincoln’s life, there is one that has taken up steam almost immediately after April 15, 1865.
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was much more unique than the other president’s since he only used ‘I’ one time. The address was delivered on March 4, 1865 in Washington D.C. and only spoke 701 words. People were undoubtedly expecting it to be long, tedious, and mostly about Lincoln himself and what he is going to do for the next few years. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is so noteworthy because he defined the expectations of a typical inaugural speech.
With every speech comes a response. Whatever purpose it intended to have, fails, then the matters disappeared and at most, refuses to take the speakers words to heart. During a time of sensitivity, healing, and confusion, words are capable of acting as a medicated dressing all that is needed are the right words. Lincoln appears before the people of the states as one of their very own-- one who through a three minute speech spoke words of the people.
Abraham Lincoln’s choice of words gave the sense that the united states was still united. For example, in paragraph two, he expresses that at his first inauguration, “All thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war,” the whole united states was stressed over their future, insinuating discontent about all of the upcoming arguments, since neither side was looking forward to all of the deaths and bloodshed. This was what was supposed to make the crowd of northerners, Lincoln was addressing more likely to agree with the south. In the end, all humans are equally struck hard by loss. Towards the end, Lincoln attempted to encourage the people, that identifying with an enemy is the first step towards
In Act One, Scene One when Rita is first introduced, she’s a hairdresser and part of the working class. Russell introduced Rita as an audacious, ambitious but egoistic character. She isn’t scared to express her opinion, which generally amuses the audience, such as when she describes her opinion on the painting in Frank’s office she interprets it differently to what majority of the population would. The reason for her different interpretation is that she’s not educated to the degree that she would be familiar with that style of painting, this also becomes obvious when Frank and Rita discuss challenging death and disease: Rita refers to a poem that people in her class are more likely to read (later she describes this kind of poetry as ‘the sort of poetry you can understand’ and assumes that Frank won‘t like it as it’s simple and doesn’t have any hidden meanings) when Frank thought she was referring to a more sophisticated poem by Dylan Thomas. Throughout the scene we learn that Rita wants to understand ‘everything’ so she can enjoy things like ballet or opera, and that’s the reason why she enrolled on the course in the first place. She explains that she didn’t believe the University would accept her and the audience can see that she’s scared of what it might mean.
Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Salmon P. Chase (September 2, 1863), in Abraham Lincoln, Slavery, and the Civil war, Ed. Michael P. Johnson (Boston: Bedford Books, 2011)
In both books, we can see how both characters, Frederick Douglass (The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass) and Linda Brent (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl) have a contact with the concept of education. The slaves knew that learning things could be useful for them. If some day they become free and had the possibility of obtaining a job, they knew that what they had learned was going be both useful and necessary. They also realized that an educated slave was not well seen. Perceiving this, slaves normally decided to act as if they were uneducated and knew nothing at all. This way the owner will not know that they were actually uneducated or that they were willing to learn. The owners saw slave education as something wrong and it was strictly prohibited. In some cases, owners, mainly wives, will teach slave children how to read or write. This can be seen in the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, where we see that Linda’s mother’s mistress treated Linda well and taught her how to read. However, in most cases husbands will realize this and prohibit their wife from educating slaves. This concept is easily observed in The Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, where we see that Hugh Auld’s wife, Sophia, starts to teach Frederick how to read. When Hugh discovers this, he forces her to stop this; as he thinks that educating slaves will make them more difficult to
As to the relationship with their teachers, both students become more self-confident and their teachers become dependent on them, be it in a materialistic or personal way. Yet it is Eliza who complains about Higgins ignorance and carelessness whereas Frank reproaches Rita for her superficiality. At the end Eliza has regained her pride and improved her standard of living although Eliza remaining a social misfit.
Rita's education goes far beyond just reading and responding to books however. When she first comes to the university she is impressed and even a little intimidated by the intelligent people she sees around her. By the end of the play she is able to tell them when they are speaking nonsense and join in their conversations as an equal. Success in her literature course has thus given her greater confidence in the wider world.
In the Herland society education was a very important and valued aspect. Children were taught by the more experienced women of the society. Children appeared to enjoy their studies. This had a lot to do with how education was provided to the children. Learning was made to be fun and exploratory. It was hands-on and as the children progressed, their individual talents and interests were noticed and encouraged. “Beauty, health, Strength, Intellect, Goodness-for these they prayed and worked” (Gilman, p. 61). The theme throughout the novel indicated that the women were highly educated, and made every opportunity a hands-on learning experience. Even the arrival of the three men who were exploring became an educational experiment as they immediately began teaching the men their own language. Gilman noted that after capture, the men were each given a book to learn the Herland language, “we were indeed to learn the language, and not only that, but to teach our own” (p.
...e advancing through school while in the poem, the boy and his father are advancing through life. In ‘Freedom Writers’, the kids do not want an education because they feel it is irrelevant in their lives. They think that surviving until 18 years of age is an achievement. Their change of perspective is related to school and their lives. This is different from the poem in which the change of perspective is about the boy’s father. In ‘Freedom Writers’, the teacher brought about the kids’ change of perspectives, so it was induced. However, in the poem, time brought about the change, so it was inevitable.
"You can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can’t take the honky tonk out of the girl.” To some this is a quote and to others it may remind them of a song, but no matter which it reminds a person of the meaning is the same: one may change a person, but they will always have that part of them deep down inside. In this play two men are appalled by how un-ladylike a young flower girl is. The men intrigue the flower girl, which then causes her to approach the men, and take them up on their offer to change her. Over time the men work on turning the flower girl into a true lady. In succeeding such a passion for love develops and causes issues between the lady and one of the men. The issues that were brought up show that even though Professor Higgins changed Eliza’s outward appearance in Pygmalion, he never could change her true character.
...y a set of expectations and values that are established on mannerisms and conduct challenged by Elizabeth. From this novel, it is evident that the author wrote it with awareness of the class issues that affect different societies. Her annotations on the fixed social structure are important in giving a solution to the current social issues; that even the class distinctions and restrictions can be negotiated when an individual turns down bogus first impression s.
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a play that shows a great change in the character Eliza Doolittle. As Eliza lives in poverty, she sells flowers to earn her living. Eliza does not have an education. This shows through the way that she does not have the proper way of speaking. This happens through when Eliza is speaking to the other characters when she meets, then when she is still at a low level of poverty in her life.