Pygmalion

1641 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Research Social Class in Britain in the Edwardian Era

Pygmalion

An interpretation of Class Relations in Pygmalion

In Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, there is a distinct variance in class relations and the way that early 20th century Britains were perceived as being different by their speech, money, wealth, style, manners, and appearance. Being a lady or a gentleman was an acquired status desirable among most of London’s society. However, in Pygmalion, Shaw tells a story about the transition of a homeless young woman with the aspiration to become a respected lady.

Eliza Doolittle is an 18 or 19 year-old young women, making a living from selling old flowers on the streets. When she comes across a rude Professor, named Henry Higgins, he sarcastically offers her to “learn how to speak beautifully, like a lady in a florist’s shop…..at the end of six months you shall go to Buckingham palace in a carriage, beautifully dressed.” This is what he proposes to Eliza when she comes to ask for English lessons from the Professor. He then makes a bet with another man, Colonel Pickering, who says he will pay for her new clothes and English lessons, if Higgins can make a lady out of her in six months. The deal is made, and Eliza is immediately washed up and put into new, clean clothes. The play begins like this, which sets the plot for the rest of the story.

An example of modern day class relations with speech can be described by linguistic anthropologists, and in an article called “Suite for Ebony and Phonics” by John R. Rickford. In this article, he discusses the African-American speech Ebonics, and the negative impact it has across America. Being called “lazy English,” “bastardized English,” and “poor grammar,” it seems to be the same thing that was going on in England during the time Pygmalion was written. I’m sure that if we were to ask Henry Higgins if that is what he thought about the way Eliza spoke he would whole-heartedly agree. However, the poor English that Eliza spoke was never considered as becoming a legal language in England.

The play begins off on a rainy night on the streets, with a lady and her daughter waiting for a cab. In this first act, Eliza asks them to buy a flower from her, with the response from the daughter, “Do nothing of the sort, mother. The idea!” When the mother gives her some change, the daughter again exclaims, “Make her give you the change. These things are only a penny a bunch ...

... middle of paper ...

...he rats. Aristocrats ran society, and they had no need for the homeless and poor.

In relating this subject to anthropology, there are a lot of points that can be made between the comparison of class relations and other issues similar to it. The study of Ebonics is a very good comparison to Pygmalion, and the way that someone speaks can effect how other people view them. Even though some think it is not an issue today, it can still be compared to early 20th century England and the way upper class looked down upon others. In the same way, many people do look down upon people speaking the too familiar sound of Ebonics.

Works Cited

McIntosh, Peggy. “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Applying Anthropology. Aaron Podelefsky and Peter J. Brown. California: Mayfield. 217-220.

Nagengast, Carole. “Women, Minorities, and Indigenous Peoples: Universalism and Cultural Relativity.” Applying Anthropology. Aaron Podelefsky and Peter J. Brown. California: Mayfield. 340-352.

Rickford, John R.. “Suite for Ebony and Phonics.” Applying Anthropology. Aaron Podelefsky and Peter J. Brown. California: Mayfield. 176-180.

Shaw, Bernard. Pygmalion. England: Penguin, 1913.

Show More
Related

  • Essay On Post Racial Society

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    “White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks” (McIntosh, 172). White privilege is all around us, but society has been carefully taught

    Read More

  • Marni Finkelstein in With No Direction Home

    1594 Words  | 4 Pages

    Robbins, R. H. (2014). Cultural anthropology: a problem-based approach (Second Canadian ed.). Itasca: F.E. Peacock.

    Read More

  • Summary Of On Being Told I Don T Speak Like A Black Person

    980 Words  | 2 Pages

    Which in some cases it might apply and be true, but a whole race can’t be classified as poor or uneducated because not everyone in a minority group are lower class and not everyone in the hegemony race is wealthy and has had a good education. The poem mentions how the mother of the author has a different accent because even though the mother was forced to lose her accent back in Jamaica when colonial minded teachers were teaching her. Her. “Mother never lost her accent, though, the music of her voice, charming everyone.” (701) This quote shows that the author still thinks her mom 's voice is beautiful, even though is different from her own voice and how she admires her mother accent and don’t think less of her by the accent even if that’s not the accent she pick up as a kid. It also implies that now everyone in a same household has the same accent and this is because people even in the same neighborhood have different

    Read More

  • Unpacking The Invisible Knapsack Summary

    733 Words  | 2 Pages

    Dr. Peggy McIntosh looks at white privilege, by “Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” She describes white privilege as almost a special check or coin that she gets to cash in on. Dr. McIntosh tells that white privilege has been a taboo and repressed subject – and that many white people are taught not to see or recognize it. However, she is granted privileges (McIntosh 30). Dr. McIntosh goes on to describe twenty-six ways in which her skin-color grants her certain privileges. In example twenty, she describes how she can buy “…posters, postcards, picture books…” and other items that “…feature people of my race” (32). Additionally, in her first example, she talks about being able to be in the “company of people of my race most of the time” (McIntosh 31). Instances in which a privilege person would not even recognize unless they were looking, show evidence for white privilege. People take these advantages for granted because they simply expect them. Due to the lack of melatonin in her skin, she was granted privileges and her skin served as an asset to her. Dr. McIntosh conveys how her privilege is not only a “favored state,” but also a power over other

    Read More

  • Title of my paper

    773 Words  | 2 Pages

    Smitherman is certainly qualified to address her colleagues about the treatment of “Black English” in academia, but with such a charged writing style it is possible that her audience would not make it to her conclusion. Smitherman assumes that the general base of her audience are “White English” speakers that can understand “Black English”. She also assumes that all African Americans speak the same way. These assumptions are her first major problem. At the time of this articles publication in 1973, it is conceivable that certain scholars would have ignored the piece because of its hybrid u...

    Read More

  • Non Human Primates Essay

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Robbins Burling, David F. Armstrong, Ben G. Blount, Catherine A. Callaghan, Mary Lecron Foster, Barbara J. King, Sue Taylor Parker, Osamu Sakura, William C. Stokoe, Ron Wallace, Joel Wallman, A. Whiten, Sherman Wilcox and Thomas Wynn. Current Anthropology, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 25-53

    Read More

  • Imagine A Country Summary

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    The two articles that had a profound impact to my understanding of race, class and gender in the United States was White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh and Imagine a Country by Holly Sklar. McIntosh explains the keys aspects of unearned advantage (a privilege that one group hold over another) as well as conferred dominance (the act of voluntarily giving another group power) and the relationship that these factors hold when determine power of a social group. Additionally, the purpose of McIntosh’s article was to demonstrate the privilege that certain individuals carry and how that translates to the social structures of our society. Furthermore, conferred dominance also contributes to the power of the dominant group

    Read More

  • Black Dialect

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    Also known as Black English, Black dialect, like many other dialects is drastically identified as a complete, “rule-governed”, form of language. To those who use black dialect, there is a less sufficient understanding of the actual meaning. The black community may protest Black English because of the controversy it causes. Because of these effects, some concluded that black people suffered from “self hatred” due to dominatio...

    Read More

  • Basic Cultural Norms

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nanda, S and Warms, R.L. (2011). Cultural Anthropology, Tenth Edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN – 13:978-0-495-81083-4.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The White Apron

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    After spending more than half of the play looking down on her employee, the madam decides that she wants to switch places with her maid as part of a game. It is rather ironic how much the play follows the story line of the princes and the pauper. Where two women of different social standing switches places with each other, in order to experiences how their other side lives. It is arguable comedic that the women are able to assume their roles without much effort. The madam really acts the role of the maid, she acts how she believes the stereotypical maid should be, she sits behind her employer and begins to pay more attention to her son. Whereas the maid, clearly states to her employer that it’s not her job to pay attention because she is a “lady”. She puts her the tanning lotion, sunglasses and begins to

    Read More

  • Pygmalion and Educating Rita - Rita as a Modern Day Eliza

    328 Words  | 1 Pages

    Both Rita and Eliza rebel against the inflexible class system and have problems developing their potential. They suggest that everyone is capable of fulfilling his potential if he is only given the opportunity. And their teachers and other members of their class misunderstand them. Furthermore they reject the traditional role of women as well.

    Read More

  • Betty Keller's Major Conflict In The Tea Party By Amy Keller

    999 Words  | 2 Pages

    2. Consider the women, particularly with regard to their age. In light of their health and their isolation, how does Tea Party present the circumstances of the aged? How can the play be constructed as a social/political argument, with elderly as a

    Read More

  • Great Expectations Film Analysis

    547 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lower class have a more relaxed and unprofessional way of talking. For example, they would say “Who d’ye live with -- supposin’ you’re kindly let to live, which I han’t made up my mind about?” It is mostly improper dialogue. The upper class have a more posh and proper way of talking because they are most likely to afford to go to school and be educated well. This really gives the audience an idea of what social class each character is and helps make a part of the movie stand out with that detail.

    Read More

  • Class Distinction in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Class in Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrew

    1986 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...t Fielding tends to mock the upper class more and it can be argued they are the ones with worse characteristics however he also ridicules lower class characters such as Mrs. Slipslop, the middle aged plump lady's maid who is also a bully ; Peter Pounce, the swindling skinflint, Mrs. Tow-wouse, the scolding innkeepers wife and Pamela's hypocrisy in the sense she once saw Fanny as her equal but now deems herself to be superior. In conclusion we see that Fielding does not so much then make a distinction between class, but shows us that hypocrisy, vanity, unkindness and cruelty are vices that belong to all members of society and it is only those who see the goodness in humanity and who treat all others with kindness and respect regardless of class that are superior individuals.

    Read More

More about Pygmalion

Open Document