The play, Pygmalion, by Bernard Shaw is about a phonetics expert who makes a bet that he can pass a Cockney flower girl as a duchess in the matter of a few months. This girl, Eliza does achieve the transformation, but at the expense of a familiar life in the gutters, and risks being caste off into the world with nowhere to turn. This play explores many themes, has extensive use of symbolism, interesting tonality, irony, and the play itself is an allusion to ancient Greek mythology.
The major theme in Pygmalion is class. In Britain you are very much judged by your social class. Your class is marked by your clothing, your mannerisms, and your accent. By a phonetics expert like Higgins, a person can be placed within two streets in London by their accent, and therefor can be placed under their social class and furthermore judged based off of it. Higgins takes on the challenge of passing off a girl born into the lowest of social classes, and moving her up the social classes by changing her accent, clothing, and mannerisms.
Another theme in Pygmalion is imperfection and perfection. Before her transformation, Eliza is viewed, by herself and the world, as flawed. Her Cockney accent keeps her in the gutter, her mannerisms appall those of the upper classes, and she can barely make enough money to get by. Then, her transformation perfects her, bringing her accent and mannerisms up to that of an upperclassman. However, in the quest to perfect, she is left with an imperfect life. She does not know what to do with her perfected self, and feels like a victim to the world.
This play explores a variety of serious themes, however Pygmalion's tone is light-hearted. Higgins is constantly making careless insults that actually come off as qu...
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Higgins' character is rather ironic. He believes that he cannot be changed. He thinks that his habits of walking over everyone around him and being outrageously blunt is too ingrained in him to be changed. However, the who play is about how he transform Eliza. He believes he can change her so dramatically that she can pass as a duchess, but he does not believe that even he can start to act like a decent person.
Shaw's depiction of Eliza's transformation from a Cockney flower girl to a duchess is rather interesting. Higgins' irony and comedic relief is adds a light-hearted tone to the serious themes presented in the play. Along so, the symbolism supplies a deeper meaning. Pygmalion is a charming work, which shows as it's lived gloriously through the years. Although the play ends without a resolution, Eliza's transformation is sure to win the hearts of many.
Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations in which anyone can be or be placed. Drinking and driving is a serious offence that can cause someone to be physically harm or even killed. Not only are you putting yourself at risk but you are also risking the lives of passengers in the car as well as any other car and occupants sharing the road with you. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a compelling role in cutting down the occurrences of driving under the influence. However, while harsher DUI laws will look effective on paper, they will not make a significant step in the fight against drunk driving. Although there is a law enforced for drinking and driving in the
It was difficult for me to find many parallels between this play and the works that we studied in Canadian Literature because this play does not follow a plot line and does not include many elements that could be relatable to the works we studied. It also does not relate to the themes that were emphasized in our course. However, I found the close analysis of the final scene of a play, acted out forty- three different times to be reflective of the close analysis’ we have done many times in class with poetry and prose. It was interesting to watch these close analysis’ to understand all of the possible interactions these characters could have had. It led me to question the endings of the works that ...
For many, literature is an escape. It creates new worlds for us to explore and ultimately teaches us lessons that we take into our everyday life. One of the main topics literature focuses on is conformity. It challenges the values society attempts to place upon people. Similarly, in life people face many challenges. They have values and standards they are forced to uphold as well see a stigma surrounding the consequences if they fail to conform. In the novel Divergent by Veronica Roth and the play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw the main characters break the barriers bestowed upon them in their own societies and ultimately become their own persons through gaining independence, standing up for what they think is right, and choosing the path they want for themselves. Without characters like this in novels, literature would be monotonous and stagnant. Everyone would be unoriginal since they conform to the same rules.
Egalitarianism can be absurd and detrimental to American society. In the story, heavy weights are put on strong people, and grotesque masks are put on attractive women. Also, many other people who have an above average intelligence often listen to loud noises which render them from completing a thought (5-7). Harrison’s father, George, compares the noises to, “somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer.” Darryl Hattenhauer of Arizona State proposes that “The story satirizes the American definition of freedom as the greatest good to the smallest number.” Unfortunately, the sacrifice of the individual to the good of society doesn’t improve conditions for the above average, average, or below (Alvarez). Joseph Alvarez suggests that, “the result [of the] power vacuum [is] a ruthless central government created by legislative controls people’s lives, which have become as meaningless as if they were machines.” In addition, the American dream that is described as moving up social and economic class through hard work and education; turn into a nightmare (Hattenhauer). For example, Kurt Vonnegut infers that the ballerina who reads ann...
If one person decides to drive home drunk from a party then that person has a chance of getting into a head on collision with others. That choice to drive drunk has just endangered countless lives of innocent people on the road.
Impaired driving is a very significant problem within our society. Impaired driving is defined in Canada as operating a vehicle (including cars, trucks, boats, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles) while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It is recognized as a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada. Despite a sizeable drop in the impaired driving rate since the mid-1980s, impaired driving is the leading cause of criminal death in Canada. It is a major issue that is taken very lenient but is far more dangerous than people actually consider it to truly be. Driving under the influence does not only put the person operating the vehicle in potential danger and harm, but also has the potential to do harm towards innocent others. With this being said, the punishments regarding the accused’s conviction of crimes related to impaired driving should be far stricter than the current punishments in order to stop impaired driving within our flawed society. This stated, these are my following reasons as to why I believe that the punishments of impaired driving should be stricter.
To an extent, the characters in the play represent aspects of the Australian identity and experience. However, Rayson's vivid grasp of speech patterns to evoke character, and her ability to manipulate the audience with humour and pathos move the text beyond mere polemic and stereotype. In an almost Brechtian way, she positions us to analyse as we are entertained and moved.
Over the last several years the dangers of driving while intoxicated have increased and have become a serious threat to this nation. Although, men are considered the main perpetrators of DUIs recently women, young adults, and even teenagers have been pulled over and arrested for being intoxicated while operating a vehicle. Many groups and organizations have been formed in an attempt to keep drunk drivers off the roads. Laws have been passed and are constantly changing in an attempt to cut down the number of DUIs and deaths. With new technology in production and automakers adding more safety features to their cars the war against drunken driving is still going on. Therefore, as a result of the increase due to drinking and driving, it is essential that tougher laws are enacted.
The action the audience is forced to recognize in Six Characters is subtly broached in Chekhov's play. It is discussion, and it is real discussion. People are different, and people are unpredictable. Reality is tragically inane, and that is what the theatre shows best.
The elements that are illustrated within Pygmalion support the theme of language being the distinctions amid the social classes. The characters prove themselves through their speech to belong to their appropriate classes. The transformations are seen from the young girl still in training alongside her already sophisticated mother, and the impact Higgins’ criticism has had on Eliza. The purpose shown within the play is further supported that being educated will result in a new world of opportunities, while it will never change the true self worth of the individual. Conclusively it establishes that social classes themselves are superficial, and to judge on the content of character will always be more important than imagine on the outer surface.
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 most 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. To understand the reasons Eliza is able to change and be changed into an almost Cinderella like character. With Eliza going from and growing and changing through the hardship she faces. In the play Eliza begins with no confidence and works towards having a way to reach trough from learning during her life experiences. Learning through the other characters Eliza meets through out the play. Eliza grows stronger and shows how she is able to change her ways one can understand how she is able to change and makes these changes by seeing her through poverty, how she is interacting with the other characters in the play, and through the things she learns from the options that are provided to her. Eliza’s beginning education skills of learning to speak clearly through learning diction, etiquette, and looking proper for society. In addition, from how Eliza feels rich when she has money from the broken flowers and when she is able to be riding in the taxi, her ideas showing her strong will her insistence on marrying Freddy. Both Eliza and Cinderella grow up in poverty, have a stepmother figure, have a fairy godmother figure, arrive at the ball, show confidence, and married. By comparing and contrasting Eliza to Cinderella, we can better understand why and how Eliza changes.
“Manners are the happy way of doing things” according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. According to Emerson people use manners as a front to make themselves look better. Inherently, this will lead to a contradiction of the front and the reality. One such man who is most concerned with manners is the protagonist of Shaw’s Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins. Higgins is a man who displays contradictions within his character. He is in the business of teaching proper manners, although lacks them himself. In addition, Higgins is an intelligent man, and yet he is ignorant of the feelings of those around him. Another apparent contradiction is that Higgins’ outer charm serves to hide his bullying nature. He manipulates Eliza and others around him to serve his own purposes, without any regard for her feelings.
To conclude, Shaw tried to use his play Pygmalion as a statement to illustrate that class differences are strengthened by language. Throughout the play, it is shown that wealth, power and social position determine who the individual is. Moreover, gender differences and women’s position are wittily addressed by means of the relationships between different characters.
Bernard Shaw's play, entitled Pygmalion, transcends the nature of drama as a medium to be utilized for sheer entertainment value. Shaw's play powerfully comments on the capacity for the individual to overcome the boundaries established by systems of class and gender. Dominant assumptions and expectations may essentially prevent an individual from becoming socially mobile within a seemingly rigid hierarchical social structure. However, Liza, the protagonist utilizes language as the tool which enables the her to escape the confines of the lower class and to be regarded as a human of a certain degree of worth within society. As Liza transforms from flower girl to duchess, the audience is witness to the many ways that an individual can be dehumanised through the socialisation process. Issues of both class and gender arise from the tensions within the play that surround the interactions between Higgins and Liza and the viewer is able to openly question the values that exist within a society that judges the character of a person on the basis of wealth and education.