One of the fascinating characters in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is Alfred Doolittle, the father of Liza Doolittle. His name even attests to his character before he speaks a line. Henry describes him as a blackguard before he even has a chance to meet the man in person. Doolittle was being judged before he even walks through the door. Not that he would mind because he seems to have a profound understanding of how the world of classes works. There is a misunderstanding when Doolittle first appears because each party is assuming something different of the other. Doolittle never wished to do more than what society expected of him; he was content to stay within his means. But when circumstances throw him for a loop, he returns to attest to the point …show more content…
He implies that there is a distinct difference in the morals and expectations of the different classes and then ironically proves this to be true by the end of the play. Alfred Doolittle has a profound understanding of the class system that he takes advantage of everyday. He even puts a nice term to the expectations of the middle class. Doolittle first brings up this concept of middle class morality when he is talking to Henry in Act 2 about Henry’s concern about giving Doolittle money. Henry cannot quite understand what Doolittle is after at first, but the more they go back and forth, it becomes clear. Doolittle simply wants money because he sees that there is money to be made from this situation. His logic is hard to follow but Doolittle thinks himself of the simplest intentions. It is in the communication of those intentions that everything gets muddled and then the topic of middle class morality is brought up. “Ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent like; and then good-bye to happiness” (2054). He implies that too much money will destroy his happiness and basically force him to live a different life than he is accustomed …show more content…
When Doolittle talks about middle class morality the first time, he mentions that he would “say good-bye to happiness” if he was given too much money. Then when he brings up this subject a second time in Act 5 he says, “Done to me! Ruined me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality” (2078). He suggests that with every class has its own set of moral codes and expectations. Also, now that he has the money, he is now expected to uphold these standards and expectations. During Doolittle’s longer speech that starts on page 2078 and goes onto 2079, he laments about all the trouble his new-found fortune has caused him. Suddenly, everyone one is more interested in Doolittle’s well-being or lack thereof as he comes to find out. Doctors are worried about his health and relatives have come out of the wood work to seek aid that only Doolittle can provide. Now there is an obligation to spend money because he has enough to give to people. This is the middle class morality he was talking about. It is not just about making money it is about spending money. Now the responsibility of taking care of the deserving poor is Doolittle’s problem. He also makes an interesting comment at the end of this little speech about his woes. “I’ll have
One of her argument is that people like to wear jeans and sweatshirt no matter the social class. But it does not mean the social class is disappeared. The price of a simple pair of jean can be low as few dollar from the thrift store up to thousands in boutique shop. Good and services are two good measurements for social station. The richest people is spending their money on personal services or exclusive experiences and isolating themselves from the masses. According to the poll by The New York Times, about 81 percent of Americans said they had felt social pressure to but high priced goods (Steinhauer). Professor Juliet B. Schor at Boston College suggests that “ the actual social competition used to played out largely at the neighbors level, among people in roughly the same class” (Steinhauer), but people have become increasingly isolated from their neighbors in the past 30 years. Magazines and televisions filled with advertisements and celebrities has become the new level of desire across all classes. Similar to the case from the film, Lillian is affected by her boss’s wife/friend Helen. The film represents marital and familial institutions. Lillian looks up to Helen’s high standard of life, which made her suffer in the
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
The movie “The Great Gatsby” illustrates the stereotypes and the conditions that society lived in, the different roles and duties society had in order to be successful. Regardless gender or color the chance for success must be distributive as equal, but it was not distribute equally. Society set of mind were negatively despised by lower class. "A person who was not well-to-do and who did not belong to the right club or attend the right school was considered not only poor, but sinful. The pursuit of wealth came to have a meaning which transcended the mere desire to be more comfortable. It served in an attempt to erase original sin and earn eternal salvation. Striving for wealth has become a way for Americans to ease their consciences, while
My first source, “The Rise of Consumption Equality” by Andy Kessler, published in The Wall Street Journal, discusses how the different social classes are becoming more alike and more different from each other. At the beginning of the article, Kessler’s talks about how wealth used to be popular, but now it is hard to be wealthy without being guilt-tripped by the lower classes. Kessler then moves on to say that most often the rich work themselves to death to make their fortune, and with the rise in new technology and equality, they only get to enjoy the same things as the middle class. He questions the fairness in that in the next sentence. In the following paragraphs of the article Kessler describes many of the dif...
“Where some possess much, and the others nothing, there may arise an extreme- either out of the most rampant democracy, or out of an oligarchy.'; This was once said by Aristotle who was probably the first to recognize the importance of a middle class. A powerful debate whether the middle class is essentially defined by cultural or economic factors still remains an issue. A rich tradition is devoted to disentangling economic from cultural components of a class. According to Karl Marx, the middle class is an outgrowth of economic factors, primarily capitalism. Many people tend to disagree with Marx that capitalism is the only important factor in the outgrowth of the middle class. Judith R. Blau argues that her understanding of the middle class has much to do with inclusive cultural values. Blau demonstrates her opinion though her ethnography, Social Contract and Economic Markets. I believe that Karl Marx’s economic factors and Judith Blau’s cultural factors together define the middle class.
Characters in the play show a great difficult finding who they are due to the fact that they have never been given an opportunity to be anything more than just slaves; because of this we the audience sees how different characters relate to this problem: " Each Character has their own way of dealing with their self-identity issue..some look for lost love o...
Molière’s play “Tartuffe and Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” both demonstrate a comical portrait of hypocrisy. In “Tartuffe”, the main character Tartuffe is seen as a religious hypocrite who takes advantage of Orgon’s wealth and agrees to marry his daughter, Mariane against her wishes. In “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Jack and Algernon both lie about their identity to get the woman of their dreams. The authors use the concept of double personalities in the play to reveal the deceit and lies to represent the theme of hypocrisy. In fact, hypocrisy is not only displayed in the characters but in the play as a whole. Additionally, the plays are both hypocrital in ways that they do not follow the structure of comedy.
The class structure during the 1920s had three primary levels: upper-class, middle-class, and lower-class – each having unique aspects about them. The upper-class lived extravagant lifestyles and could afford anything they wanted without working very often. For instance, when describing Gatsby’s mansion, Nick explains, “with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool and more than forty acres of lawn and garden” (Fitzgerald 7). In this quote, Nick is describing Gatsby’s house to the reader in order to show how wealthy the upper-class is. The middle-class was comprised of people who had to work to earn acceptable salaries, but had to be wise with how to spend their income because it was not enough to wastefully spend. As illustrated, when Nick brings up what his house looks like, he says, “My own house is an eye-sore, but it is a small eye-sore, and it has been overlooked, so I have a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires—all for eighty dollars a month” (Fitzgerald 7-8). As Nick describes the appearance of
The famous American comedian, Groucho Marx once said, “While money cannot buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” Marx believes that money will be the downfall of society because it is corrupt and creates individuals’ own different forms of misery. Throughout the book Great Expectations, Dickens repeatedly shows characters not pleased with their life because money has taken over them and has ‘chosen’ their own misery. Furthermore, Dickens uses Miss Havisham, Pip, and Joe Gargery to show how he develops his characters to define what a true gentleman is which proves how wealth that one inherits oftentimes leads to corruption and discontent in life.
changing attitudes toward life and the other characters in the play, particularly the women; and his reflection on the
comparing the quote to the rest of the themes of the play, we interpret a deeper meaning in the
In the beginning of the play, Walter is foolish and quarrelsome, with his heart set on becoming affluent. As he grasps how hard work his father worked and how hard his family works, he reasons that living by his standards is more important than gaining wealth, and he stops feeling resentful towards them. This play highlights how many members of society focus more on making money than living by their ethical
Your financial habits as a youth will usually follow you into your adulthood. As you grow older hopefully the amount of money you make will not be the cause of you acting like you are too good but it will humble you. Hooks described how she didn’t share the sensibility and values of her peers. Class disparity was important, it wasn’t just about money but about values which showed and determined a person’s behavior. A child develops certain desires and situations as he/she passes through childhood. While attending Stanford University, Hooks white, middle-class, Californian, roommate explained to her that hatred was “healthy and normal” (Hooks 419). Later on while attending graduate school she found that her classmates believed “lower class” people had no beliefs and values (Hooks
British society, like many European countries in history, was divided hierarchically. Since the Industrial Revolution, this system has been constantly changing. The new social class structure during the Industrial Revolution brought about four classes: The New Nobel class which was big businesses; upper middle class which consisted of doctors, lawyers and professionals that were financial stable; lower middle class which was teachers, shop owners, and office workers; and the working class which was farmers and factory workers. This structure has caused detrimental effects in our economic system, leading to less wealth
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.