Written Task II George Bernard Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ tells the story of a low-class flower girl called Eliza Doolittle, who one day encounters a phonetics professor named Henry Higgins. He believes that he can change Eliza’s speech and posture in such a way, that it would be plausible for Eliza to be a duchess, therefore Higgins wagers his friend Colonel Pickering on it. Higgins' bet is accepted by Pickering as well as by Eliza, since she will get to live in Higgins’ luxurious house. Once Eliza has moved in with him, Higgins puts a lot of effort into transforming Eliza’s Cockney accent into the speech of proper English. This written task will discuss how and why the text might differ from the original if it had been written in a different time, place or language or for a different audience. The story of Pygmalion is set around the mid to late 1800s in the city of London. The reason why Shaw chose for this setting is quite obvious, since it is the time period in which he lived and London was his birthplace. However, the setting is also important for the story. To begin with, in this period of time the pattern of social mobility was changing. If you were born in a lower class family, you could climb up the social ladder by working hard, like Eliza. Secondly, the position of women in society was changing. Women were considered more than just the child-bearers, their importance in the family life was finally acknowledged. This is shown in the story of Pygmalion when Eliza marries Freddy and she tells him that she wants to care of him. The story taking place in England is likewise crucial to the setting. England had a more solid social structure at the time than for example America, so it was easier to spot the circumstances that k... ... middle of paper ... ...e book would have been written in a different style. The language used would be inspiring and motivating, since the purpose of the book is to make people aware of the language they use and the impressions they make on others. These children would see Eliza as their example, an example that teaches them to work for what they want to achieve and to never give up. Pygmalion is a marvelous literary work: the story itself is engaging as well as witty, whereas the underlying thought of creating awareness of the importance of speech is ingeniously thought of. Not to speak of the influence Shaw’s play had in other countries. Each country has its own take on social mobility and the story of Pygmalion shows the first steps against class division and the opportunities that one can create by simple altering one’s language and posture.
Setting, including physical location and time, is essential for establishing the backgrounds and identities of characters in a piece. Even within countries like the United States, where English is the national language and spoken by almost everyone, regional influences on language exist. The way a character speaks and communicates is an important part of their personal identity as a character, as well as an expression of their regional and cultural background. In Zora Neale Hurston’s Sweat, the dialect of the South used by the characters is a ready example of the influence of culture on one’s language. The heavy influences of culture are apparent in many texts, and a change in time or location would alter the language and mannerisms of speech
When researching daily life in the Elizabethan Era, there were two prominent social classes throughout most of England. The upper or noble class families were akin to today’s upper class. However, the low-class families were much different from today’s low-class families. The gap between the two classes was so huge and a majority of England was impecunious. Most of the low class was orphans, abandoned wives, widows, the infirm, and the elderly. Each class, even the ones in the middle would despise anyone in a class lower than their own (Forgeng 21). Due to a lack of education, an overload of household responsibilities, and a lack of social acceptance, low-class Elizabethan English children were unable to flourish.
Cuddon, J.A., Revised by C.E. Preston. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 4th ed. London /GB: Penguin Books Ltd, 2000. N. pag. Print.
The community, although it is very tight and strongly bound by tradition and family, is also troubled and varied. The potato crop is failing, the maps are being changed for the convenience of the English, people want to move out of Ireland, (for example when Maire tells Hugh she wants to learn English for when she moves to America). Things appear to be at peace when we are put into this environment and everything seems well at first, but as we look further into it we can see things are much more deep seeded and dark than at first glance. For example, Doalty steals a piece of equipment from some English soldiers; this cheeky mischief seems harmless until we hear about some of the English horses being lead off a cliff to their deaths. Nothing is what it seems in this play, there are many more issues that lurk beneath the rather innocent surface of this seemingly simple, rural community; feelings of hatred and betrayal course through the bodies of many of the populous. What the English are doing is not right, nor is it fair. They have no right to change the identity of a people for their own convenience.
...English history and the English way of life is re-created. The temperament of each age is conveyed in a series of vignettes: the boy Orlando kneeling with an ewer of rose-water before the aged Queen Elizabeth, the Great Frost of James I's reign [where he wakes up not remembering a thing about it], Pope unforgivably witty at a fashionable tea-party”(page 131, Blackstone). As Orlando went through each faze of her life, she constantly tried to measure up to the ways of each society she entered. Every place she tried to fit in made her feel as if she just did not belong. However, when Orlando became a woman she did not lose the sense of her identity, she retained it and instead of being disappointed that every time she tried to conform she continued to press on until she was finally at a place in her life where she was content to be an independent person, living in her own world. She realized that even though she matured over the years, she remained true to herself despite the conditions, and restrictions society tried to place her in.
"The Condition of England" in Victorian Literature: 1830-1900. Ed. Dorothy Mermin, and Herbert Tucker. Accessed on 3 Nov. 2003.
The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 5th edition. Boston & New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 1999. http://www.martinspress 1564 - 1612 -.
The setting is London in 1854, which is very different to anything we know today. Johnson’s description of this time and place makes it seem like a whole other world from the here and now....
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
Clements, Victoria. Introduction. A New-England Tale. By Catharine Maria Sedgwick. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
The play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw portrays Eliza Doolittle, the main character, in various ways. For example, throughout the book, it’s shown that she grows as a person. Eliza is also shown to have learned life lessons from her experiences with Henry Higgins. In the following paragraphs, one will thoroughly understand the ideas proposed above.
22 of Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Rpt. in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag.
This part of the plot is the climax in Act V of Pygmalion and here it is exemplified that Liza has matured and realizes that she was being treated inhumanely. Her transformation from a girl with no manners and lack of speech skills to a woman with refined speech and eloquence brought Liza to realize that no matter her position socially she should be treated as an equal. It has been brought to light that she is not on the same level as Higgins because Higgins sees both the rich and poor versions of Liza as the lowest of the low, when in fact through her "new self" she is a symbol for power and respect, especially as a female in the Victorian
The author Jane Austen was writing in the most transformative eras of British history. Austen experienced the beginning of industrialization in England. The movie shows concerns over property, money and status that highlight’s the social scale of the eighteenth and early ninetieth-century England. The film shows the broad social class that included those who owned land as well as the professional classes (Lawyers, doctors, and clergy). Throughout this time there were strict inheritance laws. The law for owning property was that it would go to male children or male relatives rather than breaking it up ...
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.