The Research Essay: Are Successful Women Like Eliza Doolittle?

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Recommended: Describe two primary ways eliza doolittle changes in the course of the play

Nowadays, it is not hard to see successful women around us, but many people consider those women as creations of men, which resemble Eliza Doolittle, the character from Pygmalion, a famous play written by George Bernard Shaw about a professor making a common flower girl into a lady. Just like Eliza Doolittle, are successful women around us made by men? The CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, who was chosen as one of the most powerful businesswomen of 2013 by Fortune magazine, clearly shows that modern successful women are not like Eliza Doolittle. On their journey to adulthood, Mayer and Eliza have taken different paths.
In Pygmalion, Eliza,the poor common flower girl, meets Professor Higgins while they are waiting for rain to stop.When she meets him, she finds out that he is a professor in phonetic. Later on, she realizes that he can help her to speak like a lady, so she can work at a flower shop, instead of working outdoor, so she visits his house to ask him to teach her. Since she has never taken any formal education and doesn't even know that she needs to fix her grammar to be ladylike, she said, “I don't want to talk in grammar”(Shaw, 32), when he tells Colonel Pickering, who bets with Higgins whether Higgins can turn her into a lady or not, that it will be hard to fix her grammar.Also, she is born in poor family without mother, which is implied by her father,Mr. Doolittle, saying “No: that aint the natural way, Colonel: it's only the middle class way. My way was always the undeserving way”(Shaw,97), when he was asked about her mother by Pickering. However, unlike Eliza,Mayer had usual early days in a small family with parents who love her; she played with friends, studied in formal institutions and made many experiences, such as ...

... middle of paper ...

... IIT Graduates to Find Their Passion. IIT, 18 May 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Taylor, Felicia. "Passion Is a Gender-neutralizing Force." CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Apr. 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .
Sellers, Patricia. "How Yahoo CEO Mayer Fixed 1,000 Problems." Postcards RSS. CNN, 22 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013. .
Pepitone, Julianne. "Marissa Mayer Extends Yahoo's Maternity
Leave." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. .
"50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2013." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Sloan, Paul. "Google's Marissa Mayer Becomes Yahoo CEO." CNET News. CBS Interactive, 16 July 2012. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

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