She makes particular impact at the ambassador's garden party, her final test, where she must be passed of as a duchess, (for a bet). Higgin's vast funds which kept dressed in the latest fashions. It is a major key in the metamorphosis from flower-girl to lady, and is beautifully executed with the help of Mrs Pearce's severity on the insistence that cleanliness is vital, -"Well, don't you want to be clean and sweet and decent, like a lady? You know you can't be a nice girl inside if you're a dirty slut outside", and Prof. This is one Eliza's major transformations, -her change in her appearance. She is described as being, "not at all a romantic figure" whose "hair needs washing rather badly" and whose clothes are "coarse" and "shoddy".Īll of this, plants a very vivid picture of Eliza as a lowly, insignificant figure- another bleak form on the miserably wet London skyline, which is a far cry from the mental images of her appearance conveyed later, as a cosmopolitan and fashionable young woman who, rather than paling into insignificance, as she previously did, is quite striking. Our first introduction to Eliza, is in the form of the Act 1 stage directions (page 8), where her appearance comes under scrutiny by Shaw's vivid writing. It is Eliza's metamorphosis, from downtrodden flower girl to a polished young lady (the highs, the lows, the intense drama and the comic moments) which provide the basis for Pygmalion's well crafted story-line. Order custom essay In what ways does Eliza Doolittle change in Pygmalion? Pygmalion is therefore an appropriate title for this play, for Galatea is created from a block of stone, and Eliza herself originates from similarly unpromising beginnings, with Professor Higgins as the 'Pygmalion' character, as it is he who creates a 'new woman' from such raw material. On begging Aphrodite (the Greek goddess of love), to breathe life into his creation, his wish was granted and he married her. Pygmalion sculpted a beautiful woman from ivory, called Galatea, with whom he fell in love. Shaw took the title of his play from the legendary King of Cyprus, Pygmalion, who was also a famous sculptor. When the end result produces a very ladylike Miss Doolittle, the lessons learned become much more far reaching. Phonetics Professor Henry Higgins, tutors the very Cockney, uneducated Eliza Doolittle, not only in the refinement of speech, but also in the refinement of her manner. So on this Eliza Doolittle Day, perhaps we should all take a moment to think before we speak.Based on classical myth, Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion plays on the complex issue of human relationships in a social world. Our country was built by people striving to move up, not dumbing down. As Eliza's teacher Henry Higgins says, "Use proper English, you're regarded as a freak." But our country's biggest competitors are learning proper English and, judging from all the Indian call centers, learning it quite well. Nowadays, soundin' folksy has become more important than sounding educated. Even the rhetorically gifted President Obama has felt compelled to drop his g's while tryin' to sell health care reform. We are now in an age when Sarah Palin speaks to a quarter of the electorate, even though she talks like she's translating into Korean and back again. Listen to Franklin Delano Roosevelt say, "The only thing we have to feah is feah itself," and it's almost inconceivable that ordinary Americans trusted someone who sounded like Thurston Howell III. Marc Acito is the author of How I Paid for College and Attack of the Theater People.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |