Pygmalion Notes PDF

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Lecture notes on Pygmalion...

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Pygmalion By: George Bernard Shaw

Preface • Henry sweet real life phonetician and gives idea of Henry Higgins • Self confidence of Henry sweet is exploded into a know it all, pride ◦ In same way he is charming ◦ One source refers to him as a genial bully ◦ Self righteous • Henry Higgins based loosely on sweet • Modern era: three walls, inside of house ◦ Shaw's play • Shakespearean: problems of all time, globe theater - front of palace, • Shaw's plays are socially relevant, pertinent to that time • Victorian era - melodrama, over the top dramatic • Didactic plays - teaching, • Shaw is didactic • Social, emotional, and linguistic • Shaw ◦ Beginning of modern era ◦ Connection to Henry Higgins (arrogant) ◦ Henrik Isben - Norwegian playwright, initiates modern realist drama

Title: • Pygmalion: Greek character ◦ Metamorphoses (book): Ovid ◦ Classical myth ◦ Has hatred for women ‣ Their lustfulness, immorality ◦ Vows to have no interaction with women ◦ Sculpts a beautiful woman - thinks it looks good and should have jewelry and gives her a toga ‣ Adorns her with flowers ‣ Infatuated with his own sculpture and falls in love with her ‣ Wants real one ◦ Says prayer to Venus - says "make this statue living my wife" ‣ Grants prayer ‣ Statue comes to life and is named Galatea ‣ Has child Paphos ◦ Higgins is Pygmalion

Characters: • • • • • •

Gentleman: Colonel Pickering Flower girl: Eliza Doolittle Mother Daughter - brat Son: Freddy Higgins and Pickering both study dialects ◦ Higgins - dialects ◦ Pickering - Sanskrit, Indian dialects

◦ They are different because Higgins is a jerk but Pickering is a gentleman • Flower Girl: ◦ Cockney: lower class speaking ‣ Language shows culture ‣ If you speak bad - then you do bad (Shaw's belief) ◦ Feels like she's being charged ‣ Suggestion of a crime ‣ They think she is prostitute ◦ Can sell flowers as long as off the curb ◦ Bystander thinks there is a note taker tracking her ◦ Selling flowers *wink* to gentleman ◦ Looks disheveled but beautiful ◦ Selling flowers but doesn't want to be mistook ◦ Thinks she is equal to everyone who is under the umbrella ◦ People thinks she is a prostitute - thinks is an insult of her character • Note taker: ◦ Henry Higgins ◦ taking notes on her dialect, not on her "crime" ◦ Phonetician - studies language ◦ Can tell by dialect where you are from ◦ Jerk, he tells flower girl to shut up

Act I: • Setting: ◦ In London ◦ Raining at 11:15 PM ‣ Significant because all types of people/social classes come together ‣ Raining means they will be squished together under shelter, forced to interact ◦ His inspiration - Isben's notebook ◦ Portico of St. Paul's Church • Summary: ◦ Mother and daughter ‣ Want son, Freddy, to fetch cab because it is raining ◦ Other woman, Eliza Doolittle, comes under the shelter ‣ Beautiful but disheveled ‣ Selling flowers ‣ Has thick accent: cockney ‣ Finds out a man is taking notes on her • Feels threatened, being charged • Suggestion of crime • People think she is a prostitute • Has done nothing wrong • Can sell flowers as long as she is standing on the curb ◦ Note-taker reveals he is taking notes on her dialect, not on "crime" ‣ Is a jerk, first think he tells to the flower girl is "oh shut up" ◦ Flower girl is selling flowers *wink wink* to gentleman ◦ Several passages where Higgins is a jerk to the flower girl

‣ Read highlights ‣ Note taker is arrogant • Based on untruths • Pretentious • Insults flower girl about not speaking correctly but it is ironic because the Bible was written in different language • He's a hypocrite ◦ Higgins and Pickering meet because they are looking for one another ‣ We never get Pickering's first name ◦ Higgins/note taker claims he can change the flower girl ‣ Pass her as a duchess in 6 months ‣ Has bet with Pickering

Act II: • Setting ◦ This act begins with a description of Henry Higgins home ‣ 27 A Wimpole Street ‣ Needs a woman's touch ‣ No artwork/decor on walls ‣ Only full of science and technology for his work ‣ Shows he has no social life, no relationships ◦ Higgins is Pygmalion ‣ Hates women ‣ See background on Pygmalion • Summary: ◦ Mrs. Pierce ‣ Housekeeper ‣ Arrives and informs Higgins that a girl in an accent has come ◦ Flower girl ‣ Higgins tells her to get out at first because he has already recorded her accent. ‣ Willing to pay money to get lessons so she sounds more genteel, wants to work in a flower shop instead of on the streets. ‣ Liza thinks what she is paying for these lessons is much more than what she should be paying • Justifies this by mentioning that her lady friend gets French lessons for eighteen pence. • She's paying enough because Higgins in teaching her her own language, she is not learning a new language. ◦ Higgins and Pickering offend Liza ‣ Bet on her ‣ Don't think she can do it ‣ She just wants to improve herself ‣ Higgins knows this is important to her because of the percentage she is paying of her income. ◦ Pickering just offers to pay for her lessons ‣ Just want to make her pretty, like Galatea. ‣ Bets Higgins that he can't pass her as a noble at the ambassadors party. • If he can accomplish this, then he will give him the money. ◦ Mrs. Pearce does not approve of Higgin's plan. Why? ‣ Watches out for Eliza ‣ Does not want her to get hurt, tells her to go home ‣ Continuously tells Higgins to watch his manners around her ‣ She wants him to consider Eliza's feelings.

◦ Higgins tells Mrs. Pearce to wash Eliza and throw out her clothes to get new ones. ‣ He says then when he's done teaching her, she will have countless men courting her ◦ Higgins things she doesn't have any feelings ‣ She is ready to leave but Higgins gives her chocolates and promises more if she stays. ‣ He tries to tempt her with thoughts of a wealthy life • Riding taxis all around town. ◦ Liza will live there for 6 months ‣ Then will go to the king and if she passes as a noble lady she will get money, if not will go to jail and be executed. ◦ Eliza's father (Alfred) comes o the house to look for her. ‣ Alfred is a dustman, garbage man ‣ Hasn't seen her in 2 months ‣ Heard about her whereabouts from a cab driver ‣ Has accent, welsh origin ‣ Asks Higgins for 5 pounds in exchange for his daughter • Higgins says maybe give him 10 pounds • He assures Higgins that he will NOT save it and use it to buy clothes and alcohol. ‣ Has drinking problem, Eliza claims this is why he asked for money ◦ Liza is cleaning herself up in the bathroom (pg. 39) ‣ Embarrassed by her nakedness in the mirror. ‣ Never seen her full self ◦ Liza: "I'm a good girl, I am" ◦ Higgins: "you shouldn't cut your old friends now" (pg. 41) ‣ Do not want to become a snob ‣ Losing friends when moving up in society.

Act III: • Setting: ◦ 1st part: Mrs. Higgins home ‣ She is having an "at home day" ‣ People can walk in to pay a visit unannounced ◦ 2nd part: Ambassador's Garden Party (not in our version) • Summary: ◦ Mrs. Higgins is having an at home party ‣ Anyone can walk into her home to pay her a visit. ‣ Open house basically ‣ This is a Victorian Era thing to do ◦ Higgins says that he will bring himself and Eliza ‣ Mother does not want either of them there because they will embarrass her in front of her friends • She does not want Higgins because he is rude and will comment on everything (ex. Overweight). He has no filter • Does not want Liza because she is one of his Street projects ‣ Eliza is constantly being insulted • She thinks this behavior is normal (sees that they live in a rich home and this is the rich people norm) • She is also powerless so can't do anything about it ◦ This is a dress rehearsal for Eliza ‣ She is only allowed to talk about health and weather

‣ Mrs. Higgins can already foresee the train wreck Liza will be ‣ Higgins has fixed Liza's pronunciation but she has no concept of the right time to discuss things ◦ The friends that visit are the Eynsford Hills ‣ The mother, daughter, and son (Freddy) trio from Act I ‣ Upper class however falling out • Losing money • Dad died so they have no financial supporter • Their name is still upper class but every rich family falls out of money eventually (ex. Vanderbilt's) ‣ Clara - daughter • Snob, ignorant rich brat • Expects things because does not recognize they are losing money • No small talk ‣ Higgins says that this family is a good audience for Eliza • Is Eliza messes up it isn't a big deal because they are ignorant themselves. • They don't have small talk • They are so aloof they don't realize that she is wrong ‣ Higgins teaches her to curse • Eliza says bloody a few times • Mrs. Higgins basically says "oh Higgins why did you teach her that" ‣ Eliza talks about her aunt and how she thought she died from influenza but they "did her in" • Higgins says this term is the new slang to play it off • The mother doesn't seem to understand the slang, "I just don't understand young people today" • Eliza talks about murder, robbery, alcoholism, etc. Has no concept of conduct. ‣ Eliza memorizes weather report • Freddy thinks it's funny ◦ The Greeting Process ‣ Very awkward, disjointed, formal yet excessive ‣ "How do you do, how do you do, how do you do" to everyone shaking hands ‣ Mocking this • Different social classes • Mocking this because the upper class is not authentic, fake • Him being like Higgins is mocking his social class ◦ Result of test run ‣ ◦ 2nd Half: Ambassadors Home ‣ Higgins, Pickering and Eliza at Ambassador's Party ‣ Some time has past ‣ Eliza is discovered to be a fraud • Believed to be a Hungarian princess - not flower girl • Speaks English so flawlessly it could not be her native language ◦ Joke: we can't even speak our own language ‣ Person who discovers that Eliza is a fraud is Nepommuck • Former student of Higgins • Now a competing phonetician • Shaw draws him to be a buffoon ◦ Brash, surly and wrong ◦ Higgins is brash, surly, and right ‣ Higgins made mockery of upper class, bashed it

• Class does not matter, we are all the same, equal ‣ Last line: Eliza • "Nothing can make me the same as those people" • Ironic • What distinguishes her is morals ◦ Humility ◦ Honesty ◦ Industrious ◦ Integrity • Upper class did not naturally assign these qualities to lower class • Associating her with someone else ‣ Eliza think she has lost the bet for them • Pickering says she was a huge success • Higgins has passed her as a duchess and she has surpassed their expectations 10x...