Pygmalion through Feminist lens docx PDF

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Pygmalion (…through a Feminist Lens) “Pygmalion was written to challenge the class system, traditional stereotypes and the audience’s own views.” Pygmalion is a play which is written as a Romance in Five acts by an Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. The name of this play is taken from a Greek story named ‘Pygmalion’ where the main character Pygmalion sculpts a woman figure and falls in love with her and later staring her statue becomes his only motto of life when the Greek Goddess Aphrodite impressed by Pygmalion’s devotion to that woman figure, magically transforms the sculpture into a living being naming her ‘Galatea’. In this play, the role of Pygmalion is played by Higgins (someone who is the creator, the God, the father) and that of Galatea by the flower girl- Eliza (who is child, the weak and the one being corrected.) (The play was first presented to the public in the year 1912. This play consists of a lot many themes. To cite a few: Rewriting the tale of Cinderella and Sleeping beauty, Class, language and phonetics and Independence. But in this paper, I would like to work on the feminist aspect of this play for this aspect, is the one which impressed me more. As this paper is based on Gender analysis I am restricting my analysis to the theme of Feminism in this play. To begin with, George Bernard Shaw was an early and outspoken advocate for the rights of women, and as a playwright he created some of the most distinctive women characters of his day. He was deeply influenced in this aspect of his writing by Henrik Ibsen, a Norwegian playwright whose best known play, A Doll’s House, shocked audiences with its sympathetic portrayal of an unhappy wife who walks away from her marriage. Shaw followed Ibsen as a creator of intricate women and as a teller of uncomfortable truths about marriage and the relationship between the sex examining them comically but courageously: In his work, Mrs. Warrens Profession, he pens a sympathetic story about a wealthy prostitute and her daughter. In his other work, ‘Major Barbara’, he presents us with a daughter of a wealthy arms manufacturer who won’t take her father’s money for her work in the Salvation Army. And, certainly, in Pygmalion where Eliza’s accent into the middle class means that all she has left to sell is herself. Now that we have known George Bernard’s outlook towards feminism through the examples of his works let us dive into one of his works which is Pygmalion to know more about this ‘ism. From the very beginning of the play, we can see the unequal relationship between Mr. Higgins (the man) and Eliza (the woman). This difference can be seen by the parallelism between these two genders segregating them in the two groups of – superior and an inferior, intelligent and dull, practical and emotional, informed and ignorant. This can be simplified by citing the Act I when the two protagonists first appear and the difference just strikes us: Mr. Higgins, the male character, the language professor who is shown as an

upper class gentleman whereas on the other hand, the depiction of a flower girl by Shaw who is only a creature with visible and distinguishing marks of the lower class society. Higgins, can be seen as a hypocrite who is a scholar in the field of language and phonetics. He gives lessons to Eliza in improving her diction and mannerisms so that she can talk perfect English and Higgins aims of transforming her into ‘a duchess’ which would be successful provided, she executes his teachings perfectly. He of course knows the study of phonetics and language but he never applies it in his real life. He applies it only when he wants to ‘show-off’ his phonetic study. Throughout the play, Higgins is shown teaching Eliza to speak correctly but even if he does not speak his language incorrectly, it is he who uses awful, brutal and nasty language when talking to Eliza. Higgins uses words like “creature”, “a baggage”, one of the “squash cabbage leaf of Covent garden” and a “damned impudent slut” for Eliza. When Eliza comes up to Higgins laboratory for taking lessons on Language and phonetics, Mr. Higgins addressing to Mr. Pickering says, “Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down, or shall we throw her out of the window?”, when, in reality it was Mr. Higgins’s challenge to convert the flower girl - Eliza into a perfect Duchess, which means she had come for his work. Higgins, through this speech of his, shows that he has no sense of talking about a woman. In Act II, Higgins irrespective of Eliza’s gender orders his housemaid to undress Eliza and cover her with brown paper till her new clothes comes. HIGGINS [storming on] Take all her clothes off and burn them. Ring up Whitely or somebody for new ones. Wrap her up in brown paper till they come”. (Pygmalion, Act II, 37) Eliza in the climax scene hence brings up this topic saying, “… all I want to know is whether anything belongs to me. My own clothes were burnt.” (Act IV, 101) Moreover, he adds on saying Mrs. Pearce, “… if she gives you any trouble, wallop her.” (Act II, 37). He also recommends Mrs. Pearce to; “put her in the dustbin” when she says that she has no room for Eliza. Hence we come to know that, men in this patriarchal system, does not even give permission to let women choose what she wants from her own things or from something which is solely related to herself. Higgins when is probed to think of his behavior towards others, he like a thick-headed fellow does not even consider the question. On probing more and more he says that: “… the great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.” (Act V, 125) From this we can draw a speculative conclusion that by ’human souls’ he means, women, for he behaves okay with his male pals (Mr. Pickering) but considers women almost invisible and low species when he comes into contact with one. To cite a quote from the play, when he meets his mother’s friend, Mrs. Eynsford Hill and her daughter, he never greets her as she does and enquires about her as if she is some person who so wanted his attention and recognition but he never recollected who she is. The quote goes like this:

HIGGINS: [staring at her] I have seen you before somewhere. I haven’t the ghost of a notion where; but I have heard your voice. [Drearily] It doesn’t matter. You would better sit down. (Act III, 71) Mr. Higgins in the course of the play, talks about Eliza as not belonging to anyone. “… the girl doesn’t belong to anybody – is no use to anybody but me.” (Act II, 40). From this quote we come to know that, Higgins, and many other male’s like him, think of women as a ‘belonging’ to someone. When it comes to a woman she has to be a ‘burden’ on someone. She as an individual entity is never imagined by people spinning and living on the venomous web of patriarchy. Higgins cruelty and wickedness towards Eliza is proven while he is conversing with Mrs. Pearce when he says, “Well, when I have done with her, we can throw her back into the gutter; and then it will be her own business again; so that’s all right.” He says this right before Liza, without any shame in his eyes or countenance. Hence, he behaves like a master to Eliza whom he says he has, ‘picked up off the kerb stones’ like a waste pebble or a stone lying on the road which he would use for his own benefit of winning the challenge and then throw it back again from where he picked ‘it’ up for it to live there motionless for all eternity. As a friend or a human being Higgins to Eliza is a total failure but also as her professor of language and phonetics he smells the ground. In Act II, Eliza is seen seated with Higgins and the Colonel in the study where Higgins throws on Eliza his rude and strict question of: “Say your alphabet”. When Eliza rejects to answer him he as he in the initial part of the play, threateningly ordered her to ‘Sit down’ during her interview, yells at her to answer him by asking her the same question with more stern voice: ‘ Say your alphabet’. On Pickering’s insisting her to answer she does for it is only Mr. Pickering who is good, kind and chivalrous to Eliza since the start to the end of this play provided he is a good pal of Mr. Higgins. When Liza, incorrectly pronounces the alphabets, Higgins with the roar of a wounded lion interrupts her to throw his fiery remarks at her pronunciation. “..Stop. Listen to this Pickering. This is what we pay for as elementary education. This unfortunate animal has been locked up for nine years in school at our expense to teach her to speak and read the language of Shakespeare and Milton. And the result is Ahyee, B∂-yee, C∂-yee, D∂yee. [To Eliza] Say A, B, C, D. (Act II, 65). That amount of insult! Not only this but when she helplessly, totally into tears try to utter the sounds of A, B, C, D and fails to utter them, Mr. Higgins roughly without any effort to make her understand the same calmly spites out, “if you ever say b∂-yee, c∂-yee, d∂-yee again you shall be dragged round the room three times by the hair of your head. (65). Taylor McMahan in her essay, ‘Pygmalion Feminist Criticism says that Higgins speech of dragging Eliza across the room by her hair is “an extreme reaction.” Higgins believes that a woman has to be handled roughly, she is that wild animal who needs to be tamed, and who doesn’t know the language of love. Higgins speech is so dry, so coarse, and so pathetic towards Eliza that he tags himself as a misogynist. This is proved

when he once during a conversation with Mr. Pickering says that when he meets any woman he becomes selfish and tyrannical whereas that woman becomes ‘jealous’, ‘exacting’, ‘suspicious’, and a damned nuisance’ He is a misogynist for every other women other than his mother. This Oedipus complex in him makes him an even more abnormal misogynist. He wants every other woman to be like his mother. He just cannot bear any other quality woman posses other than his mother, or else he damns that woman. When it comes to Eliza, he mentally abhors Eliza more when she becomes a quintessential of a Duchess. Initially when he used to think that Eliza is an uncivilized girl, he now thinks about her as an entertainer who would mimic others after being at the party. Eliza’s speech with Mr. Higgins in the climax is worth reading for at that time we see an Eliza who is mentally developed and rational even more than Higgins. She behaves like a soul who is enlightened. She is calm, cries sometimes for being badly affected emotionally but she has answers to Higgins questions and has questions for Higgins behavior towards her. It is said that when a person is ignorant s\he is in a bad temper all the time and hence they are not reasonable or rational. That is what we see in Mr. Higgins’s case. He now becomes a person who time and again barks on Eliza when she asks him questions. Not only in the climax scene but all throughout the play we see him in a bad temper and into artificiality. How much more ignorant can he be then, when compared to Eliza who due to being poor was not able to take education but when she does, she becomes totally different from that previous personality of hers! And here is Mr. Higgins who in spite of getting all the luxuries and education in his life remains a dandy, artificial, so-called scholar in the field of language and phonetics. In the course of the play when he goes to attend the Shakespeare Exhibition at Earls along with Mr. Pickering and Eliza and answers some members who wants to know about Eliza’s background after being impressed by her speech, he says that Eliza is,”..An ordinary London girl out of the gutter and taught to speak by an expert” (Act III, 91). A teacher feels honorable when his\hers student performs well in the subject taught by him\her. But Higgins, instead of feeling honored feels jealous of Eliza for now Eliza knows better than him. Reader’s patience to Higgins behavior breaks off when Higgins shows his actually patriarchal ideology saying the below quote to Eliza: HIGGINS: “You won my bet! Presumptuous insect! I won it.” (Act IV, 97). When in reality the only deserving person to take the credit was Eliza and to certain extent Pickering and in a very least manner, Higgins. Eliza too, out of rage throws slippers on him before this statement to show her wrath on Higgins. She in the end declares that it is not Higgins because of whom she turned out into a fine lady but it is because of Mr. Pickering that she is living this respectable life for it was he who first showed his chivalry by calling her, “Ms. Doolittle” and not “a baggage” like Higgins. It was because of this respect, this love, given to her by Mr. Pickering that she gained some confidence on herself for her forthcoming task. To make Higgins realize his mistake she even taunts him by saying that, now Mr. Pickering has to call her ‘a flower girl’ and Higgins to call her ‘Ms. Doolittle’ for he needs to learn giving respect to her.

Higgins in the end of the play is shown to the readers, realizing his mistake when he asks Eliza to come to his place to stay again but now Eliza is a smart girl, knowing all tricks of Higgins. She retorts back by replying, “You want me back only to pick up your slippers and put up with your tempers and fetch and carry for you.” Eliza is mere domestic helper for Higgins, a helping hand to Mrs. Pearce even if Eliza can be much more than that. This is the crude reality of the patriarchal setup. Women, how much ever is qualified, is better than the opposite gender when it comes to education, the opposite sex will always take her as a house maid or a person working under him. Eliza, in the climax scene vulnerably asks Higgins, why he made her a sophisticated Duchess if her never cared for her, and why did not he thought of the trouble it would make for her, on which Higgins shocking reply says: “Would the world ever have been made if its makes had been afraid of making trouble?” (Act V, 127) Making life means making troubles. He still finds faults with Eliza,’ you are an idiot I waste the treasures of my Miltonic mind by spreading them before you.” Higgins thus suffers from intellectual snobbery. He belongs to the world of Shakespeare and Milton. All throughout the play, Higgins behave rude with Eliza. Eliza, in the last act as a representative of all women trapped in patriarchal setup says the below quote to Higgins, who is the representative of all the patriarchal men in the society. ELIZA: “I want a little kindness. I know I’m a common ignorant girl and you a book-learned gentleman; but I’m not dirt under your feet…” (Act V, 129) Finally, Higgins has to accept her on terms of equality. He says almost in the mood of condescension: ‘Eliza, I said I would make a woman of you: and I have. I like you like this’. He adds’ you and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors instead of two men and a silly girl.’ Later, Higgins gives Eliza the permission to choose color for his tie. Eliza is indispensable to Higgins in his day-to-day life. Rightly Eliza observes, what you are to do without me I cannot imagine.’ From this we can conclude that, Eliza had once taken lessons from him and then became informed but Higgins till the end of the play was depended on Eliza for choosing his day-today life’s things. From this we can conclude whether it is a woman who is depended on man or vice-versa? References: 1) Shaw, Bernard, George. Pygmalion, Simon and Schuster: Enriched classic, May 2009 2) http://www.studymode.com/essays/Feminism-In-Pygmalion-1685552.html

3) http://prezi.com/yzteezyzcj6y/pygmalion-by-bernard-shaw/ 4) http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/Pygmalion-Feminist-Criticism172317.html...