George Bernard Shaw’s 1912 play Pygmalion draws its influence from Ovid’s story of the same name – the tale of a sculptor who creates an ivory statue of a woman, falls in love with her, convinces Venus to bring her to life and marries her.
But Shaw’s Eliza Doolittle is very unlike the lifeless statue of Ovid’s play. Though only in her late teens or early twenties, she is an independent woman – supporting herself with a job as a flower girl – in an era when women’s independence was a topical issue. The changes we will see in her are illustrated in the way she dresses, the way she speaks, the things she says, her poise and grace and finally her own view of herself.
While Eliza was a ‘new’ creation based on a much older tale, the audience of her time would be able to assimilate some sort of background for her since her social class is self evident. She is a female who finds herself unfamiliar territory. The play deals, broadly, with feminist issues.
When we are first introduced to Eliza we are not introduced by name. She is merely referred to as the flower girl. Indeed throughout much of act one all of the characters are referred to by description rather than name.
On first hearing Eliza speak, we are given indication of her social standing, “Nah then, Freddy: look wh’ y’ gowin, deah.” Her occupation as a flower girl, working on the streets of Covent Garden during the evening, coupled with her broad cockney pronunciations clearly betrays her working class status. The second piece of dialogue from Eliza, “Ow, eez, ye-ooa san……ye-oo py me f’them?” is so clearly unintelligible that Shaw makes an apology to the reader. It is interesting to note that despite her accent and pronunciation, Eliza is easily understood by the mother and daughter she addresses though they are well spoken themselves.
These encounters in act one are enough to give us the impression of Eliza as a common working girl with little education. However she is clearly no fool and is able to defend herself against veiled accusations of soliciting. Similarly, she can be polite when she thinks it will influence a sale as illustrated in her request to Colonel Pickering, “Buy a flower, kind gentleman. I’m short for my lodging.”
The first indication of Eliza’s strong will and determination to better herself comes in act two when she turns up at Professor Higgins’ house and demands to be taught how to speak properly. Later in this act we see the first evidence of transformation in Eliza, at least with regard to her physical appearance. After having a bath she re-enters the action dressed in a Japanese kimono. This physical improvement alone is enough to surprise and amaze both Higgins and Pickering. In fact, the physical transformation is such that her own father fails to recognise her until she speaks.
The first real evidence, and real test, that Eliza has improved herself through Higgins’ teachings comes in act three which, for the first part, is set in the home of Mrs Higgins. Here Eliza manages to carry herself off well for the most part in the face of a broadly unsuspecting audience. There is noticeable improvement in her diction. For example she greets Mrs Higgins and the others perfectly well, “How do you do, Mrs Higgins?” However her choice of subject matter for small talk is not what would normally be expected and there is still evidence that she has merely taken some cockney phraseology and improved to pronunciation, “It never did him no harm what I could see. But then he never did keep it up regular.”
The real test for Eliza comes later in this act – and some good time later in her development – when she attends an embassy reception. Here she has to fool a former pupil of Higgins which she does successfully. Eliza has little to say in this scene beyond two conversations with Higgins and Pickering. The evidence of her transformation comes in the remarks made by other characters and the description of her greeting to the hostess, “With a beautiful gravity that awes her hostess”.
While in Higgins’ eyes Eliza’s transformation is complete at this stage, it clearly is not as far as she is concerned. Her ensuing arguments with Higgins, and words of gratitude to Pickering, tell us that Eliza is more acutely aware of her own position in society, the challenges she faces and the realisation that her development has more to do with Pickering’s involuntary teachings than elocution lessons. Shaw could easily have wrapped Pygmalion up with a fairy tale ending but chose instead to challenge us to think about what would happen to Eliza next. The uncertainty of her future perhaps reflecting the uncertainty that a woman of her standing would have faced in British society at that time.
The postscript to the play, written sometime later, gives us Eliza’s future as being married to Freddy and opening a flower shop. This is only one possible ending but does allude to the fact that Eliza, and Freddy for that matter, continue to change and develop and eventually enjoy some financial success with their business.
But Shaw’s Eliza Doolittle is very unlike the lifeless statue of Ovid’s play. Though only in her late teens or early twenties, she is an independent woman – supporting herself with a job as a flower girl – in an era when women’s independence was a topical issue. The changes we will see in her are illustrated in the way she dresses, the way she speaks, the things she says, her poise and grace and finally her own view of herself.
While Eliza was a ‘new’ creation based on a much older tale, the audience of her time would be able to assimilate some sort of background for her since her social class is self evident. She is a female who finds herself unfamiliar territory. The play deals, broadly, with feminist issues.
When we are first introduced to Eliza we are not introduced by name. She is merely referred to as the flower girl. Indeed throughout much of act one all of the characters are referred to by description rather than name.
On first hearing Eliza speak, we are given indication of her social standing, “Nah then, Freddy: look wh’ y’ gowin, deah.” Her occupation as a flower girl, working on the streets of Covent Garden during the evening, coupled with her broad cockney pronunciations clearly betrays her working class status. The second piece of dialogue from Eliza, “Ow, eez, ye-ooa san……ye-oo py me f’them?” is so clearly unintelligible that Shaw makes an apology to the reader. It is interesting to note that despite her accent and pronunciation, Eliza is easily understood by the mother and daughter she addresses though they are well spoken themselves.
These encounters in act one are enough to give us the impression of Eliza as a common working girl with little education. However she is clearly no fool and is able to defend herself against veiled accusations of soliciting. Similarly, she can be polite when she thinks it will influence a sale as illustrated in her request to Colonel Pickering, “Buy a flower, kind gentleman. I’m short for my lodging.”
The first indication of Eliza’s strong will and determination to better herself comes in act two when she turns up at Professor Higgins’ house and demands to be taught how to speak properly. Later in this act we see the first evidence of transformation in Eliza, at least with regard to her physical appearance. After having a bath she re-enters the action dressed in a Japanese kimono. This physical improvement alone is enough to surprise and amaze both Higgins and Pickering. In fact, the physical transformation is such that her own father fails to recognise her until she speaks.
The first real evidence, and real test, that Eliza has improved herself through Higgins’ teachings comes in act three which, for the first part, is set in the home of Mrs Higgins. Here Eliza manages to carry herself off well for the most part in the face of a broadly unsuspecting audience. There is noticeable improvement in her diction. For example she greets Mrs Higgins and the others perfectly well, “How do you do, Mrs Higgins?” However her choice of subject matter for small talk is not what would normally be expected and there is still evidence that she has merely taken some cockney phraseology and improved to pronunciation, “It never did him no harm what I could see. But then he never did keep it up regular.”
The real test for Eliza comes later in this act – and some good time later in her development – when she attends an embassy reception. Here she has to fool a former pupil of Higgins which she does successfully. Eliza has little to say in this scene beyond two conversations with Higgins and Pickering. The evidence of her transformation comes in the remarks made by other characters and the description of her greeting to the hostess, “With a beautiful gravity that awes her hostess”.
While in Higgins’ eyes Eliza’s transformation is complete at this stage, it clearly is not as far as she is concerned. Her ensuing arguments with Higgins, and words of gratitude to Pickering, tell us that Eliza is more acutely aware of her own position in society, the challenges she faces and the realisation that her development has more to do with Pickering’s involuntary teachings than elocution lessons. Shaw could easily have wrapped Pygmalion up with a fairy tale ending but chose instead to challenge us to think about what would happen to Eliza next. The uncertainty of her future perhaps reflecting the uncertainty that a woman of her standing would have faced in British society at that time.
The postscript to the play, written sometime later, gives us Eliza’s future as being married to Freddy and opening a flower shop. This is only one possible ending but does allude to the fact that Eliza, and Freddy for that matter, continue to change and develop and eventually enjoy some financial success with their business.
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