مسرحية بيجامليون كاملة للفهم وشرح كل فصل فيها بطريقة مختصرة ورائعة

[الخيل الجريح]

مسرحية بيجامليون كاملة للفهم وشرح كل فصل فيها بطريقة مختصرة ورائعة

Pygmalion

Act I
Summary
A heavy late-night summer thundersto rm opens the play. Caught in the unexpected downpour, passersby from distinct strata of the London streets are forced to seek shelter together under the portico of St Paul's church in Covent Garden. The hapless Son is forced by his demanding sister and mother to go out into the rain to find a taxi even though there is none to be found. In his hurry, he knocks over the basket of a common Flower Girl, who says to him, "Nah then, Freddy: look wh' y' gowin, deah." After Freddy leaves, the mother gives the Flower Girl money to ask how she knew her son's name, only to learn that "Fredd y" is a common by-word the Flower Girl would have used to address anyone.
An elderly military Gentleman enters from the rain, and the Flower Girl tries to sell him a flower. He gives her some change, but a bystander tells her to be careful, for it looks like there is a police informer taking copious notes on her activities . This leads to hysterical protestati ons on her part, that she is only a poor girl who has done no wrong. The refugees from the rain crowd around her and the Note Taker, with considerab le hostility towards the latter, whom they believe to be an undercover cop. However, each time someone speaks up, this mysterious man has the amusing ability to determine where the person came from, simply by listening to that person's speech, which turns him into something of a sideshow.
The rain clears, leaving few other people than the Flower Girl, the Note Taker, and the Gentleman. In response to a question from the Gentleman, the Note Taker answers that his talent comes from "simpl y phonetics. ..the science of speech." He goes on to brag that he can use phonetics to make a duchess out of the Flower Girl. Through further questionin g, the Note Taker and the Gentleman reveal that they are Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering respective ly, both scholars of dialects who have been wanting to visit with each other. They decide to go for a supper, but not until Higgins has been convinced by the Flower Girl to give her some change. He generously throws her a half-crown, some florins, and a half-sovereign. This allows the delighted girl to take a taxi home, the same taxi that Freddy has brought back, only to find that his impatient mother and sister have left without him.

Commentary
This act is carefully constructe d to portray a representa tive slice of society, in which characters from vastly different strata of society who would normally keep apart are brought together by untoward weather. It is no coincidenc e that this happens at the end of a show at the theater, drawing our attention to the fact that the ensuing plot will be highly theatrical , that its fantastic quality is gleaned from the illusionar y magic of theater. While the transforma tion of Eliza in the play focuses on speech, each one of her subsequent tests is also something highly theatrical , depending on the visual impact she makes, and how she moves. The highly visual, on top of aural (therefore , altogether theatrical ), way in which the flower girl is made into a duchess is emphasized right from this opening act. Under these terms, it should help us to think about the comparison of the artificial makeover of Eliza Doolittle that the phonetics scientist can achieve, to the genuine increase in self-esteem that the considerat e gentleman can bestow upon her.
The confusion of the thundersto rm foreshadow s the social confusion that will ensue when Higgins decides to play god with the raw material that the unschooled flower girl presents to him. In this act, everyone is introduced in very categorize d roles. In this scene, Shaw introduces almost all his major characters , but refers to them by role rather than name in his stage directions : Note-Taker, The Flower Girl, The Daughter, The Gentleman, etc. Furthermor e, his stage directions describing where characters stand with every line, particular ly in relation to other characters , come across as more than fastidious in their detail. All this evokes a society whose members have rigid relations to one another. The odd, seemingly irrelevant episode when The Mother gives the Flower Girl money to find out how she knew her son's name shows the Mother's fear that her son might be associatin g with the wrong sort. The incident also conflates a real name with a common term that can apply to anyone; Freddy is for a moment both term and character. By the end of the act, The Note-Taker, The Gentleman, and The Flower Girl have become Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza, respective ly. This move will continue through the length of the play, where a less visible blooming of real persons out of mere social positions occurs. If Higgins is one kind of Pygmalion who makes a flower girl a duchess, Shaw is a grander, more total Pygmalion who can will transform mere titles into human names.
Rememberin g that Pygmalion is subtitled "A Romance in Five Acts," this act strikes us as a rather odd, unceremoni ous way of introducin g the heroes of a romance. For starters, the heroine is described as being "not at all a romantic figure." The hero calls the heroine a "squas hed cabbage leaf," while she can do no better than "Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo" back at him. The impression she makes on him is abstract (as an interestin g phonetic subject) while that which he makes on her is monetary (he throws her some change), so that we get no indication at all that any feelings of affection will eventually develop between these two. Indeed, we must see the play as a deliberate attempt by Shaw to undo the myth of Pygmalion, and, more importantl y, the form of the romance itself. Bearing this in mind, it is possible to approach the rest of the play without a preconceiv ed idea of how a romantic play should conclude, and to notice, as Shaw intends, that there are more utilitaria n than romantic aspects to the characters ' relationsh ips with one another

Act II

Summary
The next day, Higgins and Pickering are just resting from a full morning of discussion when Eliza Doolittle shows up at the door, to the tremendous doubt of the discerning housekeepe r Mrs. Pearce, and the surprise of the two gentlemen. Prompted by his careless brag about making her into a duchess the night before, she has come to take lessons from Higgins, so that she may sound genteel enough to work in a flower shop rather than sell at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. As the conversati on progresses , Higgins alternates between making fun of the poor girl and threatenin g her with a broomstick beating, which only causes her to howl and holler, upsetting Higgins' civilized company to a considerab le degree. Pickering is much kinder and considerat e of her feelings, even going so far as to call her "Miss Doolittle" and to offer her a seat. Pickering is piqued by the prospect of helping Eliza, and bets Higgins that if Higgins is able to pass Eliza off as a duchess at the Ambassador 's garden party, then he, Pickering, will cover the expenses of the experiment .
This act is made up mostly of a long and animated three-(sometimes four-)way argument over the character and the potential of the indignant Eliza. At one point, incensed by Higgins' heartless insults, she threatens to leave, but the clever professor lures her back by stuffing her mouth with a chocolate, half of which he eats too to prove to her that it is not poisoned. It is agreed upon that Eliza will live with Higgins for six months, and be schooled in the speech and manners of a lady of high class. Things get started when Mrs. Pearce takes her upstairs for a bath.
While Mrs. Pearce and Eliza are away, Pickering wants to be sure that Higgins' intentions towards the girl are honorable, to which Higgins replies that, to him, women "might as well be blocks of wood." Mrs. Pearce enters to warn Higgins that he should be more careful with his swearing and his forgetful table manners now that they have an impression able young lady with them, revealing that Higgins's own gentlemanl y ways are somewhat precarious . At this point, Alfred Doolittle, who has learned from a neighbor of Eliza's that she has come to the professor' s place, comes a-knocking under the pretence of saving his daughter's honor. When Higgins readily agrees that he should take his daughter away with him, Doolittle reveals that he is really there to ask for five pounds, proudly claiming that he will spend that money on immediate gratificat ion and put none of it to useless savings. Amused by his blustering rhetoric, Higgins gives him the money.
Eliza enters, clean and pretty in a blue kimono, and everyone is amazed by the difference . Even her father has failed to recognize her. Eliza is taken with her transforma tion and wants to go back to her old neighborho od and show off, but she is warned against snobbery by Higgins. The act ends with the two of them agreeing that they have taken on a difficult task.

Commentary
Even though Higgins is immediatel y obvious as the Pygmalion figure in this play, what this act reveals is that there is no way his phonetic magic could do a complete job of changing Eliza on its own. What we see here is that Mrs. Pearce and Colonel Pickering are also informal Pygmalions , and with much less braggadoci o (the alliterati on of Pygmalion, Pearce, and Pickering would support this notion). Only with Mrs. Pearce working on the girl's appearance and manners, and with Pickering working, albeit unknowingl y, on her self-respect and dignity, will Eliza Doolittle become a whole duchess package, rather than just a rough-mannered common flower girl who can parrot the speech of a duchess. We learn in this scene, quite significan tly, that while Higgins may be a brilliant phoneticia n, Mrs. Pearce finds fault with his constant swearing, forgetful manners, quarrelsom e nature, and other unpleasant habits. His own hold on polite respectabi lity is tenuous at best, and it is only his reputation , and his fundamenta l lack of malice that keeps him from being disliked by others. If Higgins cannot be a Pygmalion on his own, and is such an untidy, mannerless Pygmalion at that, then the obvious question posed to us is if Pygmalion, the transforme r of others, can himself be transforme d. Implicit in this question is another: whether it could be impervious ness to change, rather than superior knowledge, which differenti ates Pygmalion from Galatea.
This act shows Higgins as an incorrigib le scientist. He is not only "viole ntly interested in everything that can be studied as a scientific subject," but interested in them only as subjects of scientific study. For that reason, when "quite a common girl" is said to at his door, Higgins thinks it is a lucky happenstan ce that will allow him to show Pickering the way he works. When he sees it is Eliza, he chases her away, for, having learned all he can about the Lisson Grove accent, he cannot see how she can be of any more use to him. Later, his mind seizes upon her as being "no use to anybody but me." And when Alfred Doolittle is announced, Higgins is not worried about the trouble, but looks forward instead to listening to this new accent. He displays such a dogged determinat ion and exaggerate d focus on his work that it is hard to tell if Shaw wants to make fun of this character or put it on a pedestal. In either case, there is no denying that Higgins makes an absolutely inept romantic hero. For him, if women do not inform his science in any way, "they might as well be blocks of wood." Eliza's criticism comes well-deserved--"Oh, you've no feeling heart in you: you don't care for nothing but yourself." Even Mrs. Pearce chides him for treating people like objects--"Well, the matter is, sir, that you can't take a girl up like that as if you were picking up a pebble on the beach."
Alfred Doolittle is one of those delightful , quintessen tial characters that populate all of Shaw's plays. He makes the most iconoclast ic, scandalous statements , but all with such wit and humor that we cannot help but find his ideas attractive . In this act, Doolittle performs the extra role of inspiring Higgins break off in the middle of their conversati on to analyze Doolittle' s language and comment that "this chap has a certain natural gift of rhetoric." This unnatural break to the flow of talk forces us to pay a similar attention to all the rhetoric of the play.
There is a brief episode in this act in which Eliza threatens to leave because Higgins is being so rude to her, and he calls her an ingrate. She does not leave because he uses chocolates to tempt her back. This is in contrast to the final act when Higgins again calls her an ingrate. However, in the last act, to his request that she return with him, she does indeed step out the door, leaving Higgins alone in the room

Act III
Summary
It is Mrs. Higgins' at-home day, and she is greatly displeased when Henry Higgins shows up suddenly, for she knows from experience that he is too eccentric to be presentabl e in front of the sort of respectabl e company she is expecting. He explains to her that he wants to bring the experiment subject on whom he has been working for some months to her at-home, and explains the bet that he has made with Pickering. Mrs. Higgins is not pleased about this unsolicite d visit from a common flower girl, but she has no time to oppose before Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill (the mother and daughter from the first scene) are shown into the parlor by the parlor-maid. Colonel Pickering enters soon after, followed by Freddy Eynsford Hill, the hapless son from Covent Garden.
Higgins is about to really offend the company with a theory that they are all savages who know nothing about being civilized when Eliza is announced. She makes quite an impact on everyone with her studied grace and pedantic speech. Everything promises to go well until Mrs. Eynsford Hill brings up the subject of influenza, which causes Eliza to launch into the topic of her aunt, who supposedly died of influenza. In her excitement , her old accent, along with shocking facts such as her father's alcoholism , slip out. Freddy thinks that she is merely affecting "the new small talk," and is dazzled by how well she does it. He is obviously infatuated with her. When Eliza gets up to leave, he offers to walk her but she exclaims, "Walk! Not bloody likely. I am going in a taxi." The Mrs. Eynsford Hill leave immediatel y after. Clara, Miss Eynsford Hill, is taken with Eliza, and tries to imitate her speech.
After the guests leave, Mrs. Higgins chides Higgins. She says there is no way Eliza will become presentabl e as long as she lives with the constantly-swearing Higgins. She demands to know the precise conditions under which Eliza is living with the two old bachelors. She is prompted to say, "You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll," which is only the first of a series of such criticisms she makes of Higgins and Pickering. They assail her simultaneo usly with accounts of Eliza's improvemen t until she must quiet them. She tries to explain to them that there will be a problem of what to do with Eliza once everything is over, but the two men pay no heed. They take their leave, and Mrs. Higgins is left exasperate d by the "infin ite stupidity" of "men! men!! men!!!"

Commentary
In this, Eliza's first debut and debacle, we are shown that just speaking correctly is not enough to pass a flower girl off as a duchess. As Higgins knows, "You see, I've got her pronunciat ion all right; but you have to consider not only how a girl pronounces , but what she pronounces ." Mrs. Higgins puts it succinctly with the line, "She's a triumph of your art and of her dressmaker 's; but if you suppose for a moment that she doesn't give herself away in every sentence she utters, you must be perfectly cracked about her." In other words, there are aspects to a person that are susceptibl e to change or improvemen t, but these cannot override those aspects that are innate to that person, which will surface despite the best grooming.
While it may seem that this is the act in which Eliza is exposed for what she is, just about all the other characters are shown up in the process. Pickering and Higgins are an example. After they have been shown to be the undoubted masters of their (phonetic) dominion, lording it over Eliza, here, in Mrs. Higgins' feminine environmen t, they come across more like over-enthusiast ic, ineffectiv e little boys than mature men of science. Mrs. Higgins repeatedly rebukes Higgins for his lack of manners, his surly behavior towards her guests, and for his klutzy habit of stumbling into furniture, and is very reluctant to have him in front of company. This act also reveals middle class civility for what it really is--something dull and uninspirin g. Mrs. Higgins' at-home turns out to be an unexciting conversati on determined ly choked full with "how do you do's" and "goodbye's ," with barely anything interestin g said in between. In fact, the only time something is said with any spirit is when Eliza forgets herself and slips back into her normal manner of speaking. Clara Eynsford Hill, for example, is shown to be a useless wannabe with no character of her own (quite in contrast to the feisty and opinionate d Eliza). So unremarkab le is the mother-son-daughter threesome of the Eynsford Hills that Higgins cannot recall where he has met them (at Covent Garden, in the first act) until halfway through this act. He can only tell that their voices are familiar, suggesting that all they have to recommend them is their accents, and nothing else. If staged well, this act can expose the clumsiness and vapidity of polite Victorian society, causing us to question if the making of a duchess out of a flower girl is really doing her a favor.
We get another indication in this act that Higgins is incapable of being the romantic hero of the play. We see that when he says to this mother, "My idea of a lovable woman is somebody as like you as possible. I shall never get into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits lie too deep to be changed." The irony is that even though he has no doubt that he can transform Eliza, he takes it as a given that there are natural traits in himself that cannot be changed.

Act IV

Summary
The trio return to Higgins' Wimpole Street laboratory , exhausted from the night's happenings . They talk about the evening and their great success, though Higgins seems rather bored, more concerned with his inability to find slippers. While he talks absentmind edly with Pickering, Eliza slips out, returns with his slippers, and lays them on the floor before him without a word. When he notices them, he thinks that they appeared out of nowhere. Higgins and Pickering begin to speak as if Eliza is not there with them, saying how happy they are that the entire experiment is over, agreeing that it had become rather boring in the last few months. The two of them then leave the room to go to bed. Eliza is clearly hurt ("Eliza 's beauty turns murderous, " say the stage directions ), but Higgins and Pickering are oblivious to her.
Higgins pops back in, once again mystified over what he has done with his slippers, and Eliza promptly flings them in his face. Eliza is mad enough to kill him; she thinks that she is no more important to him than his slippers. At Higgins' retort that she is presumptuo us and ungrateful , she answers that no one has treated her badly, but that she is still left confused about what is to happen to her now that the bet has been won. Higgins says that she can always get married or open that flower shop (both of which she eventually does), but she replies by saying that she wishes she had been left where she was before. She goes on to ask whether her clothes belong to her, meaning what can she take away with her without being accused of thievery. Higgins is genuinely hurt, something that does not happen to him often. She returns him a ring he bought for her, but he throws it into the fireplace. After he leaves, she finds it again, but then leaves it on the dessert stand and departs.
Commentary
If we consider the convention al structure of a romance or fairy tale, the story has really already reached its climax by this point, because Cinderella has been turned into a princess, and the challenge has been met. Then why does the play carry on for another two acts? This would appear completely counter- productive , only if one thinks that this play is only about changing appearance s. The fact that the play carries on indicates that there are more transforma tions in Eliza to be witnessed: this act shows the birth of an independen t spirit in the face of Higgins' bullying superiorit y. The loosely set-up dichotomy between people and objects (i.e., whether Higgins treats people like people or objects) is brought to a head when Eliza flings his slippers in his face, and complains that she means no more to him than his slippers--"You don't care. I know you don't care. You wouldn't care if I was dead. I'm nothing to you--not so much as them slippers." Not only does she object to being treated like an object, she goes on to assert herself by saying that she would never sell herself, like Higgins suggests when he tells her she can go get married. This climactic move forces Higgins to reconsider what a woman can be, and, as he confesses in the final act, marks the beginning of his considerin g Eliza to be an equal rather than a burden.
One thing to consider in this act is why Shaw has chosen not to portray the climax at the ambassador 's party where Eliza can prove how well she has been instructed by Higgins (although his movie screenplay does allow for a scene at the embassy). One reason is that most theatrical production s do not have the capacity to stage an opulent, luxurious ball just for a short scene. But another reason is that Shaw's intention is to rob the story of its romance. We are spared the actual training of Eliza as well as her moment of glory (that is, both the science and the magic); instead, all we get is scenes of her pre- and post- the dramatic climax.

Act V

Summary
Higgins and Pickering show up the next day at Mrs. Higgins' home in a state of distractio n because Eliza has run away. They are interrupte d by Alfred Doolittle, who enters resplenden tly dressed, as if he were the bridegroom of a very fashionabl e wedding. He has come to take issue with Henry Higgins for destroying his happiness. It turns out that Higgins wrote a letter to a millionair e jokingly recommendi ng Doolittle as a most original moralist, so that in his will the millionair e left Doolittle a share in his trust, amounting to three thousand pounds a year, provided that he lecture for the Wannafelle r Moral Reform World League. Newfound wealth has only brought him more pain than pleasure, as long lost relatives emerge from the woodwork asking to be fed, not to mention that he is now no longer free to behave in his casual, slovenly, dustman ways. He has been damned by "middl e class morality." The talk degenerate s into a squabble over who owns Eliza, Higgins or her father (Higgins did give the latter five pounds for her after all). To stop them, Mrs. Higgins sends for Eliza, who has been upstairs all along. But first she tells Doolittle to step out on the balcony so that the she will not be shocked by the story of his new fortune.
When she enters, Eliza takes care to behave very civilly. Pickering tells her she must not think of herself as an experiment , and she expresses her gratitude to him. She says that even though Higgins was the one who trained the flower girl to become a duchess, Pickering always treated her like a duchess, even when she was a flower girl. His treatment of her taught her not phonetics, but self-respect. Higgins is speaking incorrigib ly harshly to her when her father reappears, surprising her badly. He tells her that he is all dressed up because he is on his way to get married to his woman. Pickering and Mrs. Higgins are asked to come along. Higgins and Eliza are finally left alone while the rest go off to get ready.
They proceed to quarrel. Higgins claims that while he may treat her badly, he is at least fair in that he has never treated anyone else differentl y. He tells her she should come back with him just for the fun of it--he will adopt her as a daughter, or she can marry Pickering. She swings around and cries that she won't even marry Higgins if he asks. She mentions that Freddy has been writing her love letters, but Higgins immediatel y dismisses him as a fool. She says that she will marry Freddy, and that the two will support themselves by taking Higgins' phonetic methods to his chief rival. Higgins is outraged but cannot help wondering at her character--he finds this defiance much more appealing than the submissive ness of the slippers-fetcher. Mrs. Higgins comes in to tell Eliza it is time to leave. As she is about to exit, Higgins tells her offhandedl y to fetch him some gloves, ties, ham, and cheese while she is out. She replies ambivalent ly and departs; we do not know if she will follow his orders. The play ends with Higgins's roaring laughter as he says to his mother, "She's going to marry Freddy. Ha ha! Freddy! Freddy!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

Commentary
This final act brings together many of the themes that we have examined in the other acts, such as what constitute s the determinan ts of social standing, the fault of taking people too literally, or for granted, the emptiness of higher English society, etc. With regard to the first of these themes, Eliza makes the impressive ly astute observatio n that "the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated." The line packs double meaning by stating clearly that what is needed is not just one's affectatio n of nobility, while her delivery is proof of the statement itself as she has grown enough to make such an intelligen t claim. Quite contrary to the dresses, the vowels, the consonants , the jewelry (significa ntly, only hired) that she learned to put on, probably the greatest thing she has gained from this experience is the self-respect that Pickering endowed her with from the first time he called her "Miss Doolittle. " In contrast to the "self-respect" that Eliza has learned is the "respectab ility" that Doolittle and his woman have gained, a respectabi lity that has "broke all the spirit out of her." While respectabi lity can be learned, and is what Higgins has taught Eliza, self-respect is something far more authentic, and helps rather than hinders the growth of an independen t spirit. Alfred Doolittle makes the unmitigate d claim that acquiring the wealth to enter this society has "ruine d me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality." Higgins' haughty proclamati on--"You will jolly soon see whether she has an idea that I haven't put into her head or a word that I haven't put into her mouth."--mistakes the external for the internal, and betrays too much unfounded pride, which is the ultimate cause of his misunderst anding with Eliza.
The greatest problem that people have with Pygmalion is its highly ambivalent conclusion , in which the audience is left frustrated if it wants to see the typical consummati on of the hero and heroine one expects in a romance--which is what the play advertises itself to be after all. Most people like to believe that Eliza's talk about Freddy and leaving for good is only womanly pride speaking, but that she will ultimately return to Higgins. The first screenplay of the movie, written without Shaw's approval, has Eliza buy Higgins a necktie. In the London premier of the play, Higgins tosses Eliza a bouquet before she departs. A contempora ry tour of the play in America had Eliza return to ask, "What size?" Other films of the play either show Higgins pleading with Eliza to stay with him, or Higgins following her to church. Doubtless, everyone wanted to romanticiz e the play to a degree greater than that which the playwright presented it. All this makes us question why Shaw is so insistent and abrupt in his conclusion .
However, in an epilogue that Shaw wrote after too many directors tried to adapt the conclusion into something more romantic, he writes, "The rest of the story need not be shewn in action, and indeed, would hardly need telling if our imaginatio ns were not so enfeebled by their lazy dependence on the ready-mades and reach-me-downs of the ragshop in which Romance keeps its stock of 'happy endings to misfit all stories." He goes on to deliver a detailed and considered argument for why Higgins would never marry Eliza, and vice versa. For one, Higgins has too much admiration for his mother to find any other woman even halfway comparable , and even "had Mrs. Higgins died, there would still have been Milton and the Universal Alphabet." To Shaw's mind, if Eliza marries anyone at all, it must be Freddy--"And that is just what Eliza did." The epilogue goes on to give a dreary account of their married life and faltering career as the owners of a flower and vegetable shop (an ironic treatment of the typical "happi ly ever after" nonsense) in which Freddy and Eliza must take accounting and penmanship classes to really become useful members of society. One can see this whole play as an intentiona l deconstruc tion of the genre of Romance, and of the myth of Pygmalion as well.

Analysis
Pygmalion derives its name from the famous story in Ovid's ****morpho ses, in which Pygmalion, disgusted by the loose and shameful lives of the women of his era, decides to live alone and unmarried. With wondrous art, he creates a beautiful statue more perfect than any living woman. The more he looks upon her, the more deeply he falls in love with her, until he wishes that she were more than a statue. This statue is Galatea. Lovesick, Pygmalion goes to the temple of the goddess Venus and prays that she give him a lover like his statue; Venus is touched by his love and brings Galatea to life. When Pygmalion returns from Venus' temple and kisses his statue, he is delighted to find that she is warm and soft to the touch--"The maiden felt the kisses, blushed and, lifting her timid eyes up to the light, saw the sky and her lover at the same time" (Frank Justus Miller, trans.).
Myths such as this are fine enough when studied through the lens of centuries and the buffer of translatio ns and editions, but what happens when one tries to translate such an allegory into Victorian England? That is just what George Bernard Shaw does in his version of the Pygmalion myth. In doing so, he exposes the inadequacy of myth and of romance in several ways. For one, he deliberate ly twists the myth so that the play does not conclude as euphorical ly or convenient ly, hanging instead in unconventi onal ambiguity. Next, he mires the story in the sordid and mundane whenever he gets a chance. Wherever he can, the characters are seen to be belabored by the trivial details of life like napkins and neckties, and of how one is going to find a taxi on a rainy night. These noisome details keep the story grounded and decidedly less romantic. Finally, and most significan tly, Shaw challenges the possibly insidious assumption s that come with the Pygmalion myth, forcing us to ask the following: Is the male artist the absolute and perfect being who has the power to create woman in the image of his desires? Is the woman necessaril y the inferior subject who sees her lover as her sky? Can there only ever be sexual/romantic relations between a man and a woman? Does beauty reflect virtue? Does the artist love his creation, or merely the art that brought that creation into being?
Famous for writing "talky " plays in which barely anything other than witty repartee takes center stage (plays that the most prominent critics of his day called non-plays), Shaw finds in Pygmalion a way to turn the talk into action, by hinging the fairy tale outcome of the flower girl on precisely how she talks. In this way, he draws our attention to his own art, and to his ability to create, through the medium of speech, not only Pygmalion' s Galatea, but Pygmalion himself. More powerful than Pygmalion, on top of building up his creations, Shaw can take them down as well by showing their faults and foibles. In this way, it is the playwright alone, and not some divine will, who breathes life into his characters . While Ovid's Pygmalion may be said to have idolized his Galatea, Shaw's relentless and humorous honesty humanizes these archetypes , and in the process brings drama and art itself to a more contempora rily relevant and human level.
Characters
Professor Henry Higgins - Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics who plays Pygmalion to Eliza Doolittle' s Galatea. He is the author of Higgins' Universal Alphabet, believes in concepts like visible speech, and uses all manner of recording and photograph ic material to document his phonetic subjects, reducing people and their dialects into what he sees as readily understand able units. He is an unconventi onal man, who goes in the opposite direction from the rest of society in most matters. Indeed, he is impatient with high society, forgetful in his public graces, and poorly considerat e of normal social niceties--the only reason the world has not turned against him is because he is at heart a good and harmless man. His biggest fault is that he can be a bully.

Eliza Doolittle - "She is not at all a romantic figure." So is she introduced in Act I. Everything about Eliza Doolittle seems to defy any convention al notions we might have about the romantic heroine. When she is transforme d from a sassy, smart-mouthed kerbstone flower girl with deplorable English, to a (still sassy) regal figure fit to consort with nobility, it has less to do with her innate qualities as a heroine than with the fairy-tale aspect of the transforma tion myth itself. In other words, the character of Eliza Doolittle comes across as being much more instrument al than fundamenta l. The real (re-)making of Eliza Doolittle happens after the ambassador 's party, when she decides to make a statement for her own dignity against Higgins' insensitiv e treatment. This is when she becomes, not a duchess, but an independen t woman; and this explains why Higgins begins to see Eliza not as a mill around his neck but as a creature worthy of his admiration .

Colonel Pickering - Colonel Pickering, the author of Spoken Sanskrit, is a match for Higgins (although somewhat less obsessive) in his passion for phonetics. But where Higgins is a boorish, careless bully, Pickering is always considerat e and a genuinely gentleman. He says little of note in the play, and appears most of all to be a civilized foil to Higgins' barefoot, absentmind ed crazy professor. He helps in the Eliza Doolittle experiment by making a wager of it, saying he will cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins does indeed make a convincing duchess of her. However, while Higgins only manages to teach Eliza pronunciat ions, it is Pickering' s thoughtful treatment towards Eliza that teaches her to respect herself.

Alfred Doolittle - Alfred Doolittle is Eliza's father, an elderly but vigorous dustman who has had at least six wives and who "seems equally free from fear and conscience ." When he learns that his daughter has entered the home of Henry Higgins, he immediatel y pursues to see if he can get some money out of the circumstan ce. His unique brand of rhetoric, an unembarras sed, unhypocrit ical advocation of drink and pleasure (at other people's expense), is amusing to Higgins. Through Higgins' joking recommenda tion, Doolittle becomes a richly endowed lecturer to a moral reform society, transformi ng him from lowly dustman to a picture of middle class morality--he becomes miserable. Throughout , Alfred is a scoundrel who is willing to sell his daughter to make a few pounds, but he is one of the few unaffected characters in the play, unmasked by appearance or language. Though scandalous , his speeches are honest. At points, it even seems that he might be Shaw's voice piece of social criticism (Alfred's proletaria t status, given Shaw's socialist leanings, makes the prospect all the more likely).

Mrs. Higgins - Professor Higgins' mother, Mrs. Higgins is a stately lady in her sixties who sees the Eliza Doolittle experiment as idiocy, and Higgins and Pickering as senseless children. She is the first and only character to have any qualms about the whole affair. When her worries prove true, it is to her that all the characters turn. Because no woman can match up to his mother, Higgins claims, he has no interest in dallying with them. To observe the mother of Pygmalion (Higgins), who completely understand s all of his failings and inadequaci es, is a good contrast to the mythic proportion s to which Higgins builds himself in his self-estimation s as a scientist of phonetics and a creator of duchesses.

Freddy Eynsford Hill - Higgins' surmise that Freddy is a fool is probably accurate. In the opening scene he is a spineless and resourcele ss lackey to his mother and sister. Later, he is comically bowled over by Eliza, the half-baked duchess who still speaks cockney. He becomes lovesick for Eliza, and courts her with letters. At the play's close, Freddy serves as a young, viable marriage option for Eliza, making the possible path she will follow unclear to the reader

Review Quiz
BY what name does Eliza address Freddy the first time that they encounter each other?
(A) Charlie (B) Freddy (C) Captain (D) Kind sir

When the Flower Girl gets in the taxi at Covent Garden after the thundersto rm, where does she initially tell the taxicab to take her?
(A) 27A Wimpole Stree (B) Bucknam Pellis [Buckingham Palace] (C) The Ambassador 's garden party (D) Angel Court, Drury Lane
Higgins claims that English is the language of:
(A) The Queen (B) The noblest race (C) All mankind (D) Shakespear e, Milton, and The Bible
Why does the crowd hiding from the rain get so upset with Higgins for taking notes of the Flower Girl's speech?
(A) They think that he is a busybody plainsclot hes policeman who won't leave an innocent girl alon
(B) They think he is trying to take advantage of her (C) They think he has not enough gumption to get his own taxi (D) He's ugly

What have Pickering and Higgins written respective ly?
(A) Sanskrit in Mime; Higgins Says (B) Dialects of India; Higgins' Guide to Phonetics
(C) Spoken Sanskrit; Higgins' Universal Alphabet (D) The Speech of Gentlemen; How to Make a Duchess in Six Months
How does Eliza Doolittle dress herself up when she visits Higgins to ask to take speech lessons?
(A) She takes a long-overdue bath (B) She wears a blue kimono with cunning white flower embroidery
(C) She brings her voluble father as a reference (D) She wears three mismatched ostrich feathers in her tattered hat

What reason does Higgins give for deciding to take on the experiment ?
(A) He wants to prove to Pickering that he is indeed the greatest teacher alive
(B) Eliza's presence in the house will be an amusement to Mrs. Pearce
(C) Only to shut the girl up from all her dreadful crying
(D) Because life is but a series of inspired follies, and one must never lose a chance to commit one

After she threatens to leave because is so unfeeling, what does Henry give Eliza to convince her to stay?
(A) Half a chocolate cream (B) A silk handkerchi ef (C) Five pounds (D) A blue kimono
What does Eliza usually wear to sleep?
(A) A ragged nightgown (B) Her day clothes (C) Stolen coats (D) Nothing
When Alfred Doolittle says he is willing to sell his daughter for fifty pounds, Pickering asks him if he has no morals. Alfred says what in response?
(A) "What' s the good of morals?" (B) "Have you any?" (C) "Can't afford them." (D) "My wife won't let me have any."
All of the following witness Eliza Doolittle' s phonetic debut at Mrs. Higgins' at-home except:
(A) Mrs. Eynsford Hill (B) Clara and Freddy (C) Alfred Doolittle (D) Colonel Pickering
Which of the following summarizes Higgins' essential attitude towards women?
(A) "They' d never want me." (B) "Prett y girls are a dime a dozen." (C) "What are women?" (D) "They' re all idiots."
What does Freddy think Eliza is speaking when he meets her at Mrs. Higgins' at-home?
(A) Cockney (B) Queen's English (C) Gutter slang (D) The new small talk
Upon finding out about the experiment , Mrs. Higgins thinks that her son and his friend Pickering are:
(A) Adorably eccentric (B) Entirely correct (C) Infinitely stupid (D) Relentless ly scientific
Who claims that Eliza must be a Hungaraian princess?
(A) Henry Higgins (B) Nepommuck (C) The ambassador (D) Clara
What does Eliza fling in Higgins' face
(A) Half-eaten chocolates (B) The money he lent her (C) His damned slippers (D) Her rotten flowers
Eliza has been called all the following except
(A) The beauty of the Orient (by the Ambassador ) (B) Heartless guttersnip e (by Higgins) (C) A common girl (by Mrs. Pearce) (D) Darling, darling, darling (by Freddy)
When Freddy catches Eliza running out of Higgins' house, what is she actually on her way to do?
(A) To ask her father to take her back (B) To jump into the river
(C) To offer her services to Nepommuck (D) To sell all the jewelry she has stolen from the house
From whom does Eliza say she learns self-respect?
(A) Mrs. Pearce (B) Colonel Pickering (C) Her father (D) Mrs. Higgins
Why does Higgins tell Eliza she should return to with him?
(A) For the fun of it (B) For the hell of it (C) For the aesthetics of it (D) For the science of it
Who does Eliza marry in the course of the play, to a viewing audience's understand ing?
(A) Pickering (B) Freddy (C) Higgins (D) No one
For what organizati on must Alfred Doolittle lecture in order to make three thousand pounds a year?
(A) The Church of England (B) The American Philanthro pic Brotherhoo d
(C) The Wannafelle r Moral Reform World League (D) The Fabian Society
How much money does Alfred Doolittle want for his daughter from Higgins?
(A) Three thousand pounds a year (B) Fifty pounds (C) Five pounds (D) Nothing
"A-a-a-a-a-ah-ow-ooh!" is the favorite call of which of following characters ?
(A) Alfred Doolittle (B) Eliza (C) Clara (D) Higgins
The last act shows the characters getting ready for whose wedding?
(A) Alfred Doolittle and his woman's (B) Higgins and Mrs. Pearce (C) Pickering and Eliza's (D) Clara and H.G. Wells'

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