Seminar

Report:
1. George Bernard Shaw. His life and creative work.
Pygmalion
1. George Bernard Shaw loosely based his play Pygmalion on the myth “The Story of
Pygmalion and the Statue” from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Read the following prose
translation of Ovid’s poem by Thomas Bulfinch. Then compare the similarities and
differences between the myth and Shaw’s version of Pygmalion.
“Pygmalion saw so much to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the sex, and resolved
to live unmarried. He was a sculptor, and had make with wonderful skill a statue of ivory so
beautiful that no living woman came anywhere near it. It was indeed the perfect semblance of a
maiden that seemed to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. His art was so
perfect that it concealed itself and its product looked like the workmanship of nature.
“Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love with the counterfeit creation.
Oftentimes he laid his hand upon it as if to assure himself whether it were living or not, and
could not even then believe that it was only ivory. He caressed it, and gave it presents such as
young girls love—bright shells and polished stones, little birds and flowers of various hues,
beads and amber. He put raiment on its limbs, and jewels on its fingers, and a necklace about its
neck. To the ears he hung earrings, and strings of pearls upon the breast. Her dress became her,
and she looked not less charming than when unattired. He laid her on a couch spread with cloths
of Tyrian dye, and called her his wife, and put her head upon a pillow of the softest feathers, as if
she could enjoy the softness.
“The festival of Venus was at hand—a festival celebrated with great pomp at Cyprus. Victims
were offered, the altars smoked, and odor of incense filled the air. When Pygmalion had
performed his part in the solemnities, he stood before the alter and timidly said, ‘Ye gods, who
can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife’—he dared not say ‘my ivory virgin,’ but said
instead—‘one like my ivory virgin.’ Venus, who was present at the festival, heard him and knew
the thought he would have uttered; and as an omen of her favor, caused the flame on the alter to
shoot up thrice in a fiery point into the air. “When he returned home, he went to see his statue,
and leaning over the couch, gave a kiss to the mouth. It seemed to be warm. He pressed its lips
again, he laid his hand upon the limbs; the ivory felt soft to his touch and yielded to his fingers
like the wax of Hymettus. While he stands astonished and glad, though doubting, and fears he
may be mistaken, again and again with a lover’s ardor he touches the object of his hopes. It was
indeed alive! The veins when pressed yielded to the finger and again resumed their roundness.
Then at last the votary of Venus found words to thank the goddess, and pressed his lips upon lips
as real as his own. The virgin felt the kisses and blushed, and opening her timid eyes to the light,
fixed them at the same moment on her lover. Venus blessed the nuptials she had formed, and
from this union Paphos was born, from whom the city, sacred to Venus, received its name.”

2. After reading Pygmalion, some questions that come to mind are: who is the teacher and
who is the student? Who breathes life into whom? On the surface, it seems that Henry
Higgins is the teacher, and Eliza Doolittle is his student. However, by the end of the play, it
seems that the tables have turned, and Eliza is now Higgin’s teacher. In the first column of
the chart below, list examples from the play in which Higgins transforms Eliza; in the
second column, list examples in which Eliza transforms the professor.

Higgins transforms Eliza Eliza transforms Higgins

Discussion questions:
1. Compare Higgins’ and Pickering’s treatment of Eliza.

Pickering is more patient and respectful towards Eliza, while Higgins is quite sexist and treats
her more as an ignorant object or piece of property.

2. In the scene where Eliza returns home and puts herself to bed, description is lengthier
than dialogue. Give more than one reason for this stylistic choice.
The author decided to make a description greater than the dialogue to build the ambience and
give a sensation to the public through this, mainly by creating mental images. The mental images
make the public visualize everything that is being described, through the strong use of adjectives
that the author used to describe the place, the environment, Eliza's reaction, her thoughts, her
perceptions and especially her feelings about what happened and is happening at the moment.

Here Eliza, chronically weary, but too excited to go to bed, sits, counting her new riches and
dreaming and planning what to do with them, until the gas goes out, when she enjoys for the first
time the sensation of being able to put in another penny without grudging it.

3. What does the lengthy description of Higgins’ laboratory tell you about his character?
What is important to him? What is of no importance?

Higgins' laboratory has a feel of science as well as gentleman's study than a room for scientific
experiments. There are some examples of science at the time,

In this corner stands a flat writing-table, on which are a phonograph, a laryngoscope, a row of
tiny organ pipes with a bellows, a set of lamp chimneys for singing flames with burners attached
to a gas plug in the wall by an India rubber tube, several tuning-forks of different sizes, a life-
size image of half a human head, showing in section the vocal organs, and a box containing a
supply of wax cylinders for the phonograph.

The science behind his laboratory is not specified and, much like Higgins, remains aloof. He also
sets up the space like a study.

Further down the room, on the same side, is a fireplace, with a comfortable leather-covered easy-
chair at the side of the hearth nearest the door, and a coal-scuttle. There is a clock on the
mantelpiece. Between the fireplace and the phonograph table is a stand for newspapers.

This reflects Higgins as a man who enjoys his high stature in life. He likes to drink and theorize
rather than pursue hard science. One gets the sense that Higgins uses this part of the room more
than the science part of the room.

4. Throughout the opening scene, Mrs. Pearce treats Eliza with disdain. What does her
attitude toward the girl illustrate about Mrs. Pearce’s placement in the social hierarchy?
Keep in mind Mrs. Pearce is a housekeeper.
Professor Higgins housekeeper and she doesn't like her at first then she starts to care about Eliza
Mrs. Pierce, Higgins' housekeeper, first describes Eliza as a "very ordinary" girl with a terrible
accent, and later calls her stupid and ignorant. But then she changes her attitude toward Eliza.
She sees that Higgins is preoccupied with the idea of teaching Eliza, with no thought for the girl
or her future. She begs him to be sensible and think, "You can't take a girl like that, like picking
up a pebble on the beach." Her last attempt to stop the experiment and return Eliza to her parents
fails when Eliza explains, "I have no parents." Mrs. Pierce then tries to get Higgins to focus on
how the girl should be dressed, housed, and cared for. She asks him to think about "what will
happen to her when you are done teaching?" In the end, she realizes that it would be best if she
took responsibility as far as she could.

5. What does Higgins mean when he says, “teaching would be impossible unless pupils
were sacred”?
Higgins is answering Pickering's charge that he cannot be involved in an experiment where the
girl (Eliza) is not treated with the utmost respect. Higgins replies that his pupils are sacred,
which means regarded with reverence and respect.

When Higgins says that “teaching would be impossible unless pupils were sacred,” he is
defending the value of individuals in a classroom and making the point that teaching would not
exist if teachers treated their students poorly. There would be no value or respect given to a
teacher should they choose to constantly bash and humiliate their pupils, which would make the
situation uncomfortable and eventually unbearable. Ironically enough, Higgins is contradicting
his own teaching methods at the time, as he only sees Eliza as worthy enough to be called an
object akin to a squashed cabbage leaf, and refuses to acknowledge her feelings or self-worth.

6. Describe the irony in Mrs. Pearce’s warning to Higgins about his language and manners.

swear less, improve his manners

7. Why do you think Shaw created the character of Alfred Doolittle?

There are two important reasons that Shaw includes Doolittle. First, as Eliza's father, he supports
the distinction between classes. Second, he provides comic relief.

8. Shaw goes to great lengths to describe Mrs. Higgins’s drawing room. Based on this
description, compare Mrs. Higgins with her son.

Mrs. Higgins loves pretty things and her place in society. She also chides her son for
showing up unexpectedly, for it is her day-a day of entertainment. Thus, we can assume that
he makes her somewhat uncomfortable in society.

9. Mrs. Higgins says Henry “offends all (her) friends.” Based on what you’ve seen of
Higgins so far, how do you suppose he offends them? Does that make his offensive
behavior towards Eliza more acceptable? Explain.

Higgins is straightforward, unfiltered, and completely without consideration for others. He

alienates his mother's friends because he has no tact or manners. This does not justify his
treatment of Eliza or anyone else.

10. Why is Eliza’s lapse into the cockney dialect not only acceptable, but admirable in this
setting?
Eliza, who has been warned to limit her conversation to the weather and to people's health, talks
about an aunt of hers who supposedly died of influenza but who was perhaps killed so that the
killer might steal her new straw hat. Mr. Higgins grows alarmed, and Eliza leaves, but the
Eynsford Hills think that by talking about coarse subjects and swearing, Eliza was using a new,
fashionable type of slang. Pickering tries to support this assumption by declaring that he can no
longer distinguish high society from a ship's forecastle now that people swear so often. Clara
declares the "new slang" charming--and to her mother's horror, she herself uses the British curse
word "bloody."

11. Mrs. Higgins asks, “what is to be done with her (Eliza) afterwards.” Explain her concern.

12. Identify the literary technique in Higgins’ response to Nepommuck: “I say an ordinary
London girl out of the gutter and taught to speak by an expert. I place her in Drury Lane.”

13. Why does Higgins’ exclamation, “Thank God it’s over!” hurt Eliza?
This tells Eliza that all her time spent with Higgins has been a bad experience for him.

14. Is Freddy in love, or is he infatuated? On what is his admiration based? How is his
relationship with Eliza different than Higgins’? How is it similar?

15. Why is Alfred Doolittle so unhappy to be wealthy?

Alfred Doolittle is angry that Higgins for giving his name to Ezra D. Wannafeller. Higgins had
espoused Doolittle's high morals, perhaps as a joke, and Ezra D. Wannafeller left money to
Doolittle. Doolittle hates being part of "middle class morality." He wishes to be free and poor
rather than having money and forced to face family and friends who want it.

16. How are Doolittle and Higgins mirror images of one another?

In the play Pygmalion, the character of Alfred Doolittle seems to be cast as the fool at first, yet
as the play carries on we realize that he is the mirror image of Higgins and is meant to reflect his
contempt for society. Both Doolittle and Higgins realize the artificiality of social class
distinctions, and through Shaw’s use of irony and humor symbolize this theme. The sole purpose
of Doolittle’s character is to reflect George Bernard Shaw’s socialist views on how society
should be.
Alfred Doolittle is the mirror image of Higgins if the mirror was upside down. Alfred is poor as
dirt; he works as a trash man on the streets and barely makes enough to survive. Higgins, on the
other hand, is wealthy and of a higher class;
Well if you strip both of these characters down to just their ideals and views on life, they would
be spot on. Both have the view that people would be better off without the barriers that divides
people among classes, “DOOLITTLE: It’s making a gentleman of me that I object to. Who asked
him to make a gentleman of me? I was happy. I was free(Shaw116).” It is ironic that Doolittle
was happier as a thief on the streets than he is as a gentleman. Higgins feels the same way about
social classes, “HIGGINS: 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(Shaw197).” In different ways, the two characters reflect each other’s true view
on society.
 17. Under what circumstances does Higgins want Eliza to come back? Try to “read between
the lines.”

Higgins cannot hide the fact that, although he may have feelings for Eliza, he cannot help but
treat her as lower class. It is ironic that Higgins cannot change his nature and Eliza has.

18. What is Eliza’s greatest concern about returning? How does this concern fit in with
Victorian morality? Explain.

19. Shaw purposely leaves the ending ambiguous. What is his purpose in doing so?
20. Shaw explores the artificiality of class distinctions throughout Pygmalion. Trace this
theme throughout the play. What classes are represented in the play? On what factors is
membership based? Which characters strive to move above their class? Which wish to
stay as they are? What are their reasons?
21. The original Pygmalion is a sculptor who creates a beautiful woman out of clay and is
rewarded when she turns human. How does Henry Higgins mold Eliza’s character in
much the same way? As Eliza’s creator, does Higgins deserve a certain amount of control
over her? Where does his creation end and Eliza’s independence begin? What is the
nature of the relationship between artists and their art? Discuss.
22. Pygmalion is in many ways a Cinderella story with its transformation of a poor but lovely
young girl into a princess. But is Eliza the only character to undergo such a
transformation? Consider her father, Alfred Doolittle, as well as Henry Higgins himself.
Describe the other transformations. Whose transformation is the most significant? Why?
23. George Bernard Shaw entitles his play Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts. Is
Pygmalion really a romance? Or is it a comedy? Shaw suggests the play is about
language, while many critics interpret it as a satire with a socialist message. Consider the
characteristics of romances, comedies, and satires, and cite specific evidence from the
play to support your answer. Argue for one of these interpretations.
24. Much is made of “middle class morality” in Pygmalion. What is Shaw suggesting about
the rules and traditions of his class?
25. Consider the character of Henry Higgins. Is he closest in character to Doolittle, Freddy,
or the sculptor, Pygmalion? Is Higgins a hero?
26. The ending of the play is ambiguous in that the audience does not know whether Eliza
marries Freddy or returns to live with Higgins. Why did Shaw write such an open
ending? Cite evidence from Eliza’s closing speeches to indicate which choice you believe
she makes.

1. Higgins to eliza
2. Higgins
3. Mrs. Higgins
4.