George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion: Eliza Doolittle transformed from guttersnipe to a lady

The story of Pygmalion is the first in my memory that captured me in all its forms: the classic myth, this play (in which I played a bit part once upon a time), the Broadway production, and the theatrical version, My Fair Lady. Though I first read George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion when I was about 13, I fell in love with the story, but didn’t quite understand a lot of the subtleties. Then, in AP English, I read it again, but had to tear it apart for symbolism, etc. Finally, in college, I played a bit part in a Black Box production. Just recently I picked it up again and read it for pure entertainment… and remembered just how much that 13 year old loved this play.

Plot and Characters:

In the First Act, we meet most of our main characters. A lady and her daughter, waiting for their son/brother, Freddy, begin talking to a common flower peddler, Eliza Doolittle. Meanwhile, a man, whom we later find out to be Professor Henry Higgins is madly taking notes on everything Eliza is saying. When this is brought to her attention, she protests loudly, claiming that she hadn’t done anything wrong. A well dressed Gentleman is kind to her, calms her down and sticks up for her, though quickly forgets about her when Professor Higgins shows his little Parlor Trick of being able to pin a person’s birthplace within just a few blocks by listening to their dialect. The Gentleman turns out to be Colonel Pickering, and the two had been looking for each other to talk about their respective language studies. As they walk away together, Professor Higgins throws spare change to Eliza, which is more money than she’s ever seen in one place at one time.

The next day, Higgins and Pickering are tinkering with the equipment in Higgins’s laboratory when Eliza comes to ask for language lessons, offering to pay with the very money Professor Higgins threw at her the night before. Higgins shows his true self when Eliza walks in and he asks Pickering shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we throw her out of the window? This leads to a wager between the two gentlemen. Pickering bets Higgins all the expenses of the experiment that Higgins cannot pass Eliza off as a lady at an upcoming social event to which Higgins responds It's almost irresistible. She’s so deliciously low--so horribly dirty--. And so it begins…

The Professor’s mother, Mrs. Higgins shows worry for Eliza, telling the two men that they certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with [their] live doll. She wonders aloud what will become of Eliza when this little game has come to a close for the men.

The final two Acts show the aftermath of Eliza’s debut as a duchess, which we don’t get to see. We learn of the love triangle that has entangled Freddy, Eliza and Henry Higgins. At the end of the play, the reader is free to make his or her own decision about what happens to the characters, since no real resolution is given. In the Epilogue, however, Shaw opens with The rest of the story need not be shown in action, and indeed, would hardly need telling if our imaginations 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, and then gives a quick description of the events that follow the play.

Writing Style

George Bernard Shaw wrote his version of the Greek myth as a play. Unless you’re used to reading plays, it takes a little while to get into them. It is mostly dialogue, with a bit of stage direction here and there. The play takes place in England, and the first couple times Eliza speaks, the author tries to give us an idea of her dialect: Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin. and then he apologizes and states that this desperate attempt to represent her dialect without a phonetic alphabet must be abandoned as unintelligible outside London. After that, her lines are much easier to read.

Final Thoughts and Recommendations

This is one of my favorite plays, and not only because my favorite actress played the part to perfection in My Fair Lady, but because it’s a wonderful story, with great characters, a not so predictable ending. I did read this before I saw the movie, and once I saw it, it is now hard for me to read this play without singing the songs associated with the movie. If you’re so inclined to read this (and I wholeheartedly urge you to do so), go to http://www.online-literature.com/george_bernard_shaw/pygmalion. You can read it there as long as your eyes don’t start bugging out of your head from staring at the computer monitor too long. Once you do that, I’m sure you’ll want to add it to your permanent bound paper collection.

Any guesses as to which character I played in college?