Pygmalion

Nicoll, Allardyce. History of the English Drama 1660-1900. Cambridge: Cambrid

UP, 1952.

Williams, Raymond. Drarnafioapz dbseaz to Brecbzt. New Xnrk: Oxford [Jniversity

Press, 1969.

(The list of boob 011 Shaw will be given at the end o f the mits rial Pygnzalion)
 Structure
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Pyginulion as a play about phonetics
2.3 Class distinction, snobbery, kinds of manners, middle-class inorality and the
character of Doolittle
I
2.4 Man-woman relationships in the play: Higgins's mother-fixation and Oedipus
I
complex; Higgins-Eliza equation; Eliza, trle fighter and the Feminist
2.5 Let Us Sun1 Up
I
2.6 Questions

This unit will offer you perspectives on the themes in Pj~gvzalionand the salient
features of the inajor characters and their relationships.

Pygmalio~zis primarily a play about speech and phonetics, but related to it are Shawts
social concerns - class distinction, good manners and middle class morality. The
"romance" of Higgins and Eliza does not culminate in matrimony but a complex
network ofmail-woman relationships with Eliza marrying Freddy, and Higgins
unwilling to get out of chronic bachelorhood engendered by his mother-fixation, In
this unit, we shall first explore the theme of English speech and the related cluster of
subjects in the play. Subsequently we shall engage various facets of man-woman
relationship with special reference to the characters of Eliza and Higgins.

2.2 PYGMALION AS A PLAY ABOUT PHONETICS

1 Pyg~nalionis overtly a play about phonetics or English speech. Shaw says in his
I preface to the play. "The English have no respect for their language, and will not
'i teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach
himself what it sounds like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his inouth
without making some other Englishman hate or despise him".' So in the play, he
I

I
emphasizes the need to speak the language properly, and Higgins, the phonetician is
the one who can teach people how to do so. Professor Higgins, as Shaw again points
out in the Preface has "touches of Sweet" (p. 193), a brilliant but unpleasant
phonetician at Oxford. In Act I, Higgins is able to place all the bystanders simply on
the basis of their accents. He tells Colonel Pickering "you can spot an Irish-man or a
Yorkshire mat1 by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him
within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets.'' (p.205). He denounces
Eliza for her speech:" A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds
has no right to be anywhere -no right to live. Remember that you are a human being
with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the
language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible: and don't sit there crooning like a
. bilious pigeon." (P.206).
 In fact the play is built around the professional life of Higgins as a phonetician, and
its main action consists of the successful attempt of Higgins to convert Eliza, a flower
girl into a duchess by giving her a new speech: "I shall make a duchess of this
draggletailed guttersnipe.2(p.215). and Eliza with her impeccable accent-acquired in
a few months of "learning how to speak beautif~lly"(p.220)- does pass off as a
duchess, affirming Shaw's undeniable view that speech is one way of dividing class
from class and etnphasizing class distinction. Higgil~scan similarly bridge this gulf
in Alfred Doolittle's case: "if we were to take this man inhand for three months, he
could choose a seat in the Cabinet and a popular pulpit in Wales."(p.230). He tells
his mother, "But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human
being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for
her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that separates class form class and soul from soul."
(P.248).

2.3 CLASS DISTWCTION,SNOBBERY,

KJNDS OF
MANNERS, MIDDLE CLASS MOMLITY, AND THE
CHAWCTER OP DOOL,HTTLE

Shaw also attacks snobbery in a more general way. In the opening scene itself, Eliza
protest against social and ecopomic sobbery by refusing to be cowed down by her
social superiors. Her repeated protest "I'm a good girl, I am." Is to assert her dignity
in the face of those, who, she (mistakenly) thinks, are trying to trample upon her.
Nonetheless, she has her own brand of snobbery. When she rides in a taxi, she wants
to show it to everyone. At Higgins's house she wants Mrs. Pearce to tell him that she
came in a taxi. When the arrangements for Eliza's stay there are finalized and she is
initiated in her new life, she says: "I should just like to take a taxi to the comer of
Tottenham Court road and get out there and tell it to wait Ibr me, just to put the girls
in their place a bit. I wouldn't speak to them you know." Higgins rightly reprimands
her: "you shouldn't cut your old friends now that you have risen in the world. That's
what we calls snobbery." (p.234).

Mrs. Pearce is so contemptuous of Eliza and her father because they belong to the
working class. She tells EIiggins about Eliza, "She's quite a common girl, Sir. Very
Comn~onindeed. I should have sent her away,.. ."(p.210). When Eliza says to him,
"don't be silly," Mrs. Pickering rebukes her "you mustn't speak to the gentleman like
that."(p.213). Later, as Doolittle leaves, "He takes off his hat to Mrs. Pearce, who
disdains the salutation and goes out.. ."(p.234). Even the polite man, Pickering asks
him to sit on the floor: "the floor is yours, Mr. Doolittle," (P.228).

It is on account of the conventions of the class system that Eynsford Hills have to
endure a shabby existence in genteel poverty. Mrs. Hill has "the manners and habits
that disqualify a fine lady fiom earning her own living without giving her a fine lady's
income"(p.250). Freddy and Clara cannot have suitable jobs. Clara's situation "had
prevented her fiom getting educated, because the only education she could have
afforded was education with the Earls court green grocer's daughter. It had led her to
seek the society of her mother's class: and that class simply would not have her,
because she was much poorer than the green grocer." (p.228). Certain professions
and jobs are below their social class, and when Clara does take up a position, it is in
defiance of the class system.

Similarly, Eliza also faces the larger problem of education-what to do after it-in a
sense, the problem of the end result of liberal education. She, like them, has not been
provided a vocational education, and once she moves up the social ladder by
successfully winning the bet for Higgins, she cannot go back to her work of selling
flowers on the pavement. What can she do? Mrs. Higgins reiterates the problem that
Mrs. Pearce had noticed earlier: "the problem of what is to be done with her
 Bgmalion: Themes
afterwards" (p.250). Eliza herself asks Higgins after her success: "What am I fit for? and Issues
What have you left me fit for? Where am I to go? What arn I to do? Whats to

After Eliza and Freddy get married and set up a flower shop-after much prevarication,
they are unfit to run it. "Freddy, like all youths educated at cheap, pretentious, and
thoroughly inefficient schools, knew a little Latin"...unfortunately, he knew nothing
else:" (p 291-92). He did not have the slightest knowledge of accounts or business:
"Colonel Pickering had to explain to him what a cheque book and a bank account
meant" (p.292).

The play also highlights the fact that there are certain things that the working class
people are deprived of, which affect the quality of their lives. Thus Higgins
observes: "a woman of that class looks a worn out drudge of fifty a year after she's
married." (p.216). As Eliza points out, working class women do not ''clean"
themselves because bathing is no joy for them: "Now I know why ladies is so clean.
Washing's a treat for them. Wish they saw what it is for the like of me!" (p.232)
When she first comes to his house, Higgins exclaims, "she's so deliciously low-so
horribly dirty"(p.215). Her transformation is paitly one from a dirty slovenly
"baggage" to a clean, well-groomed woman.

Related to class distinction is the question of manners and discrimination in our

behaviour towards people of different classes and stations. Higgins treats Eliza like
dirt. She appropriately tells.him: "Well, if you was a gentleman, you might ask me to
sit down," and Higgins responds by asking Pickering: "shall we ask this baggage to
sit down, or shall we throw her out of the window?" (p.212). In fact, he wants to put
her in the dustbin. Even after her grand success at the party at which people mistake
her for a "Duchess", when he rails at her, he calls her a "guttersnipe." Surprisingly,
he tells Pickering: "Here I am, a shy, diffindent sort of man. Ive never been able to
feel really grown up and tremendous like other chaps." (p.224).

Swearing is also a part of Higgins's bad manners. When he asks Mrs. Pearce "What
the devil do you mean?" she responds: "[stolidly] That's what I mean, sir. You swear
a great deal too much. I don't mind your damning and blasting, and what the devil
and where the devil and who the devil." (p.223). His mother tells her that his
language "would be quite proper - say on a canal barge" and Pickering supports her;
"I haven't heard such language as yours since we used to review the volunteers in
Hyde Park twenty years ago." (p.247).

In contrast the manners of colonel Pickering are uniformly pleasant. Eliza is deeply
touched when he calls her "Miss Doolittle" and extends to her the courtesies normally
I reserved for ladies. She aptly remarks; "it was from you that I learnt really nice
I manners: and that is what makes me a lady, isn't it?" (p.269). She reiterates, "you
\ thought and felt about me as if I were something better than a scullery - maid; though
of course I know you would have been just the same to a scullery-maid if she had
I been let into the drawing room." (p.270).
T'
I The following discussion about manners not only sums up the contrast but also
1
I
I provides another important twist to it.

"HIGGINS.. .My manners are exactly the same as Colonel Pickerings's.

I
LIZA. That's not true. He treats a flower girl as if she was a duchess.

HIGGINS. And I treat a duchess as if she was a flower girl."

He reiterates "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
I souls." (p.274).
So Shaw extends the discussion to the larger issue of equality and social differences.
Implied in Eliza's transformation is the premise that given the opportunities, anyone
can cross the class barriers.

There is also an assumption that this social climbing is not always desirable as the
working class life style is not invariably inferior to that of the middle class and the
upper class. In fact, Doolittle implies that the "middle class morality" is
inappropriate for the lower class poor: "what is middle class morality? Just an excuse
for never giving me anything."(p,230). When he comes back transformed as a
"respectable' man, he blames Higgins for his miserable plight: "Ruined me.
Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle
class morality."(p.263). He elaborates; I' I was happy. I was free. I touched pretty
nigh everybody for money when I wanted it, same as I touched you, Henry Higgins.
Now I am woiried: tied neck and heels; and everybody touches lne for money."
(p.264). Now he and Eliza's "step mother" are forced to marry each other.
"Intimidated, Governor. Intimidated Middle class morality claims its victim.''
(p.272). He was never married to Eliza's mother because "that aint the natural way,
colonel: it's only the middle class way." (p.272). He has lived with numerous
women without getting married to any of them. None of Eliza's six "step-mothers1
was married to him till he is forced by his new station to many the last one,

He also attacks the so called morality of the affluent thriving on the family savings
without doing any work:. "Don't you be afraid that I'll save it and spare it and live
idle on it. There won't be a penny of it left by Monday: I'll have to go to work same
as if I'd never had it." (p.230-31).

Doolittle as a character is far from a stereotype and in many ways a very "Shavian"
creation. He is the uniquely shavian character who has the capacity to subvert all our
traditional ways of thinking and make all our conventional beliefs-especiallyour
moral ideals-stand on their heads, giving us exactly the opposite of what we expect as
he does with middle class morality. When he first enters the stage, he "seems equally
free from fear and conscience." At the same time, he has a A habit of giving vent to
his feelings without reserve. His present pose is that of wounded honour and stern
resolution."(p.225). when non-plussed by Higgins's response, he shows the full range
of his "natural gift of rhetoric" as he says "I'm willing to tell you. I'm wanting to tell
you. I'm waiting to tell you." (p.226). It is his eloquence that partly accounts for
Higgins's approbation and his enduring popularity with the audience.

His family surname "Doolittle "provides a clue as much to his character as to his
daughter Eliza's. If he does little by way of hard, constructive work, she can do little
by way of earning her living after her transformation.

2.4 MAN-WOMAN RELATIONSHIPS IN THE

PLAY;HIGGINGSfS MOTNER-FIXATION AND I

OEDIPUS COMPLEX: HIGGINS -ELIZA

EQUATION; ELIZA, THE FIGHTER AND THE

The moral issues in the play include Shaw's views on man-woman relationship and
the attitudes of several characters towards the opposite sex. As usual Shaw has his
share of witticisms and paradoxical statements on the matter. When Pickering asks
Higgins, "are you a man of good character where women are concerned?" he replies:
"[moodily} Have you ever met a man of good character where women are
concemed?"(p.221). Higgins is a confirmed bachelor who resists the erotic incursion
of any woman in his life. He comments: "women upset everything. When you let
 Pj,~maCinrr:Tllcrnes I
them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving and Iswes
at another.' (p.221). He elaborates, "I suppose the woman wants to live her own life;
and the mail wants to live his; and each tries to drag the other onto the wrong track.''
(p.221-22) In fact, he is totally indifferent to their sexual charm: "I'm seasoned.
They might as well be blocks of wood. I might as well be a block of wood."(p.222).
Shaw in his description states, "But as to Higgins,the only distinction, he makes i
between men and women is that when 11e is neither bullying nor exclaiming to the
heavens against some feather weight cross, he coaxes woinen as a child coaxes its
nurse, when it wants to get anything out of her."(p.2 11).
I

The clue to Higgins's bachelorhood lies in his mother-fixa11l)a. When Mrs. Higgins
says, "Well, you never fall in love with anyone under forty=iive. When will you
discover that there are some rather nice-looking young women about?," her son
replies, "Oh, I can't be bothered with young women. My idea of a lovable women is
something as like you as possible." (p.237). It is this mother-fixation that prevents
him from having a "normal" relationship with a woman. Shaw corroborates this:
"when Higgins excused his indifference to young women on the ground that they had
an irresistible rival in his mother, he gave the clue to his inveterate old-bachelordom,"
(p.282-83). He adds: "If an imaginative boy has a sufficiently rich mother who has
intelligence, personal grace, dignity of character without harshness, and a cultivated
sense of the best art of her time to enable her to make her house beautiful, she sets a
standard for him against which very few women can struggle, besides effecting for
him a disengagement of his affections, his sense of beauty and his idealism fiom his
specifically sexual impulses." (p.283).

This aspect of Higgins which the Freudians would call his "oedipus complex" also
has parallels in Shaw's own life-a fact which Colin Wilson in his book, Benzard
Shaw: A Reassessment~corroborates.It has been well known that George Carr Shaw,
the father of Bernard Shaw, hardly mattered in the family and the children had
centered their lives round their mother Mrs. Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw. Colin Wilson
writes: "Percy smith has argued convincingly that he not only idolised his mother, but
that all the women in his play from Candida on are mother figures."3 His first
mistress was Jenny Patterson, a widow fifteen years his senior and a friend of his
mother. In his wife, to quote Wilson "What Shaw wanted was a mother figure." At
the age of forty one, in July 1897 says in his letter to Ellen Terry that he wants to
marry "a reasonably healthy woman of about sixty" who "must be plain feat~red."~ It
is also widely believed that Shaw's own marriage to charlotte Payne townshend who
very much resembled Lucinda Elizabeth Gurley was never consummated. Whereas
Shaw as a bachelor found sexual release through atleast two women, Jenny Patterson
and the actress Florence Farr (who was the "right age"), Higgins remained a
confirmed bachelor.

/ Higgins's relationship with Eliza has engendered a variety of responses from critics,
i directors, viewers and readers. Maurice Valency, says in The Cart and the Trumpet
that Pygmalion like Caesar arid Cleopatra-and Man and Superman-shows the tension
' . between the man who is devoted to his work and the woman who is interested in
emotional ties. Shaw adds a long afterword to the play to suggest that Eliza, instead
1
i of marrying Higgins, chooses Freddy and lives happily ever after with him. The film
version, on the other hand, ends with Eliza's return to the Professor. Many readers
also feel that Shaw is mistaken in separating her from Higgins. Is our playwright
justified in his conclusion? Are Higgins and Eliza Compatible?

We observe that Higgins is "Careless about himself and other people, including their
feelings." (p.210), and Eliza is too sensitive and selfirespecting to tolerate this
attitude. She insists on being treated with respect. When she encounters Higgins for
the first time and observes him taking notes, she incessantly asserts that she is a good
girl, repeatedly saying "I'm a good girl, I am."In Act 11, whcn she goes to Higgins's
place, she has her'' innocent vanity and consequential air" (p.211). Naturally she
resents the brutal treatment she receives from Higgins and she never allows him to
Pygmalion walk over her. Her protest becomes quite pronounced after she wins his bet, and he
responds to all her efforts by simply expressing his sense of relief that everything is
over. She explodes by throwing her slippers at him and trying to scratch his face with
her nails. She cannot accept the fact that she is merely a common ignorant girl to hinl
and there cannot be any feeling between them.

Higgins cannot understand that she has violently retaliated because she is deeply hurt
by his and colonel Pickering's indifference to her. He tells her: "It is you who have
hit me. You have wounded me to the heart" (p.259). Eliza has a sense of triumph
and the power equation now changes with her acquiring a better status and never
letting go her new position of strength. She is crystal clear: "I won't be passed
over"(p.275). Surprisingly Higgins appeals to her emotions: "I shall miss you, Eliza"
... "I have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like than, rather."
Eliza replies coolly: "Well, you have both of them on your gramophone and in you
book of photographs. When you feel lonely without me, you can turn the machine
on. It's got no feelings to hurt." (p.275).

At the same time, Higgins would not play the sentimental lover and Eliza does not
want him to:-

"HIGGINS. In short, you want me to be as infatuated about you as Freddy? Is that

it?

LIZA. No I don't. That's not the sort of feeling I want fiom you." (p.278).

She goes on to add: "I want a little kindness. I h o w I'm a common ignorant girl,
and you a book-learned gentleman; but I'm not dirt under your feet." She reiterates:
-
"I come-came to care for you: not to want you to make love to me, and not
forgetting the difference between us but more friendly like." (p.278). This, however,
makes no impression on Higgins. He simply says "That's just how I feel. And how
Pickering feels. Eliza: youre a fool." (p.278). They are not after all going to many
each other.

At the same time, Higgins is quite jealous of Freddy. When he objects to Freddy
writing love letter to Eliza three times a day, he is being quite possessive of the girl.
Tracy c. Davis traces another parallel in Shaw's life-his relationship with Mrs.Patick
Campbell: "He functioned as Higgins, the self-styled benef~ctorof CampbelVEliza,
thwarted by her preference for a younger, less intellectual inan, Cornwallis-
wes#Freddy. "'
Shaw is not altogether wrong in his epilogue: "Eliza's instinct tells her not to marry
Higgins. It does not tell her to give him up." (p.282). He goes on to refer to "her
resentment of Higgins's domineering superiority, and her mistrust of his coaxing
cleverness in getting round her and evading her wrath when he had gone too far with
his im*petuousbullying." (284).

Most readers with their conventional ideas of man-woman relationship say that
Freddy is too weak to attract the strong-willed Eliza and she would much rather have
Higgins. Shaw, however feels: "Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition
that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten."(p.284). He
further says: "the man or woman who feels strong enough for two, seeks for every
other quality in partner than strength." (p.285). So Eliza is not thrown overboard by
the strength of Higgins, and yet, Shaw concedes that "she has even secret
mischievous moments in which she wishes she could get him alone, on a desert
island, away fiom all ties and with nobody else in the world to consider, and just drag ,
him off his pedestal and see him making love like any common man. We all have
private imaginations of that sort. But when it comes to business, to the life that she
really leads as distinguished from the life of dreams and fancies, she likes Freddy and
she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never
 does quite like Pygmaliorz: his relation to her is too godlike to be altoge,ther Pygrtraliorr: Themes
agreeable." (p.295). and Isslaes

~liza-Higginsrelationship also has ovel-tonesof an oedipal situation. When he tries

to bully her on her first arrival at his place, she reacts by pointing out: "One would
think you was my father." Higgins replies. "If I decide to teach you, I'll be worse
than two fathers to you" (p.214). Much later, he tells her: "I'll adopt you as my
daughter and settle money on you if you like. Or would you rather marry Pickering?"
In response, Eliza explodes; "I wouldn't marry you if you asked me; and youre nearer
my age than what he is." (p.277). There is a gap of atleast twenty years between
them and those readers/syectators who want Eliza to many Higgins are aware of the

II possibility of the young girl falling for a father figure.

To an extent, Eliza also represents the Shavian Life Force and moderate kind of
Feminism. We have already seen how assertive she is and how she refuses to be
treated as "dirt under anyone's feet." She asserts: "I won't be called a baggage when
Ive offered to pay like anybody." (p.212). She is also impelled by the driving energy
that leads life upwards. She has the will and the ambition to go up in the world and
she learns things with an astonishing rapidity.

Eliza, moreover is not willing to accept the humble subservient position that a woman
is normally assigned in the human society. As we observed earlier, Shaw denies the
view that women love to be mastered and bullied, even beaten. Eliza prefers the
weaker Freddy, who adores her and whom she can dominate to the masterful Higgins
when it comes to marriage. On that fateful night after the party, once she refuses to
cany Higgins's slippers and act as his persoital secretary, his own attitude towards her
changes. Now he encourages her to play the assertive role He may not sound very
convincing when he says: "I think a woman fetching a man's slippers is a disgusting
sight: ... I think a good deal more of you for throwing them in my face.. . who cares
for a slave?" (p.276). Nevertheless everything changes that night, and Eliza seldom
reverts to the earlier situation. Later "he storms and bullies and derides: but she .
stands up to him so ruthlessly.. ." (p.294). So in a way she represents a feminist who
would not play the subservient role to any man, let alone accept the position of a
doormat.

2.5 LET US SUM UP

In this unit, we initiated our analysis of the themes in Pygmaliolz with a glance at
Shaw's concern with English speech and phonetics, observing Higgins's abilities in
phonetics and his transformation of a flower girl into a Duchess by creating a new
speech for her. As we noticed, one's speech and accent are indicators of one's class,
Subsequently we engaged Shaw's critique of snobbery, and the snobbish variation in
our manners for people of different classes. He also finds faults with other
manifestations of class-consciousness such as non-vocational liberal education for the
upper class and those upper class conventions that prevent one form earning one's
living.

In our study of man-woman relationship, we observed how Higgins's mother fixation,

which comes close to Oedipus complex, prevents him from getting erotically
involved with any young woman and thus accounts for his lack of interest in Eliza.
Moreover, Eliza cannot accept his rough treatment of her and marries Freddic, who is
much nicer. We also saw how Eliza's determination to fight for her rights against
Higgins, the male bully can suggest the feminist angle in her make up.

References

1. George Bernard Shaw, Complete Plays with Prejioces (New York: Dodd,
Mead, 1962), I 191.
 All the quotations from the play are from this edition (Volume I), and
subsequently page numbers are given in parentheses.

2. Colin Wilson writes: "L,eecaused something of a scandal among his upper

class pupils in Lor~donwhen he tried to pass off his l~ousemaidas one of
them- an incident that sounds like the origin of Pygrnaliolz."

See
Bernard Shaw: A Reassessmei~t(1969; London: Macmill~n,1981) 09.

3. Bernard Shaw: A Reas,sessment-28.

4. As quoted in Colin Wilson, Bernard Shaw: A Reassessment 127. The

quotation form Wilson himself is on the same page.

5. George Bernard Shaw and the Socialist Theatre (Westport, Conn: Preager,
1994) 93.

2.6 QUESTIONS

1. What according to Shaw are the social implications of different accents and
modes of English speech?

2. Can Higgins effect a transformation in Doolittle similar to the one he has

brought about in Eliza?

3. How does Shaw denounce social snobbery and class distinctions?

4. What are the views of Shaw on the relevance of liberal education and its
practical utility?

5. How do the Eynsford Hills suffer on account of their superior birth i.e. their
upper class background? Z

6. Do you approve of the manners of Henry Higgins? Do you feel that because
he is exceptionally talented, he has the right to ride roughshod over other
people's feelings

7. Is Doolittle an attractive character? Are you in substantial agreement with

his critique of middle class morality?

8. Give arguments for and against the view that Higgins is a case of Oedipus -
complex.

9. Who in your opinion should marry Eliza? Higgins or Freddy? Justify your
answer.

10. In Eliza- Higgins conflicts, who has your sympathy and why?

11. Is Eliza's assertiveness ridiculous, or does it strike a chord in the reader?

 UNIT 3 DRA TIC f3TRUCTURlEAND
MINGLING OF GENWES
Structure
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Dramatic Structure of Pygmalion
3.3 The genre of the play; Elements of Romance, Comedy and Novel
3.4 Let Us Sum Up
3.5 Questions

3.0 OBJECTIVES

This unit will acquaint you with two crucial aspects of the "forum" of the play: its
dramatic structure and the mingling of the genres of comedy, romance and novel.

3.1 INTRODUCTION

Pyg~nalion,which drarnatises a Greek myth has an apparently unconventional form

but certain structural principles can be perceived here such as a "thematic" division of
the play into five acts and their neat sequencing, and comparison and contrast of
parallel characters and events. The preface is more relevant to Pygmalion than the
typical Shavian preface, but the epilogue is to a great extent an imposition on the play
and contrary to the rules of dramatic composition. The play has the framework of a
romance but it is interspersed with unromantic elements. At the same time, it uses
several comic conventions and introduces novelistic element. In this unit, we shall
initially examine the structure of the play and then explore how Shaw combines
features of the conventional romance with certain comic conventions and a few
typically fictional devices.

1 3.2 THE DRAMATIC STRUCTURE OF PYGMALION

1 Pygmnlion is a Shavian reworking of the myth of Pygm~lionand Galatea. In the

original myth, Pygmalion, the king of Cyprus, also a sculptor created the ivory statue
of a lovely woman which was so beautiful that he fell in love with her. At his
I request, aphrodite, the Goddes of love and beauty transformed the statue into an
I
actual woman, Galatea by breathing life into her. The two got married and lived
happily ever after. Shaw's Pygmalion, Professor Higgins similarly "Creates" his own
, Galatea as he transforms Eliza, a common, ignorant, slovenly flower girl into a
I! marvellous duchess by creating a new speech for her and with the help of Pickering
I and Mrs. Pearce giving her new manners and a new life style. So she is his creation -
/ the new Eliza is the Galatea that Pygrnalion has sculpted. However in Shaw's
version, Pygmalion does not fall in love with her and she marries someone else - the
i typical Shavian twist. $Jaw, as we shall see later, has the habit of giving us the
1 reverse of what we expect. In unit 11, we observed at length Shaw's reasons for
Higgins not marrying Eliza. Nevertheless the parallel with the myth makes the play
more resonant by introducing another frame of reference.