In Pygmalion, Shaw tells a
story of a poor flower girl who enlists the help of a professor to teach her to speak like a lady. He takes her on as his little project and throughout the story; he treats her in an inferior manner. As the story progresses, we are given various
expectations and some of those are challenged. A good example of this is with Mrs Higgins. At the beginning of
Act 3, she is portrayed as being a bit of a snob. She does not seem like the sort of person who would choose to mix with someone such as Eliza and although her son doesn’t live up to her expectations, she would never dream of taking anyone’s side other than his. However, in the last Act, she distinctly takes Eliza’s side after she has argued with Higgins. This completely challenges our expectations as we would never have imagined that she would take Eliza’s side as Eliza came from a poor background. However, because Higgins had
changed her, turned her into a lady, Mrs Higgins’ opinion of her changed and she learnt to see beyond the
background issues and therefore treated Eliza in a way that surprises both the reader and Higgins himself. Another point in the story that our expectations are challenged is in Act 4, p.74 where Eliza has her outburst. She is always portrayed throughout the story as a slightly submissive
character that would never dream of questioning someone of higher status let alone have a full-blown argument with him or her. However, when we least expect it, she does have such an
outburst and with this, she shows how much her character has changed. She put up with a lot of degrading comments and being treated like she was just an object in Higgin’s game. He had used her as a project and placed bets on how well he would do with trying to change her. By the end, she was feeling very used and could take it no more. She flies into a rage and this is where Higgins actually gains some respect for her. She now has her own mind and is not afraid to show it and this pleases Higgins. The title of the book summarises the story quite well. Higgins is like Pygmalion – he has sculpted this creation and is now in awe of his creation – much like Pygmalion of his statue.
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