Act V Pygmalion

Responding to the Selection

Your Response
1. Do you think Higgins has damaged or improved Eliza's life with the "trouble" he has caused her? Explain.

What's Higgins's philosophy?

"The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other 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." It is no small coincidence that the author of Higgins' Universal Alphabet is the same man to blur social distinctions, thereby suggesting that social standing is a matter of nurture, not nature. Examine carefully Higgins' attitude towards his fellow men. Can this be taken as an admirable brand of socialism? Or does he fail as a compassionate being in his absolutism?

Recalling
2. (a) What has happened to Alfred Doolittle?
    (b) How was this change affected his life?
3. Why is Eliza grateful to Pickering?
4. (a) In their conversion together, what does Eliza tell Higgins she wants from him? (b) What does he want from her?
5. (a) What, according to Epilogue, becomes of Eliza? (b) Of Clara Eynsford Hill?

Interpreting
6. Explain what the changes in Alfred Doolittle suggest is Shaw's attitude toward "middle class morality."
7. Do you think the outcome of Higgins's last discussion with Eliza was inevitable? Why or why not?

How has Eliza become an independent woman Higgins had hoped for?

Is "A Romance in Five Acts" an accurate description of the play Pygmalion? How does the play conform (or not) to the traditional form of a romance (for example: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy meets girl's father/evil twin/ex-fiance, boy learns to love girl despite everything, boy and girl live happily ever after...)? What do you think Shaw is trying to achieve in highlighting the concept of the romance in the title? (Hint: You might want to look closely at the written sequel to the play, in which Shaw gives some very strong opinions about romances.)

Applying
8. The Epilogue describes developments in Eliza's life after the action of the play. Would you have preferred to see these developments played out? Explain your reasons.

Analyzing Literature

Understanding the Complete Play
    The paradoxical saying that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" is true of works of art. A play is a weaving-together of many elements, among them the plot (or story line), the setting (time and place of action), the characters (roles). the tone (playwright's attitude toward the subject or audience), the symbols, or things), and the theme (main idea). When these separate elements come together, a "chemical reaction" results. Create a checklist similar to the following for Pygmalion.

    Write a brief description for each of the play's elements, entering "NA" when the elements is not applicable. Then discuss how the various elements interact in Shaw's play. (Consider, for example, how setting affects theme.)

Critical Thinking and Reading

Summarizing a Play
   When a newspaper or magazine critic writes a review of a play, he or she includes a summary, or brief description of the action. A good summary captures a sense of the play as a whole, focusing not only on what is said and done but on such details as setting. The amount of information that a summary provides depends, of course, on its overall length. List the details you find important to include in a one-page summary of Pygmalion. Decide how you would handle such matters as Shaw's Preface and Epligoue.

Thinking and Writing

Writing About the Title
   At the end of the Epilgoue, Shaw mentions Pygmalion and Galatea, who are figures from Greek mythology. The sculptor Pygmalion created a statue of a beautiful woman. After he fell in love with his creation, the goddess Aphrodite brought her to life. Write an essay discussing the effectiveness of the title Shaw chose for his play. Proceed by addressing the following questions: How godlike do you think Eliza finds Higgins? To what extent has Higgins "created" a new person? Might Higgin's feelings toward Eliza at any point in the play be fairly described as love? How much impact will the title have on a person who views, rather than reads, the play and who is, therefore, unfamiliar with the Epilogue? When you revise, make sure you have included adequate support for your these.