Pygmalion Act IV

Your Response

 What do you think Higgins should do at this point? Explain.

Recalling

2. (a) How are Higgins and Pickering feeling as the act opens? (b) How does Eliza feel?

3. What does Higgins suggest when Eliza asks what will become of her?

4. (a) What does Eliza do after Higgins goes to bed? (b) Whom does she run into?

Interpreting

5. (a) What two characters earlier in the play anticipated the concern Eliza expresses here? (b) What was Higgins's response to them?

6. (a) In what ways does Higgins act differently from how he behaved earlier in the play? (b) In what ways is his behavior predictable? (c) What does his behavior reveal about him?

Applying

7. What aspects of being a woman of this era compound Eliza's problems?

Explaining Crisis

The crisis in a work of fiction is the turning point- that moment when the conflict presented earlier in the work comes to a head. Also referred to as the climax, this high point, which occurs close to the end of the work, is followed by a resolution of all problems. This crisis in act 4 of Pygmalion is quite obviously the outgrowth of a conflict between Higgins and Eliza.

1. What is the nature of that conflict; that is, what has each of the two characters been trying to achieve from the start?

2. What problems mentioned (or raised) in Act 4 remain to be resolved? How do you think they will be resolved? Explain why you feel as you do.

Understanding Cause and Effect

Events, both in real life and fiction, seldom happen in a vacuum. More commonly put, "one thing leads to another." Your ride to school does not show up and, therefore, you are late to your first-period class. Because of your lateness, you miss getting down an important assignment due the following day, and so on. An event that leads to a particular result is called a cause. The result of the cause is called an effect. Most works of fiction are chains of causes and effects. For each of the following events, supply one cause and one effect.