PYGMALION
By G.B. Shaw
Background &
Ovid
CLASSICAL PYGMALION
Information:
 Source= Ovid’s Metamorphoses, X (8 AD)—a narrative poem that
tells the origins/history of the world from a mythical -historical
perspective—takes from Greek mythology, but some changes
 Summary of section:
 Pygmalion (sculptor) sees women as morally loose, and refuses to
marry
 Creates ivory statue of woman, and falls in love with his beautiful
work
 Embraces it, brings it gifts (generally speaking, things get weird)
 Pygmalion thinks about requesting Venus (Roman goddess of love)
to turn statue into woman; he doesn’t, but Venus grants unspoken
request
 Lies down next to statue and it becomes warm to the touch (IT’S
ALIVE!)
 Says “thanks” to Venus, and they end up having a kiddo
Jean-Léon Gérôme,
Pygmalion and Galatea, oil on
canvas, c. 1890
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Boris Vallejo, Pygmalion,
1988.
COMPARING MY TH TO DRAMA
 In groups, determine some similarities and
differences between the myth and the play.
 Illustrate those similarities/differences in a chart,
table, Venn diagram, etc…Whatever you think works
the best
 Be ready to share similarities/differences with entire
class
 Jot down similarities/differences in your individual
notes
LIFE OF G.B. SHAW
SEE HANDOUT FOR
INFORMATION
END OF TODAY’S
POWERPOINT!
Preface
Act I
EXCERPT FROM INTRODUCTION
"Shaw rewrites the Pygmalion legend as ironically as Joyce does the
Odyssey. In Ovid, the sculptor Pygmalion, scornful of women, falls in love
with his perfect female statue and obtains his prayer to Venus that she be
given life so that he can marry her. Higgins shares Pygmalion’s misogyny
(given a psychological motivation in his infantilist attachment to his
mother) but there the resemblance ends. He does not fall in love with his
artificial duchess; at best he is brought to admit that he has ‘grown
accustomed to her face’. And in the most crucial reworking of the original,
the ‘statue’ Liza is not merely his artifact, and does not quietly accept her
fate to be married off to her maker. The great strength of the part of Liza
is that, from the beginning, she has the capacity to resist Higgins” (xvi).
PREFACE: A PROFESSOR OF PHONETICS
 “I wish to boast that Pygmalion has been an extremely
successful play, both on stage and on screen, all over
Europe and North America as well as at home. It is so
intensely and deliberately didactic [intending to
teach/instruct], and its subject is esteemed so dry, that I
delight in throwing it at the heads of the wiseacres who
repeat the parrot cry that art should never be didactic. It
goes to prove my contention that great art can never be
anything else.” p. 7
 “Ambitious flower-girls who read this play must not imagine
that they can pass themselves off as fine ladies by
untutored imitation. They must learn their alphabet over
again, and different, from a phonetic expert. Imitation will
only make them ridiculous.” p. 7
 What is the purpose of the preface?
SHAW’S ST YLE
 Stage Direction:
Economical exposition
and suggestive of
social background
 Prefatory Essay: Used
to express his
doctrines/thoughts on
art/language
 Discussion in the play:
Shaw regards social
criticism as the most
important function of
all art; he satirizes
the socioeconomic
classes
 Source:
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw
/English_Literature/shaw/
Pygmalion.html
SETTING
 London, Early 1900s
Social Structure:
 Upper Class
 people with inherited
wealth; old families;
aristocrats
 Middle Class
 The majority of the
population
industrialists,
professionals, business
people, shop owners
 Lower or Working Class
 Agricultural, mine and
factory workers, etc.
LONDON PICTURES
Covent Garden, London 1900
LONDON PICTURES
Drawing Room, London 1900
DUCHESS, 1900
CHARACTERS (SEE HANDOUT)
Professor Henry
Higgins
Colonel Pickering
CHARACTERS CONTINUED
Eliza Doolittle
Alfred Doolittle
CHARACTERS CONTINUED
Mrs. Pearce
Mrs. Higgins
CHARACTERS CONTINUED
 Freddy
Eynsford-Hill
 Mrs. EynsfordHill
 Colonel
Pickering
 Mrs. Higgins
IMPORTANCE OF SPEECH/LANGUAGE
What was the big deal with language
in the play, anyway?
Does language influence modern
American society in similar ways?
How so/not?
CLIP 1: PERCEPTION?
 Clip 1
 Listen to the clip, and jot down any thoughts that come to
mind about the person. Consider where she might be from,
what social class she might belong to, what her education
might be like, what she might look like, etc.
***I understand that you do not actually know the person in
the video, so you cannot write authoritatively on the subject.
Just give it a try for the exercise’s sake.
CLIP 2: PERCEPTION?
 Clip 2
 Listen to the clip, and jot down any thoughts that come to
mind about the person. Consider where she might be from,
what social class she might belong to, what her education
might be like, what she might look like, etc.
***I understand that you do not actually know the person in
the video, so you cannot write authoritatively on the subject.
Just give it a try for the exercise’s sake.
CLIP 3: PERCEPTION?
 Clip 3
 Listen to the clip, and jot down any thoughts that come to
mind about the person. Consider where he might be from,
what social class he might belong to, what his education
might be like, what he might look like, etc.
***I understand that you do not actually know the person in
the video, so you cannot write authoritatively on the subject.
Just give it a try for the exercise’s sake.
CLIP 4: PERCEPTION?
 Clip 4
 Listen to the clip, and jot down any thoughts that come to
mind about the person. Consider where he might be from,
what social class he might belong to, what his education
might be like, what he might look like, etc.
***I understand that you do not actually know the person in
the video, so you cannot write authoritatively on the subject.
Just give it a try for the exercise’s sake.
CLIP 5: PERCEPTION?
 Clip 5
 Listen to the clip, and jot down any thoughts that come to
mind about the person. Consider where she might be from,
what social class she might belong to, what her education
might be like, what she might look like, etc.
***I understand that you do not actually know the person in
the video, so you cannot write authoritatively on the subject.
Just give it a try for the exercise’s sake.
LET’S FIGURE OUT ROLES
FOR PERFORMANCES NEXT
CLASS!
Mrs. Pearce
Higgins
Flower Girl
Pickering
END OF TODAY’S
POWERPOINT!
ACT II
Part 1
(performances)