Pygmalion: Act III ~Act IV
Eliza ‘s Progress & Ways Out
Her Battle with Higgins and
Attempts to Seek Solutions
Outline
Period I: 9:10 – 10:25
1. Eliza’s Education vs. Social Manners
2. Comic Reversals  Comedy of Manners
3. Climax at the Embassy Party?
4. Scientific Creation vs. Human Concerns
5. Eliza’s Self-Transformation and First
Steps
Group Time II: 10:40 – 11:00
Performance in Class
11/21 Class Discussion
Questions
On Act III; Post your group responses before class
1. Characters & Manners:
–
–
–
–
Group 9 & 10 Eliza’s Education: What has she
achieved respectively in the two parts of Act 3,
and where does she fall short?
Group 11 & 12 Any interesting plot reversals? (67;
68-70; 75)
Group 5 & 6 What do they shed light on Victorian
manners?
Group 3 & 4 The original theatrical version does
not show the climatic scene of the Embassy’s
party. Do you know why?
1. Eliza’s Education vs.
Social Manners
Eliza’s Education: What has she achieved, and
where does she fall short?
ii. Any interesting plot reversals? (67; 68-70) What
do they shed light on Victorian manners?
iii. The original theatrical version does not show the
climatic scene of the Embassy’s party. Do you
know why?
i.
Summary: Eliza’s First
Performance
• Achieves: (62)
• good at pronunciation
(RP, but not Cockney Eng.);
• Appearance (no dirt,
good dress +
beauty) –(62)
• -- “'produces an impression of
such remarkable distinction
and beauty . . . that they all
rise, quite fluttered ”
• -- Freddie falls in love,
• -- Clara “'devouring her [Eliza]
with her eyes' ”
• “Fails”: (63-65)
• Conversational
propriety—topics
(scientific weather
report, her aunt’s death
& her father’s drinking)
and slang
•  social reality:
•
•
•
•
Murder -- the aunt survived
diphtheria, “them as pinched it [straw
hat] done her in.”
Husband & wife relation (64; make
them drunk)
Alcoholism
Slang -- “Not bloody likely ”
Eliza’s Education
• The first party – given topics in small talk
• Before the 2nd one:
– [pronunciation analyzed] Never “stop thinking about the
girl and her confounded vowels and consonants.”
– [imitation] take her everywhere  to get her “delicious”
remarks and to mimic “all the people for [them]” (71)
– [music, too] the hardest job, and the greatest success 
Higgins and Pickering’s elation over Eliza’s
performances – she plays every musical piece she hears,
and imitates every sound and dialect presented to her.
(69)
• Mrs. Pearce and Mrs. Higgins – less helpful
– [P: mild objection] "You don't think, sir." as the end of
Mrs. Pearce’s conversation about Eliza.
– [H: strong objection] Like two babies playing with their
“live dolls” (68)
Eliza’s 2nd Performance
• (73) – in a dream; done this 50 times—
hundreds of times.  envying the upper
class
• Like a somnambulist (夢遊者)
• The impressive: her dress, jewel, “perfect”
English and ‘attractive self’
2. Comic Reversals in Plot
Reversal in plot =
Radical change of the direction in
plot, against its logic or against
the characters’ expectation
Irony
Comic Reversals in Plot:
Language as Social Markers
•
•
Act 1 -- Eliza's 'kerbstone English' 'will keep her in the
gutter to the end of her days'. (20-21)
Act 3 – (A) Mrs. Higgins -- of language as a social
marker
 Low-class manners => “the new small talk.”(64-65)
 Why?
1. Higgins’ endorsement;
2. the rapid changes of this society, where manners
also change with everything else.
3. Clara Eynsford Hills’ insecure status and Freddy’s
imbecility and infatuation (65; 66)   their mother
(67)
Reality: Mrs. Higgins’ judgment: “a triumph of your
art and of her dressmaker's”; “give[s] herself away
in every sentence she utters”
Comic Reversals in Plot (2)
(B) Ambassador's party – (75-76) – of Eliza’s
status – as a “fraud” and a princess
1. Eliza thought she lost. “Nothing makes me the
same as these people.”
2. Results:
•
•
Perfect English (75) speaks like “Queen Victoria”;
“Only foreigners who have been taught to speak it
speak it well.”
Eliza: seen as a Hungarian princess, “Morganatic” (貴賤
結親的)
2. Higgins: seen as provincial: ”The London gutter is
the whole world for you” (76)
 What do the two kinds of ‘upgrading’ (of Eliza’s
slang and position) reveal?
The 1st Reversal –of language as a
social marker
Ironic Implication about social communication
(A)Upper class –indiscriminate and rigid
1. about the poor aristocrats as indiscriminate
trend followers
2. About Mrs. Eynsford Hill inability to take
frank talk about alcoholism
The 2nd Reversal –of Eliza’s Class
Background
Ironic Implication about social communication:
(B) Definition of “Good English” by an
Opportunist scientist
1. No English is expected to speak good English.
2. Nepommuch – an opportunist with no substantial
knowledge in his field, a caricature of Higgins as a
scientist
– I have not your imposing appearance, your chin, your brow.
Nobody notice me when I shave. Now I am famous: They call me
Hairy Faced Dick.
– I help him [Greek diplomat] to pretend; but I make him pay through
the nose. I make them all pay. Ha ha!
Upgrading of Eliza’s Language and
Status  Social Mobility
1.
Class Distinction blurred:
1)
2)
3)
2.
3.
language and manners: The real upper class is an
endangered species, not being able to speak well;
money: some do not have the money to maintain their status.
Superficial interest in origin and royal blood.  Class mobility
and mixture of blood and classes is just an inevitable trend
Proper manners is not inborn, but acquired;
Language as a social marker – artificial and external.
e.g. “Perfect language” is acquired with conscious
practice, but not daily usage. (Slang and Eliza’s talk
can be truthful and colorful.)
Different views of professionalism:
4.
•
Nepommuck (vs. Higgins) (73) – rapid acquisition of
languages as well as money. “I speak 32 languages.”
Pygmalion Theme and its
Climax
• Climax: the Embassy Party? Yes and no.
– Yes because it proves Higgins “successful” and
winning the bet.
– No, because the efforts of Eliza’s (self-)
improvement should go on.
• Not showing it?
– What matters is not the magical feat, but its
consequences.
– This is where the play starts to differ significantly
from the original myth. The success does not
necessarily lead to a love story.
Manner
s
Small
Talk
Manners
& Artistic
Taste
Becoming
a lady
Education
Scientific
Creation
Pronuncia
tion
idealist
Speaking
English
inconside
rate
11/21 Class Discussion
Questions –for all
1. Now with the plot finalized, can you
describe the theme of your performance?
2. How does the stage setting, or any of the
props, help you convey the theme?
3. Character Performance: one character
memorizes a few lines to perform in
class
4. Practice Time?
5. Performance Length?
Scientific Creation vs.
Human Concern
Act IV
11/21 Class Discussion
Questions
On Act IV; Post your group responses before class
1. Group 7 & 8: Scientific Creation vs. Human
Concern
i. Higgins, Pickering & Eliza : Why is Eliza angry at the
–
–
2.
beginning of Act IV?
Why are Higgins or Pickering ignorant about it?
What are the clues to their lack of comprehension?
ii. Higgins & Eliza What do you think about the fight between
the two? What does Eliza want and can Higgins come to
terms with her? What do they each care about? Where
are the turning points in their dialogue? Are there signs
of affection?
Group 1 & 2 What about Freddy? Is he Eliza’s “Way Out”?
Aren’t their meeting and kisses at night dangerous or
scandalous?
Act IV
1. Scientific Creation vs. Human Concern
2. Eliza’s Possible Options: Freddy as One?
3. Scientific Creation vs.
Human Concerns
Summary: Act III
Battle of Will in Act IV
Examples of H&P’s Excitement
1. The most absorbing work for Higgins
2. (p. 69)
– HIGGINS [assailing her at the other ear] Yes, by George:
It's the most absorbing experiment I ever tackled. She
regularly fills our lives up; doesn't she, Pick?
– PICKERING We're always talking Eliza.
– HIGGINS Teaching Eliza.
– PICKERING Dressing Eliza.
– MRS. HIGGINS What!
– HIGGINS Inventing new Elizas.
3. Speaking together
Higgins’ and Pickering’s
Training
PICKERING –
HIGGINS—
on language learning
on piano learning
• You know, she has the most
extraordinary quickness of
ear—
• just like a parrot. I’ve tried her
with every—
• possible sort of sound that a
human being can make—
• Continental dialects, African
dialects, Hottentot—
• clicks, things it took me years
to get hold of; and—
• she picks them up like a shot,
right away, as if she had—
• been at it all her life.—
• I assure you, my dear Mrs. Higgins,
that girl—
• is a genius. She can play the piano
quite beautifully—
• We have taken her to classical
concerts and to music—
• halls; and it's all the same to her: she
plays everything—
• she hears right off when she comes
home, whether it's—
• Beethoven and Brahms or Lehar and
Lionel Morickton;—
• though six months ago, she'd never
as much as touched a piano.—
Reason for their Excitement:
Higgins’ Ideal as a scientist
• 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 from class and soul from
soul. (69)
Science vs. Human Concern
(69)
•
Mrs. Higgins’ concerns
//Mrs. Pearce’s
1. Where she lives and on
what terms (68)
2. Trouble
3. Her future
•
1.
2.
4. “You certainly are a pretty pair
of babies, playing with your
live doll.”
•
You give her 'the manners
and habits that disqualify
a fine lady from earning
her own living without
giving her a fine lady's
income'. (like Clara 71)
3.
4.
Higgins and Pickering’s
professional interest
Create a new speech in
her;
“It's filling up the
deepest gulf that
separates class from
class and soul from
soul.” (69)
Most absorbing
experiment
Inventing a new Eliza
(with language and
culture)
Higgins, Pickering & Eliza
Higgins – (77, 78-79)
1. Tired
2. asking for his slippers (78)
3. It’s over!!! “No more artificial
duchess”
4. Interesting at first, the whole
thing a silly notion and a bore
for him. The party –
purgatory.
Pickering
• Doing things well = being
“professional” 79
5. Higgins: gives command as
usual
Eliza
1. “tragic” and brooding
2. Performs her duty
(slippers)
3. Flinches but then
represses her anger
(78)
4. Beauty – murderous
(79)
5. Controls herself (79)
Outburst. (79-80) “take
your slippers; and may you
never have a day's luck with
them!”
Higgins vs. Eliza
Battle of Will and its Turning Points
Eliza attacks with the
slippers, her hands and her
questions about her future
(80-81; 82) (“YOU won my bet! You!
 Higgins (81) – defensive or
dismissive (astounded, wondering, a bit
uneasy, in his loftiest manner)
1. Claims his credit.
Presumptuous insect! I won it
All this irritation is purely
subjective.
Eliza’s persistent questions
(what’s to become of me)
1)  Eliza above ‘selling’
herself, but not fit for selling
anything else.
2) Eliza’s winning the argument
by checking which of the
jewelry and dresses belong
to her (separation).
2.
Defends their treatment of her
3. Nothing to worry about
 Higgins finally understands it.
(82) (enlightened, but not impressed)
1)
2)
3)
Didn’t realize that she was
going away. (eating an apple???)
Offers solution 1: marriage
Offers solution 2: Running a
florist shop (Pickering will set up
one for you.)
4)
Leaves with “impressive
decorum” and slamming the
door.
Higgins vs. Eliza
•
Eliza:
–
•
•
Professional
Efforts 
Emotional
Relation b/w
master and
servant, teacher
and student, or
between lovers?
“There cant be any feelings between the like of
you and the like of me. Please will you tell me
what belongs to me and what doesn't?” (84)
Signs of affection – but of what kind?
Higgins
–
–
–
–
[future] “I hadn’t quite realized that you were
going away. ” (82)
[next girl] HIGGINS [shocked and hurt] Is that
the way you feel towards us? (83)
[ownership; separating property][Being asked
about whom the clothes belong to, H is deeply
wounded] (84) [dashes the ring to the
fireplace]
Decorum + violence. (85)
Eliza’s Self-Transformation
She puts on ‘her walking shoes, walking dress and hat’
(85).
2. Put out her tongue at her image: rejecting the old
image.
3. Possible dangerous moves:
• Searches for comfort in Freddy and gets interrupted
twice by a constable, and then by a taxi driver
• ‘make[s] a hole in the river.’
• Wanders about at night.
1.
Mrs. Higgins as a possible savior? Other options?
Summary
1. [Pygmalion Theme] Eliza in her battle
of will with Higgins.
2. [Transformation & Education] Eliza on
the move, with some uncertain and even
dangerous first steps.
Next Time
1. Read Act V and Postscript
2. Answer 1 question online and in
class
3. Performance in Class
4. 11/28 noon -- theatre meeting with
the backstage crew
11/28 Class Discussion
Questions
On Act V & Postscript; Post your group responses before class
Group 5 & 6 . Mr. Doolittle (pp. 89-93): --what do you think
about his transformation? Is it funny? Ironical? What
does it say about Mr. Higgins and the issue of morality in
Victorian society?
• -- And about Mr. Doolittle? Do you agree with him that
taking the money and being intimidated by middle-class
morality is the only choice he has?
• 2) How is he a contrast to Eliza? (re. money, class
status and marriage)
Group 3 & 4 Eliza’s transformation: In what ways do
Higgins, Mrs. Pearce, Pickering and Mrs. Higgins
help Eliza get a better life?
–What does she achieve by herself?
11/28 Class Discussion
Questions
On Act V & Postscript; Post your group responses before class
Group 11 & 12. “The difference between a lady and a
flower girl is not how she behaves, but how's she's
treated.“ Do you agree?
1) Does Eliza have a “relapse” (to low-class manners)
when she sees her father? (99)
Group 9 & 10. Battle of Will] What do they each
insist on and see as goals of their lives in Act 5?
How do they change their tactics to win the debate?
1) [Higgins’ changes] Acts IV & V show Higgins
undergoing changes regarding his views of and
relation to Eliza. Where are the turning points and
are there traces of his affection for her?
11/28 Class Discussion
Questions
On Act V & Postscript; Post your group responses before class
Group 1 & 2 The Ending -- What do you think about the
ending of Act 5? Is it possible for Eliza and Higgins to
get married?
Compare this ending with the endings
-- suggested by the Postscript
-- of the film versions of Pygmalion (1938 and 1973 BBC
version) and My Fair Lady?
Group 7 & 8 In what ways does the Sequel ‘revise’
Pygmalion as a romance? Or deny that it is a romance? -What are the reasons added here against Eliza’s staying
with Higgins as a soul mate?
-- Why does it also introduce the changes of Clara?
Task for All the Groups
• A small rehearsal in class to demonstrate
either your creativity, or the part you like
the most. (If possible, bring your prop to
class)
Your Choices
Group 1 & 2: Act 5
Group 3 & 4: Act 3
Group 5 & 6: Act 1
Group 7 & 8: Act 4
Group 9 & 10: Act 3 (At-Home
Party, maybe with practice of manners)
Group 11&12: Act 2
Mini Play Contest: Tentative
Schedule
10月31日
11月7日
11月14日
11月21日
11月28日
12月5日
12月12日
Play
General Introd
Group
Job Division
Character Analysis &
Act I and Act II. (pp. 11-37)
Theme
Line Reading &
Act II & III (pp. 38-71)
Creative Adaptation
(script 1st draft ready)
Act III-IV (pp. 71-87 + Act Performance &
V)
Set and Prop
Theme and Overall
Act V and Postscript
Presentation
Rehearsal 12/10
Mini Play Preparation
Poetry I: Lyric and Tone
Performance Day
(12:15-3:30)