Identify Character Traits
Pygmalion
Professor Higgins
How are the two characters alike?
Both men are motivated by the perfection of their
specific fields of expertise.
Identify Character Traits
Pygmalion
Professor Higgins
How are the characters different?
Pygmalion is an expert sculptor and Higgins is a phonetic expert.
Both men are experts in their fields.
Pygmalion sculpts.
What motivates
the character?
What does the
character do and
how well?
What does the
character think or
believe?
What does he
say?
What does he say
about other
characters?
Higgins is a phonetics expert.
Both men despise ordinary women. The narrator
reveals this about Pygmalion in the first line. Higgins
makes his feelings of disrespect obvious as he talks
over Eliza’s head as if she wasn’t there.
Pygmalion is gentle with the statue and Higgins is harsh with
Eliza.
Pygmalion prays for his statue to become his wife.
Pygmalion speaks softly and hesitantly.
Higgins bullies Eliza into becoming his experiment.
Higgins is brash and direct.
They both have plans for their creations.
Pygmalion is devoted and loving in his reference to his creation.
Ye gods, who can do all things, give me, I pray you,
for my wife"—he dared not say "my ivory virgin," but
said instead—"one like my ivory virgin."
Higgins is rude about his subject, Eliza.
Eliza: you are to live here for the next six months,
learning how to speak beautifully, like a lady in a
florist's shop. If you're good and do whatever you're
told, you shall sleep in a proper bedroom, and have
lots to eat, and money to buy chocolates and take
rides in taxis. If you're naughty and idle you will sleep
in the back kitchen among the black beetles, and be
walloped by Mrs. Pearce with a broomstick. At the
end of six months you shall go to Buckingham Palace
in a carriage, beautifully dressed.
Pygmalion appears to be interested in the happiness of his
statue because he gives it gifts.
Higgins seems to be working in his own best interest, wishing to
win the wager against Pickering.
What does the
author tell us
about the
character?
How does the
character handle
conflict/crisis?
What does the
character like or
dislike?
What motivates
the character?
What does she
do and how
well?
What does the
character think
or believe?
What does she
say (about
herself)?
They are both men looking for perfection in women
and decide to transform their own image of a woman
through the use of their individual talents.
Pygmalion honors Venus.
Higgins does not show any reverence.
Pygmalion seems humble.
Higgins seems arrogant.
They are both similar in that they both try to take
charge of their environment – they both initiate
change.
Although Pygmalion sculpted his image of perfection, he realized
it was only an inanimate image, which required divine
intervention to make the sculpture real. Higgins, on the other
hand, took complete charge of his very much alive subject.
They both dislike women at the beginning of the
story and then eventually fall in love with their
female creation.
Identify Character Traits
The Statue
Eliza
How are the two characters alike?
Both are being chosen, shaped, and changed under
the guidance or control of a man who considers
himself an expert.
Identify Character Traits
The Statue
Eliza
How are the characters different?
Eliza comes to Higgins, while the statue is just a block of ivory to
be shaped and molded.
Both the statue and Eliza manage to capture the heart
of their creator.
The statue is beautiful and captures Pygmalion’s heart with her
beauty.
Eliza learns well and proves a level of intelligence that seems to
catch Higgins off guard.
The statue doesn’t think or believe anything because it isn’t
alive.
Eliza believes she can better herself and her station in life by
taking lessons from Professor Higgins. This shows a level of selfworth in Eliza.
The statue says nothing. Eliza expresses the desire to improve
and works hard to do so.
What does she
say about other
characters?
What does the
author tell us
about the
character?
How does the
character handle
conflict/crisis?
What does the
character like or
dislike?
Eliza comments on Higgins insensitivity, even bullying nature.
They are both raw materials, made alive by the hands
of their creators.
Eliza is dirty and uneducated—a “block of wood,
marble, or ivory,” with the raw material to be
beautiful. But she needs the artist to bring out that
beauty.
Where the statue is beautiful and treated grandly, Eliza starts
out dirty and ugly and must work for everything she receives.
The statue doesn’t want for anything, but Eliza wants for a
better life, and has the intelligence to take her opportunity when
it is presented to her.
The statue doesn’t experience conflict or crisis. She seems to
move from object to loving and devoted wife with just a kiss.
Eliza must work hard and does achieve her goal. However, just
as she experiences success she is completely snubbed by
Higgins. At this point she leaves him to pursue her own life.
We do not get the opinion of the statue, ever. The story is
completely from Pygmalion’s perspective.
Eliza, on the other hand, is a complex, round, dynamic character.
We know she likes chocolate and nice clothes. She respects
Higgins but may not like him all the time. She likes Freddy. She
does not like selling flowers on the corner.