Theme and Plot of Pygmallion by Bernard Shaw

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Pygmallion Like all great Shavian drama Pygmalion is very rich in complexities.In the original myth, pygmallion, the king of cyprus, a sculptor, created an ivory statue and fell in love with it. At his request aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty transformed the statue into an actual woman, Galatea.Siilarly, Higgins creates a new woan by transforming Eliza into a marvellous duchess. It combines a central story of transformation of a young flower girl into a refined lady. It has elements of myth, fairy tale and romance. It also combines an interesting plot with an exploration of social identity and relations between men and women among other issues. The ability to “morph” and change, to move from one layer of society to another is also explored. The play- Two old gentlemen meet in the rain one night at Covent Garden. Professor Higgins is a scientist of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering is a linguist of Indian dialects. The first bets the other that he can, with his knowledge of phonetics, convince high London society that, in a matter of months, he will be able to transform the cockney speaking Covent Garden flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a woman as poised and well-spoken as a duchess. The next morning, the girl appears at his laboratory on Wimpole Street to ask for speech lessons, offering to pay a shilling, so that she may speak properly enough to work in a flower shop. Higgins makes merciless fun of her, but is seduced by the idea of working his magic on her. Pickering goads him on by agreeing to cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins can pass Eliza off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. The challenge is taken, and Higgins starts by having his housekeeper bathe Eliza and give her new clothes. Then Eliza's father Alfred Doolittle comes to demand the return of his daughter, though his real intention is to hit Higgins up for

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