By 

Loren D. Morrison “amateur_reviewer” (Los Angeles County, U.S.A.) –

  

Shaw’s PYGMALION. like Julius Caesar’s Gaul, is divided into three parts.

1. A preface, which was written after the play was already a hit, but was meant by Shaw to be a part of the reader’s experience, and is necessary to the understanding of Shaw’s main theme.

2. A five act play, meant to be performed, and which is annotated in such a manner so as to facilitate deletion, on the stage, of portions only possible in a film version.

3. What Shaw refers to as a sequel, written in prose, and outlining Liza and Freddy’s life after their marriage which takes place after the end of Act V.

In the preface, Shaw first emphasizes the importance of reading his prose sequel. He then devotes the bulk of the preface to a discussion of the difficulties of learning to speak English, because its written alphabet so inadequately reflects the sound of the spoken word. He makes it very clear that he believes that the English Alphabet should be replaced by a 42 letter phonetic alphabet. He states that, “The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it.” He also states that Henry Higgins, the speech therapist, is at least partially modeled on Henry Sweet, a leading phonetician of the period.

The central portion of PYGMALION is the five act play to which most of us have been exposed in one form or another; The original play, the screen play with the altered “happy ending,” or the musical version, “My Fair Lady.” By now, I would guess that we all are very familiar with the plot in which Professor Henry Higgins teaches the uneducated flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, proper language and manners, and, for an evening, passes her off as royalty.

In the all important sequel, Shaw makes it very clear that language alone, is not enough to make the transition from street person to high society. After a long struggle, Eliza and Freddy enter the world of tradesmen and, with Colonel Pickering’s backing, open a flower shop in the arcade of a railway station. Because neither Eliza nor Freddy have any concept of how to handle money (Eliza can’t count or make change), the shop nearly fails. Colonel Pickering subsidizes them for several years, helping them to get a modest practical education, and eventually the shop does become self supporting. In this section, Shaw also explains why Liza picked the weaker Freddy over the stronger, but domineering Higgins. For a fuller explanation, one should read the sequel which, as I mentioned above, is included in the book.

Shaw makes it very clear that, while proper language is a necessity for success in this world, it alone is not enough. There is something to be said for proper upbringing, education, and exposure to culture.

A number of reviewers on these pages have seen PYGMALION as some sort of skewering of the British Upper Classes. Some have seized on Shaw’s political leanings to support these views. There is merit in these observations, but I prefer to take Shaw at face value and accept his statement that his lifelong belief that language is everything and that it IS language that strongly influences the world’s opinion of each of is his main reason for writing PYGMALION. He even went so far as to attempt, in his will, to set up a foundation for the purpose of getting the English speaking world to accept an alternate phonetic alphabet and short-hand.

I would probably be remiss if I ended this review without a reference to the Pygmalion of Ovid’s “Metamorphosis.” Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus and a sculptor. He sculpted a statue of a beautiful woman with which he fell in love. In answer to his prayers to Aphrodite, the statue was brought to life as Galatea, and Pygmalion married her. Shaw needed to look no further for a model plot. PYGMALION should be read in its entirety, preface, play, and prose sequel. By so doing, one can both enjoy the play, and better understand Shaw’s motivation in writing PYGMALION.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comment