By G.B. ShawPYGMALION

Background & Ovid

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

CLASSICAL PYGMALION

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Pygmalion and Galatea, oil on canvas, c. 1890 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Boris Vallejo, Pygmalion, 1988.

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

COMPARING MYTH TO DRAMA

SEE HANDOUT FOR INFORMATION

LIFE OF G.B. SHAW

END OF TODAY’S POWERPOINT!

Preface

Act I

"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).

EXCERPT FROM INTRODUCTION

“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?

PREFACE: A PROFESSOR OF PHONETICS

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

SHAW’S STYLE

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.

SETTING

LONDON PICTURES

Covent Garden, London 1900

LONDON PICTURES

Drawing Room, London 1900

DUCHESS, 1900

Professor Henry Higgins

Colonel Pickering

CHARACTERS (SEE HANDOUT)

Eliza Doolittle Alfred Doolittle

CHARACTERS CONTINUED

Mrs. Pearce Mrs. Higgins

CHARACTERS CONTINUED

Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill

Colonel Pickering

Mrs. Higgins

CHARACTERS CONTINUED

What was the big deal with language in the play, anyway?

Does language influence modern American society in similar ways? How so/not?

IMPORTANCE OF SPEECH/LANGUAGE

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 1: 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 2: 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 3: 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 4: 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.

CLIP 5: PERCEPTION?

LET’S FIGURE OUT ROLES FOR

PERFORMANCES NEXT CLASS!

Mrs. PearceHigginsFlower GirlPickering

END OF TODAY’S POWERPOINT!

ACT II Part 1

(performances)