Pygmalion

Act II (Part 2) & Act III (Part 1):

Quiz & Class DiscussionI.Stage directions

II.Discussion as battle of will

III.Education

IV.Comedy of manners

I. Stage Directions Characters: Higgins vs. the

Others

i. What does the stage description on pp. 26-26 reveal more about Higgins?  

1. Which of the following is NOT in Higgins’ lab?

1. a dessert dish2. a grand piano3. a life-size image of half a human head 4. Some paintings

Setting (1184-85) – a scientist’s room

• two tall file cabinets • on the writing table – a

phonograph, a laryngoscope 喉鏡 , a row of tiny organ pipes with a bellows 風箱 , a set of lamp chimneys 煤油燈用的玻璃燈罩 for singing flames with burners attached to a gas plug in the wall by an india rubber tube, several tuning-forks of different sizes,

• a life-size image of half a human head, showing in section the vocal organs,

• a box containing a supply of wax cylinders for the phonograph.

• On the walls, engravings; mostly Piranesi’s and mezzotint ( 鏤刻銅版 ) portraits. No paintings. (a contrast to Mrs. Higgins’)

Art works in Higgins’ Living Room

Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s Etching (source: Wikipedia)

mezzotint (鏤刻銅版 ) portrait

Mr. Higgins’ vs Mrs. Higgins’ Rooms

• Instruments; file cabinet• a life-size image of

Human head with vocal cord;

• Portraits

& engravings

• Morris wallpaper • chintz ( 印花棉布 )

window curtains

Giovanni Battista Piranesi

Mrs. Higgins’ Room: Painting and Nature

• Burne Jones paintings • Cecil Lawson landscape painting, • three windows looking on the river; • A balcony with flowers in pots

Mrs. Higgins’ Room: Well-Designed Furniture

• Chippendale chair--chair made by or in the style of Thomas Chippendale (1718?-79), English cabinetmark and influenced to some extent by Louis XV.

• Elizabethan (Indigo Jones) chair

There is a Chippendale chair further back in the room between her and the window nearest her side. At the other side of the room, further forward, is an Elizabethan chair roughly carved in the taste of Inigo Jones.

Mrs. Higgins• Wise and with more sense of style, or

taste

• brought up on Morris and Burne Jones; once rebellious

– There is a portrait of Mrs. Higgins as she was when she defied fashion in her youth in one of the beautiful Rossettian costumes which, when caricatured by people who did not understand, led to the absurdities of popular estheticism in the eighteen-seventies.

• Cares about social occasion such as at-home tea party and its proper manners

A Pre-Raphaelite

Painting

Stage Direction Higgins • Well-off, a lot of furniture, etchings but not

paintings • Scientific: a lot of machines in his drawing room. • Childish: described as “babylike” twice; sweets

– like a very impetuous baby "taking notice" eagerly and loudly; [upon seeing Eliza] baby-like, making an intolerable grievance of it

– “a robust, vital, appetizing sort of man of forty or thereabouts” “a professional-looking black frock-coat”

– “heartily, even violently interested in everything that can be studied as a scientific subject”“careless about himself and other people, including their feelings.

– “so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments.

• * GBS’s bias for Higgins.

II. Discussion as Battle of Will

2. Which of the following is wrong about the first dialogue in Act II about Eliza’s education?

1. Eliza thought that Higgins cared about the money she paid.

2. Higgins is interested because of the bet Pickering places.

3. Higgins tries to persuade her with a rhetoric description of the future, as well as with chocolate, taxi, gold and diamond.

4. When Higgins finally clarifies the possible future for Eliza, he is all clear and reasonable.

Battle of willtug of war (1)

Battle of will --tug of war (1)

•

•12. Intervention (3) (36) future; clear explanation

13. Higgins clarifies the deal:

1) having your head cut off as penalty

2) 7 and 6 pence as award

3. Mrs. Pearce’s, Pickering’s and Mrs. Higgins’ Cautions—What do they each worry/care about?

1.Mrs. Pearce cares about practical matters such as where to put Eliza and whether Higgins has proper manners and language.

2.Pickering is worried if Higgins has any sexual intention on Eliza.

3.Mrs. Higgins thinks that Eliza is sure to bring a family problem to Higgins’ household.

4.Both Mrs. Pearce and Mrs. Higgins ask what is to become of Eliza.

(Choose the wrong one)

4. Which of the following is not what Mr. Doolittle wants?

1. touches other people for money.

2. Being undeserving poor.

3. Working as a navvy.

4. 10 pounds only from Mr. Higgins

III. Eliza’s Education

(2+6) Eliza’s Education: What has she achieved in the first part of Act 3 (the at-home party), and where does she fall short?

4. What are Eliza’s First Responses to being cleaned and dressed up?

1. She now knows why rich people can take a bath everyday.

2. She will go back to tell the other girls in her neighborhood what hot water bath is like.

3. She does not dare to look at the mirror.

4. She finds wearing a night gown a waste of money.

(Choose the wrong one)

Three Pygmalion’s (pp. 40-43)

Act 3 p. 69 pronunciation and cultural

taste

p. 39. Clean and respectable lady

IV. The Comical: The Play as a Comedy of Manners

(1+5) Act 2 and 3: Comedy of Manners: What are the comical elements in these two acts?

6. Which of the following proves Higgins rude?

1. He sits on the table.

2. He thinks that we are all savages.

3. He does not show interest in talking with the Eynsford Hills.

4. He looks at Freddy much as if he were a pickpocket.

(Choose the wrong one)

Higgins: His Frankness• (61) –

– What one really thinks--not decent ; – HIGGINS What they think they ought to think is bad enough, Lord know

s; but what they really think would break up the whole show. Do you suppose it would be really agreeable if I were to come out now with what I really think?

– MISS EYNSFORD HILL [gaily] Is it so very cynical?

– HIGGINS. Cynical! Who the dickens said it was cynical? I mean it wouldn't be decent.

– MRS EYNSFORD HILL [seriously] Oh! I'm sure you don't mean that, Mr. Higgins.

– “We” not civilized; – We can be pretentious in small talks, while not really knowing

the subjects (e.g. of poetry, science, medicine, etc.)

we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed to be civilized and cultured—to know all about poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of these names?

we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed to be civilized and cultured—to know all about poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of these names?

11/9 Class Discussion Questions

• (3+4) Act 2: Language and Rhetoric –What are the rhetorical skills used by Mr. Doolittle? Why are his statements funny? Choose 2 of his ideas and 1 of Higgins and discuss how you agree and/or disagree with them.

• (1+5) Act 2 and 3: Comedy of Manners: What are the comical elements in these two acts?

• (2+6) Eliza’s Education: What has she achieved in the first part of Act 3 (the at-home party), and where does she fall short?

• Act 3 Higgins and Pickering vs. Mrs. Higgins

Before class: script, contact list & Discussion Notes

Higgins’ “Epigrams” • Woman (41)-- I find that the moment I let a woman make

friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and youre driving at another.

• (re. Eliza’s education)• (31) -- What is life but a series of inspired follies? The

difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day. I shall make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe.

• 36 -- …do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?

• 42-- Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves is as true of personal habits as of money. read it in its context

Small Talk = fashionable, but meaningless

Clara – To her mother: [if you are not used to the small

talk,] “People will think we never go anywhere or see anybody if you are so old-fashioned.”

– ' Nobody means anything by it. It's so quaint, and gives such a smart emphasis to things that are not in themselves very witty. I find the new small talk delightful and quite innocent' (66)

– Rejects “early Victorian prudery” (67)

Mrs. Eynsford Hill: – not used to “[Clara’s] talking about men as

rotters, and calling everything filthy and beastly” (65)

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.”

• Alcoholism • Slang -- “Not bloody likely ”

Every Group: Creative Adaptation

1. What is the theme and main message of your work, as opposed to the original one? (They can be the same.)

2. Which scene do you want to focus on in your text? 3. Which perspective? Mrs. Pearce?’s On Homer

Barren’s? 4. How much dialogue? Among whom? Are you going to

fill out the gaps in the original texts? 5. Setting – location and main props 6. Casting

About the story you chose, or Pygmalion – Finalized Script

11/9 Class Discussion Questions

1. (2+6) Education and Manners: What has Eliza learned by the end of Act III? Any interesting plot reversals? (67; 68-70) What do they shed light on Victorian manners?

2. (3+4) Scientific Education and Human Concerns

-- How are the discussions in Act II and Act III proven right in the one between Eliza and Higgins in Act IV? In other words, what are the consequences of Higgins’ experiment on Eliza?

3. (1+5)Higgins & Eliza: How does the fight between them end in Act IV? 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?

Before class: Discussion Notes

Every Group: Stage Prop & Lighting Effect

1. Draw a design for one or more of the settings and prop identified in your script (e.g. Emily’s living room, Higgins’ voice lab, the supermarket, Emily’s bridal chamber? The embassy party?) Use only a few signs to symbolize the time and setting.

2. Research and design costumes that would be appropriate for your characters in their times. Consider financial factors, too, so you can make do with some less expensive alternatives.

About the story you chose, or Pygmalion – With drawings

Mini Play Contest: Tentative Schedule

Play Group10 月 26

日General Introd Job Division

11 月 2日

Act I and Act II. (pp. 11-37)

Character Analysis

11 月 9日Act II & III (pp. 38-71) Creative Adapation

11 月 16日

Act III-IV (pp. 71-87 + Act V)

Set and Prop

11 月 23日Act V and Postscript

Theme and Presentation

11 月 30日Mid-Term (2)

Rehearsal (11:10-1:30)

12 月 7日Performance Day