Comparison of Pygmalion and the Secret Agent

The stories, Pygmalion and The Secret Agent, are about a woman’s transformation. Pygmalion is a story about a young girl’s transformation from an uneducated flower seller, into a very intelligent and highly capable young woman. Similarly, The Secret Agent is a story about a self-less woman, who is trapped in an unwanted marriage, just so her “half-wit brother and crippled mother” were taken care of (Conrad, 202). The most emotionally affected characters in these stories were the women in them, Winnie Verloc and Liza Doolittle.

In the stories Pygmalion and The Secret Agent, both women are the most emotionally affected by the events in the stories. Both of these women had to change in order to live with these men. In Pygmalion, Liza’s goal in the beginning of the play is to “be a lady in a flower shop stead of sellin at the corner of Tottenham Court Road” (Shaw, 2228). But in order for her to become a respectable woman in a flower shop, she needs to become a new person. Professor Higgins, a teacher of phonics, takes on her challenge but, on his terms. He tells Liza, “You are to live here for the next six months, learning how to speak beautifully, like a lady in a florist’s shop. If youre good and do whatever youre told, you shall sleep in a proper bedroom, and have lots to eat, and money to buy chocolates and ride in taxis” (Shaw, 2232). So for six months, she succumbs to every task and challenge Higgins sets for her. One of Higgins' challenges for Liza was tea at Higgins’ mother’s house. Liza

made small talk with Mrs. Higgins and her guests, exactly what Higgins had instructed her to do. Higgins expressed his approval when he said, “She has the most extraordinary quickness of ear, just like a parrot” (Shaw, 2252). This meant that Liza was progressing nicely and earning her keep in his home.

In The Secret Agent, Winnie is the most emotionally affected because her entire life revolved around her brother, Stevie, and when he got killed there was no more reason for her to continue leading the life she formerly led. She tells Ossipon about how she had no choice; she had to marry Mr. Verloc even though she never loved him when she says, “What was I to do with mother and that poor boy? Eh? I said