Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

During Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, Eliza Doolittle, a very dirty, & poor, young flower girl learns to behave as a duchess, but along the way realizes that she was happier poor. She only wants to feel respected, but her inner feelings get slightly trampled in the process.

The setting of Pygmalion effects how the characters reacted. Every story’s setting has it’s own rules and characteristics, while at the same time every character has their own personality. Depending on the person their personality will make them behave differently in different settings. One example of this is how Higgins shows his distaste for women by not having, or at least using manners around them. Perhaps if this play took place in China in that time, he might show his hate for “dealing with women” by physically abusing them.

This setting of London during late 1800’s helps me to see the cultural aspects of it all. Through out Pygmalion, I see that you are either poor or rich, hardly is there an in-between. Also it is made known that the poor are free to behave as they want and still be emotionally ok, since they are not accepted anyway. The rich, instead, must not be too bold, speak only of appropriate matters, and be somewhat proper for fear of being rejected. Before when the Doolittles were poor, they were actually richer, because they had freedom to act as they wanted, not so much was expected from them. Unfortunately for them, they can’t go back once they have experienced “middle class life.” One, because they we’re too used to it, and two, they would be social outcasts. Mr. Doolittle states to Higgins, “[You’ve] ruined me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality.”

The setting of Pygmalion was not that new to me, because I have read and seen other tales like it, with this same place and time period, but I have never quite caught this aspect of it. This book helped me see how selfish and unfair society was, yet in the end it is the poor who are the ones one top. These “draggle-tailed guttersnipes” didn’t have money or possessions, but they had freedom, happiness, and valuable life experiences.

The most important passage in the book is when Eliza elegantly and unexpectedly beat the professor at his own game of being the ruler of the situation. With a few lines she took the knowledge the professor and others had given her and turned the tables of who was to get the blame around. She states, “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.” She goes on to say how Higgins treated her as a flower girl, and so in his heart she would always remain