Pygmalion

Pygmalion

• Genre: Fiction; social commentary; romantic comedy
• Originally Published: 1913
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 10-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: Five acts; approximately 82 pages; approximately 1 hour 37 minutes on audiobook
• Protagonist/Central Conflict: The story centers around Professor Henry Higgins, a phonetics expert, and Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl. Higgins makes a bet that he can transform Eliza’s speech and manners to pass her off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party. The play explores themes of social class, transformation, and the complexities of human nature.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Contains classist remarks; gender dynamics reflective of its time; some language and themes may seem dated or controversial in a modern context

George Bernard Shaw, Author

• Bio: Born 1856; died 1950; Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist; primarily self-educated after age 15; co-founder of the London School of Economics; a leading figure in 20th-century theatre; won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925; known for his biting wit, satire, and social commentaries
• Other Works: Man and Superman (1903); Major Barbara (1905); The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906); Androcles and the Lion (1912); Saint Joan (1923); Back to Methuselah (1921); The Apple Cart (1929)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• Formal Education and Multiple Intelligences
• The Role of Language and Phonetics in Characterization
• Women’s Identity, Gender Roles, and Marriage

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Gain an understanding of the social implications regarding a person’s accent and diction that drive Henry Higgins to transform Eliza Doolittle.
• Discuss paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Formal Education, Language and Phonetics, and Women’s Identity.
• Work collaboratively to analyze a single character and discuss how Shaw uses that character’s development to explore the themes of his play.
• Evaluate the themes, symbols, and motifs of the play in structured essay responses on the relationship between language and social class, the role of women in the play, and other topics.