DRAMA II Modern Drama

DRAMA IIModern Drama Lecture 22

SYNOPSIS • Plot Overview (Summary) • Themes • Language & Communication • Transformation • Identity • Appearance • Manipulation • Society and Class • Women and Femininity • Dreams, Hopes and Plans • Middle Class Morality

Plot summaryACT I-V PYGMALION

Pygmalion Act 1- Summary • It's a dark and stormy night, and a crowd of people are seeking refuge from the rain in front of a church in London's Covent Garden market. • Among them are an older woman and her daughter (both dressed up), their son Freddy (who's been sent out into the rain to find a cab), an old, well-dressed military man, a poor young flower girl with a thick Cockney accent, and a strange man standing in the shadows writing down everything the flower girl says. • Trouble starts when the older woman starts asking the flower girl questions. • The girl flips out and starts telling everyone what a good girl she is.

Pygmalion Act 1- Summary • The crowd comes to her defense and everything seems fine until some guy informs her about the strange man taking notes. People think he's some kind of cop, or maybe just a pervert. • She flips out again, although its pretty darn hard to understand what she's saying through her thick accent, until the note-taker shows himself, and everybody sees that he's not a cop or a pervert, he's just an rich guy with nice boots and a knack for guessing where people come from, geography-wise. • People are amazed/frightened by this ability.

Pygmalion Act 1- Summary • He tells the flower girl to, well, shut up. She whines some more. • He asks her to kindly shut up again and to please stop butchering the English language (except he doesn't say please). • He then tells the old guy that he could pass off the crazy flower girl as royalty by teaching her how to speak. • The two men introduce themselves – turns out they're both well-respected linguists. The note-taker is Henry Higgins, teacher of phonetics, the old guy an expert on the dead Indian language Sanskrit.

Pygmalion Act 1- Summary • Higgins takes pity on the flower girl and gives her a sovereign (imagine getting tipped a hundred bucks).The girl jumps for joy, starts howling like a banshee – no, really – and jumps in the next cab.The two men head back to Pickering's hotel for dinner, and poor old Freddy gets left in the rain, abandoned by his mom and sis.

Pygmalion Act 2 - Summary • The next day, in Higgins's house on 10 Wimpole Street, Higgins and the Colonel are talking shop when Mrs. Pearce, Henry's very reasonable maid, tells him that a girl with a funny accent has come to the door. • Thinking he might get some good material from her, he decides to let her in. • The flower girl from the night before comes in wearing some (relatively) clean clothes and what may just be the funniest hat you've ever seen. She introduces herself as Eliza Doolittle. • Higgins is about to throw her out – he already "has" her accent – when she demands to be given speaking lessons.

Pygmalion Act 2 - Summary • After some deliberation, Higgins and Pickering decide to take her on as a client, only they treat the whole thing like a bet. • They really want to see if they can pass her off as a duchess in six months time. • Higgins tells Mrs. Pearce to go burn all of Eliza's clothes and get her clean. • While she's off in the shower, a hulking dustman – that's British for garbage man – comes in and introduces himself as Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father.

Pygmalion Act 2 - Summary • Doolittle proceeds to talk Higgins into giving him five pounds for booze in return for leaving Eliza alone. • Higgins, amazed by his speaking ability, does give him some cash, but their discussion is interrupted by the entrance of a "Japanese Lady."She turns out to be Eliza in a kimono, and without all the dirt and the silly clothes, Eliza's really pretty.

Pygmalion Act 2 - Summary • Eliza loves all the attention so much she wants to go down to where all the other flower girls hang out and strut her stuff. • Higgins knows this is a bad idea and tells her so. Mrs. Pearce lures her away with the promise of new clothes. • Eliza howls like a banshee again before skipping off stage. • Pickering and Higgins shake their heads in disbelief. They've got a lot of work to do.

Pygmalion Act 3 - Summary • Act Three finds us at the apartment of Henry Higgins's mum. Higgins, it seems, wants to test his work at a party she'll soon be throwing. • Mrs. Higgins does not approve of the idea – you get the feeling she doesn't approve of most things Higgins does – but Higgins doesn't listen. • He's not one to take no for an answer. He's also, we find out, not interested in women, really. Except women like his dear old mother. Higgins assures his mother that Eliza will be on her best behavior, and talk only about the weather and other people's health.

Pygmalion Act 3 - Summary • Turns out the whole thing isn't much of a party. The only guests are the mother and sister from the first act, Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill, good old Freddy, Pickering, and, of course, Eliza. • Eliza enters the party last, looking stunning, and proceeds to ask everyone "How do you do?" She acts a bit like a robot – a beautiful robot with a perfect accent and a very small vocabulary. • Higgins spends most of the time trying to figure out why the Eynsford Hills look so familiar.

Pygmalion Act 3 - Summary • By the time he figures it out, Eliza has forgotten to stick to the script. She starts talking about how her aunt was "did in" by someone. Freddy, not the sharpest tool in the shed, is laughing like an idiot. His vocabulary seems pretty small too (e.g., "Ha! Ha! How awfully funny!" and "Killing!" He thinks Eliza's a comedian, not a Cockney girl). Higgins, embarrassed, gives the signal – a cough – and Eliza heads off like clockwork. • After the Eynsford Hills leave, Mrs. Higgins gives Henry and Pickering a talking to. She scolds them like they're little boys.

Pygmalion Act 3 - Summary • They assure her that they're treating Eliza well, not like a doll at all, but Mrs. Higgins doesn't buy it. Things start to get heavy, and we're not exactly sure why. • You idiots, she says, if Eliza learns to act like a lady, she won't be able to do anything to make a living! • Higgins and Pickering skip away, unconcerned.

Pygmalion Act 4 - Summary • Midnight at Wimpole Street, some months later. Eliza comes in, looking beautiful but tired. • Higgins and Pickering stumble in, drunk and happy. They've just come from a bunch of fancy parties and, well, it turns out their scheme worked. • Higgins has won the bet, and is too busy tooting his own horn to congratulate Eliza. He and Pickering talk about the evening's events as though Eliza can't hear them – even though she's sitting right across the room.

Pygmalion Act 4 - Summary • They act like she's a kind of performing monkey, a puppet, a doll, a robot. • By now, though, she's got a much larger vocabulary, and she knows Higgins can be a pretty miserable jerk. Even after she brings Higgins his slippers, the two men don't pay any attention to her. • At this point Eliza's just about ready to pull an Incredible Hulk and strangle the two of them. When Higgins asks her to turn off the lights and give Mrs. Pearce his breakfast order, she throws his slippers in his face. She even threatens to kill him.

Pygmalion Act 4 - Summary • Just as Mrs. Higgins warned, Higgins's work has left Eliza in a pickle. • She doesn't know what to do with herself now that he's won his bet, and she's mad. Just like Mrs. Higgins said, she's learned how to act like a lady and now she's worried she won't be able to do anything to make a living. • Higgins tries to talk her down, suggests she get married, become a florist, etc., but Eliza doesn't listen.

Pygmalion Act 4 - Summary • All she wants to do is get out of there, telling Higgins that he can keep all the clothing and jewelry he bought her. • This gets Higgins super angry and now he nearly pulls an Incredible Hulk and hits Eliza. He gets so angry that he cusses Eliza out and then storms out of the room. • Eliza smiles, for the first time, Shaw tells us, as Higgins slams the door.

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • The next morning, the Colonel and Higgins show up at Mrs. Higgins's place looking for Eliza, who seems to have run away. • Higgins is acting especially whiny, like a bratty child who's lost his favorite toy. • Mrs. Higgins accuses the two men of scaring her off. Higgins can't handle the accusation. • Woe is he. He's all confused, he says. He can't find out what to do without Eliza.

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • Mrs. Higgins calls the men a couple of whiny kids.Once again, their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of Mr. Doolittle. • This time, he looks more like a gentleman than a garbage man. • Turns out Higgins was right: Doolittle really did have a gift for the gab. An American millionaire has left him a ton of money, and now he's giving lectures all over England. Oh, and he's totally miserable. He misses taking money from people. • Mrs. Higgins decides that, since Mr. Doolittle is rich now, he can take care of Eliza. Higgins objects, saying that he paid five pounds to Doolittle for Eliza. The whole doll thing isn't sounding so silly now, is it?

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • When Eliza finally comes down (she's been upstairs this whole time), she gives Higgins the cold shoulder. She tells Pickering how much he (Pickering) helped her just by treating her like a lady. • At this point, Higgins is just about ready to through a temper tantrum. He jumps for joy, however, after Eliza starts howling like a banshee (again) when she sees her father all dressed up. • Doolittle announces that he's on his way to get married. Everyone files out of the apartment except for Eliza and Higgins, who have one last climactic chat.

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • Higgins starts waxing poetic, talking about the soul and humanity and how much he appreciated having his own slippers thrown at him – turns out he didn't like having them brought to him in the first place. • When Eliza accuses him of being mean and dismissive, he claims he is just being fair; he treats everyone from duchesses to flower girls the same way.

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • Then he asks her to come back. She tells him to shove it. She would rather go back to selling flowers on the street corner. • The two bicker some more: she says she'll marry Freddy. Higgins wants no such thing. He tells her she's a fool. She tells him he's a jerk. Finally, Eliza tells Higgins she wants her independence, and that she'll go so far as to steal his secrets to get it.

Pygmalion Act 5 - Summary • She threatens to use everything he taught her against him, to go into competition. This leads Higgins to her a "damned impudent slut" and then tell her, "I like you like this" (3.273). He tells her she's his equal, now, but she won't have it. She turns and leaves. • Higgins calls after her, telling her to buy him some groceries and clothing. He's sure she'll return.

Plot themes PYGMALION

Themes

Pygmalion 1. Theme of Language and Communication • We hear language in all its forms in Pygmalion: everything from slang and "small talk," to heartfelt pleas and big talk about soul and poverty. • Depending on the situation, and depending on whom you ask, language can separate or connect people, degrade or elevate, transform or prevent transformation. Language, we learn, doesn't necessarily need to be "true" to be effective; it can deceive just as easily as it can reveal the truth. • It is, ultimately, what binds Pygmalion together, and it pays to read carefully; even something as small as a single word can define a person.

Pygmalion 1. Theme of Language and Communication

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Science of Language Higgins shows that speech can be regarded as a science and used as a tool. Quote #THE NOTE TAKER. Simply phonetics. The science of speech. That's my profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets. (1.118)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Act of Speech • However, he invests speech with spiritual and cultural implications; English should be respected, he argues, is important because it is the language of great artists, and a gift from God. Quote #THE NOTE TAKER. A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. (1.125)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Ambivalence • Again, Higgins displays a sort of ambivalence about language. He treats it as a tool for social advancement, a suitable subject for scientific inquiry, and a medium for artistic expression. Quote #THE NOTE TAKER. You see this creature with her kerb stone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English. That's the sort of thing I do for commercial millionaires. And on the profits of it I do genuine scientific work in phonetics, and a little as a poet on Miltonic lines. (1.129)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Status • Higgins's understanding of language leads him to treat certain people less as human beings than as test subjects Quote #HIGGINS [confidently] Oh no: I think not. If there's any trouble he shall have it with me, not I with him. And we are sure to get something interesting out of him.PICKERING. About the girl?HIGGINS. No. I mean his dialect. (2.206-9)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Misinterpretation Quote #[To Freddy, who is in convulsions of suppressed laughter] Here! what are you sniggering at?FREDDY. The new small talk. You do it so awfully well.LIZA. If I was doing it proper, what was you laughing at? [To Higgins] Have I said anything I oughtn't? (3.122) • Here, Shaw demonstrates how easily language can be misinterpreted. What would seem like normal speech on the corner of Tottenham Court Road becomes novel and humorous in a new context.

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Influences • Just as he does in Act 1, Higgins associates the act of speech with the soul, the uniquely human spirit. Here, however, he also seems to make little distinction between the physical parts used in the act of speaking and the soul. Quote #HIGGINS. As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. I'm worn out, thinking about her, and watching her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which is the quaintest of the lot. (3.221)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference | Unifying Force • Throughout Pygmalion, "correct" language is portrayed as a unifying force. Here, Eliza demonstrates that it can also be divisive. Quote #LIZA. I can't. I could have done it once; but now I can't go back to it. Last night, when I was wandering about, a girl spoke to me; and I tried to get back into the old way with her; but it was no use. You told me, you know, that when a child is brought to a foreign country, it picks up the language in a few weeks, and forgets its own. Well, I am a child in your country. I have forgotten my own language, and can speak nothing but yours. That's the real break-off with the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Leaving Wimpole Street finishes it. (5.152)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference |Emotional Link • Although she has been taught to speak properly, Eliza's "old ways" seem to linger on some deeper level, associated with emotion rather than intellect. Quote #PICKERING. He's incorrigible, Eliza. You won't relapse, will you?LIZA. No: Not now. Never again. I have learnt my lesson. I don't believe I could utter one of the old sounds if I tried. [Doolittle touches her on her left shoulder. She drops her work, losing her self-possession utterly at the spectacle of her father's splendor] A—a—a—a—a—ah—ow—ooh! (5.156-57)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference| Association • It seems strange that Higgins should say this, given that he associates the soul so closely with speech. Quote #HIGGINS. And I have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like them, rather.LIZA. Well, you have both of them on your gramophone and in your book of photographs. When you feel lonely without me, you can turn the machine on. It's got no feelings to hurt.HIGGINS. I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you can take away the voice and the face. They are not you. (5.209-11)

1. Theme of Language and CommunicationDramatic Reference| Rebel • By using incorrect English, by rebelling against the standards of English grammar, Eliza is able to rebel against Higgins as well. Quote #LIZA [looking fiercely round at him] I wouldn't marry YOU if you asked me; and you're nearer my age than what he is.HIGGINS [gently] Than he is: not "than what he is."LIZA [losing her temper and rising] I'll talk as I like. You're not my teacher now. (5.232-34)

Theme of Language and CommunicationQuestions • Why does Eliza start speaking in her old manner when she gets emotional? What does this say about her training? Or about Higgins's abilities as a teacher?

Theme of Language and CommunicationQuestions • Higgins doesn't always use the kindest words when addressing Eliza. Given that language is so important to him, can we believe it when he says he treats all men in the same way?

Theme of Language and CommunicationQuestions • At Mrs. Higgins's party, Freddy and Clara confuse Eliza's normal way of speaking for "the new small talk." What does this say about the way language works in different contexts?

Review Lecture 22 • Plot Overview (Summary) • Themes • Language & Communication • Transformation • Identity • Appearance • Manipulation • Society and Class • Women and Femininity • Dreams, Hopes and Plans • Middle Class Morality

AGENDA Lecture 23 • Themes of Pygmalion (Conti…) • 3. Theme of Identity • 4. Theme of Appearance • 5. Theme of Manipulation

DRAMA II Modern Drama