Pygmalion

Play Summary

On a summer evening in London's Covent Garden, a group of assorted people

are gathered together under the portico of St. Paul's Church for protection from the
rain. Among the group are Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and her daughter, Clara, who are
waiting for the son, Freddy, to return with a cab. When he returns in failure, he is
again sent in search of a cab. As he leaves, he collides with a young flower girl with
a thick Cockney accent, and he ruins many of her flowers. After he is gone, the
mother is interested in how such a "low" creature could know her son's name; she
discovers that the flower girl calls everyone either "Freddy" or "Charlie." When an
elderly gentleman comes into the shelter, the flower girl notes his distinguished
appearance and tries to coax him to buy some flowers. This gentleman, Colonel
Pickering, refuses to buy the flowers, but he gives the girl some money. Members of
the crowd warn the girl against taking the money because there is a man behind her
taking notes of everything she says. When the flower girl (Eliza) loudly proclaims
that "I am a good girl, I am," the bystanders begin to protest. The note taker, it turns
out, is Professor Henry Higgins, an expert in phonetics. His hobby is identifying
everyone's accent and place of birth. He even maintains that he could take this
"ragamuffin" of a flower girl and teach her to talk like a duchess in three months. At
this time, the elder gentleman identifies himself as Colonel Pickering, the author of
a book on Sanskrit, who has come to meet the famous Henry Higgins, to whom he
is now talking. The two go off to discuss their mutual interest in phonetics.

The next morning at Professor Higgins' house, the two men are discussing
Higgins' experiments when the flower girl is announced by Mrs. Pearce, Higgins'
housekeeper. The girl, Eliza Doolittle, remembers that Higgins bragged about being
able to teach her to speak like a duchess, and she has come to take lessons so that
she can get a position in a flower shop. Pickering makes a wager with Higgins, who,
in the spirit of good sport, decides to take the bet: he orders Mrs. Pearce to take the
girl away, scrub her, and burn her clothes. He overcomes all of Eliza's objections,
and Eliza is taken away. At this time, Eliza's father appears with the intention of
blackmailing Higgins, but he is so intimidated by Higgins that he ends up asking for
five pounds because he is one of the "undeserving poor." Higgins is so pleased with
the old fellow's audacity and his unique view of morality that he gives him the five
pounds and is immediately rid of him.

Sometime later, Higgins brings Eliza to his mother's house during her
"receiving day." Freddy Eynsford-Hill and his mother and sister Clara are also
present. These turn out to be the same people whom we saw under the portico in the
first act. Now, however, none of the guests recognize that Eliza is the "ragamuffin"
flower girl of that night. Everyone is amused with the pedantic correctness of her
speech and are even more impressed with Eliza's narration of her aunt's death, told
in perfect English, but told with lurid and shocking details. After Eliza's departure,
Mrs. Higgins points out that the girl is far from being ready to be presented in public.

Sometime later, Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza return late in the evening. The
men are delighted with the great success they have had that day in passing off Eliza
as a great duchess at an ambassador's garden party. They are so extremely proud that
they totally ignore Eliza and her contribution to the success of the "experiment."
Infuriated, Eliza finally throws a slipper at Higgins, only to be informed that she is
being unreasonable. Eliza is concerned with what will happen to her now that the
experiment is over: Is she to be tossed back into the gutter; what is her future place?
Higgins cannot see that this is a problem, and after telling her that all of the clothes
that she has been wearing belong to her, he retires for the evening.

The next day, Higgins arrives at his mother's house completely baffled that
Eliza has disappeared. He has telephoned the police and is then surprised to learn
that Eliza is upstairs. While waiting for Eliza, Mr. Doolittle enters and he accuses
Higgins of ruining him because Higgins told a wealthy man that Doolittle was
England's most original moralist, and, as a result, the man left an enormous sum of
money in trust for Doolittle to lecture on moral reforms. He has thus been forced
into middle-class morality, and he and his common-law wife are miserable. He has
come to invite Eliza to his wedding, another concession to dreadful middle-class
morality.

Eliza enters and agrees to come to her father's wedding. As they all prepare to
leave, Higgins restrains Eliza and tries to get her to return to his house. He maintains
that he treats everyone with complete equality. To him, he makes no social
distinction between the way he would treat a flower girl or a duchess. Eliza is
determined to have respect and independence, and thus she refuses to return to
Higgins' house. Higgins then admits that he misses her and also admires her
newfound independence. He further maintains that she should return, and the three
of them will live equally, as "three bachelors." Eliza, however, feels otherwise, and
she leaves with Mrs. Higgins to attend her father's wedding.

About Pygmalion

The Source of the Title: The Legend of Pygmalion and Galatea

 Shaw took his title from the ancient Greek legend of the famous sculptor
named Pygmalion who could find nothing good in women, and, as a result, he
resolved to live out his life unmarried. However, he carved a statue out of ivory that
was so beautiful and so perfect that he fell in love with his own creation. Indeed, the
statue was so perfect that no living being could possibly be its equal. Consequently,
at a festival, he prayed to the goddess of love, Aphrodite, that he might have the
statue come to life. When he reached home, to his amazement, he found that his wish
had been fulfilled, and he proceeded to marry the statue, which he named Galatea.

Even though Shaw used several aspects of the legend, most prominently one
of the names in the title, viewers, writers, critics, and audiences have consistently
insisted upon there being some truth attached to every analogy in the myth. First of
all, in Shaw's Pygmalion, Professor Henry Higgins is the most renowned man of
phonetics of his time; Higgins is also like Pygmalion in his view of women —
cynical and derogatory: Higgins says, "I find that the moment I let a woman make
friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance."
And whereas in the myth, Pygmalion carved something beautiful out of raw stone
and gave it life, Shaw's Higgins takes a "guttersnipe," a "squashed cabbage leaf" up
out of the slums and makes her into an exquisite work of art. Here, however, the
analogies end. Shaw's "Galatea," Eliza, develops a soul of her own and a fierce
independence from her creator.

In the popular film version and in the even more popular musical comedy
version (My Fair Lady), the ending allows the audience to see a romantic love
interest that blends in with the ancient myth. This, however, is a sentimentalized
version of Shaw's play. Shaw provided no such tender affection to blossom between
professor and pupil.
 Preface to Pygmalion

Shaw ultimately wrote a preface to almost all of his plays that he considered
important. In fact, sometimes the Prefaces, the Prologues, and the Afterwords
exceeded the length of the original dramas. In one of his prefaces, he comments that
most dramatists use the preface to expound on things that have little or no importance
to the drama. Here, Shaw's preface does not comment upon the drama that is to
follow, but instead, since the play deals with phonetics, and since the character of
Henry Higgins is based largely upon a man named Henry Sweet, and since Shaw
ultimately did leave a large sum of money upon his death for a thorough revision of
English spelling rules, he uses this preface to comment upon the absurdity of English
spelling in connection with English pronunciation. Finally, Shaw sarcastically refers
to those critics who say that a successful play should never be didactic; this play is
obviously didactic, and it has been immensely popular ever since it was first
presented.

Character List

Professor Henry Higgins Higgins is a forty-year-old bachelor who

specializes in phonetics and who is an acclaimed authority on the subject of dialects,
accents, and phonetics.

Eliza Doolittle She is an uneducated, uncouth "guttersnipe," the flower girl

whom Higgins (for a dare) decides to mold into a duchess. She is probably twenty
years younger than Higgins.

Alfred Doolittle Eliza's father; he is a dustman with a sonorous voice and a

Welsh accent, who proudly believes in his position as a member of the "undeserving
poor."
 Colonel Pickering A distinguished retired officer and the author of Spoken
Sanskrit. He has come to England to meet the famous Professor Henry Higgins. He
is courteous and polite to Eliza, and he shares in Higgins' experiments in phonetics
in teaching Eliza to speak as a duchess.

Mrs. Higgins Henry Higgins' mother, who thoroughly loves her son but also
thoroughly disapproves of his manners, his language, and his social behavior.

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill A lady of the upper-middle class who is in a rather

impoverished condition but is still clinging to her gentility.

Clara Eynsford-Hill Her daughter; she tries to act the role of the modem,
advanced young person.

Freddy Eynsford-Hill Her son; he is a pleasant young man who is enchanted

by Eliza upon first meeting her.

Mrs. Pearce Professor Higgins' housekeeper of long standing. She is the one
who first sees the difficulty of what is to happen to Eliza after Higgins and Pickering
have finished their experiment with her.