PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS Pygmalion is a primarily Shavian reworking of Ovid’s Metamorphoses with undertones of Cinderella. Romance and satire dominate both the play’s plot as well as style. Shaw takes a strong central situation--the transformation of a common flower girl into a lady--and surrounds it with superficial trimmings. There is technical innovation in the plot structure since Shaw‚ under the influence of Ibsen‚ replaces the stock Victorian formula of exposition‚ situation and unraveling
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The relationship between the texts you have studied and their respective cultural context is significant because it provides insight into the way values have been maintained and changed. Discuss with reference to the text from the past and it’s appropriation. The intended audience of both Pygmalion‚ by George Bernard Shaw and Pretty Woman‚ directed by Garry Marshall was the mass of society at the time of composition. This is seen through the choice of the form of each text‚ Pygmalion is a play because
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PYGMALION 1. Significance of Title: The significance of the title‚ ”Pygmalion” is in Greek mythology‚ The town Cyprus Pygmalion was a king who deeply fell in love with the statue of Aphrodite. Pygmalion had pictured nothing but beauty in his mind. He worked many countless days and nights in search of loveliness beyond his powers of expression. The statue
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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
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Gender opinions play a role in how the differences‚ positions of power‚ and experiences between men and women are portrayed. Examining Henry Higgins from Pygmalion gives insight into how men take women for granted. Multiple times throughout the play‚ Higgins’ exhibits ignorance when it comes to women such as Eliza. When Higgins says something mean to Eliza‚ Colonel Pickerning remarks‚ “Does it occur to you‚ Higgins‚ that the girl has some feelings?” Demonstrating his obliviousness‚ Higgins responds
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The scene shifts to Higgins’ laboratory in his home in Wimpole Street. It is eleven o’clock the next morning‚ and Higgins has been giving Pickering some demonstrations of the types of equipment that he uses in recording sounds which can then be studied at leisure in a scientific manner. As Higgins finishes his demonstration‚ Pickering admits that he is impressed‚ but he hasn’t been able to follow more than half of what Higgins has shown him. Mrs. Pearce‚ the housekeeper‚ enters to announce that there
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Apart from being problem plays ‚ Pygmalion and A Doll ’s house deal with the common theme of transformation of individuals . In Pygmalion‚ Shaw explores the idea that if a person is born in a low class and gets the opportunity to be trained in the ways of correct speech and manners then he or she can easily come to the social and intellectual level of the higher classes . He proves this by transforming Eliza Doolittle‚ a poor flower girl from the slums‚ to a sophisticated woman by changing her speech
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creator. The ideas‚ values and plotline are redefined in a new context to appeal to a different audience. Like all texts‚ both Pygmalion‚ written by George Bernard Shaw and Pretty Woman‚ directed by Gary Marshall‚ reflect values‚ beliefs and attitudes of the time‚ nearly 80 years apart. The use of different forms highlights the different intended audiences. On one hand‚ Pygmalion was a play intended for the upper echelons on society. Pretty woman was created with the intention to blockbuster so it was
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The Controversial Ending of Shaw’s Pygmalion George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is a play that has become a classic in today’s world. It is a retelling of an ancient story‚ of the same name‚ by the Roman poet‚ Ovid‚ in which a sculptor falls in love with a statue he carved. In Shaw’s story‚ Henry Higgins‚ an expert in phonetics‚ happens upon a poor flower girl with awful English and street manners named Eliza Doolittle. Throughout the course of the play Higgins transforms her into an elegant independent
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Pygmalion is perhaps Shaw ’s most famous play and‚ ironically‚ it is among his most abused and misinterpreted ones. Almost everyone knows the basic outlines of this story of the Cockney flower girl who is almost magically transformed into a duchess by taking speech (phonetic) lessons from her famous professor. The abuse comes partly from the fact that Shaw subtitled his play‚ "A Romance." In the popular adaptations (the film of 1938 and the musical My Fair Lady)‚ "romance" was written into the script
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