Pygmalion and My Fair Lady
Discuss the different ways of representing class conflicts.
Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw, 1914
My Fair Lady, George Cukor, 1964
“As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.” This famous quotation of French playwright Molière proves how powerfully theater and social criticism are linked, and how in its different genres, drama as well as comedy, theater can, and maybe must, be a way of communicating and expressing the human and society’s flaws. Indeed, theater, as defined by Marvin Carlson, is a “collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place.” This specificity of theatrical representation therefore allows the sharing of personal points of views and visions on certain events, and by the use of entertainment, conveys a message to a public. Throughout history, many authors have used the comedy genre to point out human vices and satirize the effects of social hierarchy. The best-known writer of this type of comedy is probably Moliere, famous for mocking the French “Ancien Regime” with plays such as The School for Wives, The Misanthrope, and Tartuffe. Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was an Irish playwright, whose socialism beliefs were far from hidden, as showed his implication in the Fabian Society, a British socialist movement whose aim was to advocate the “principles of democratic socialism”. However, this author was better known for his writing career than his political activity, and he is the sole writer to have won both the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938). Moreover, his Oscar was a prize he won after his work on the movie based on his play, Pygmalion, written in 1912, a story about the transformation of a poor flower girl into a genteel lady. This production was a clear criticism of England’s 19th century rigid class system, and emphasized the importance of language as a key factor
Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw, 1914
My Fair Lady, George Cukor, 1964
“As the purpose of comedy is to correct the vices of men, I see no reason why anyone should be exempt.” This famous quotation of French playwright Molière proves how powerfully theater and social criticism are linked, and how in its different genres, drama as well as comedy, theater can, and maybe must, be a way of communicating and expressing the human and society’s flaws. Indeed, theater, as defined by Marvin Carlson, is a “collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place.” This specificity of theatrical representation therefore allows the sharing of personal points of views and visions on certain events, and by the use of entertainment, conveys a message to a public. Throughout history, many authors have used the comedy genre to point out human vices and satirize the effects of social hierarchy. The best-known writer of this type of comedy is probably Moliere, famous for mocking the French “Ancien Regime” with plays such as The School for Wives, The Misanthrope, and Tartuffe. Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) was an Irish playwright, whose socialism beliefs were far from hidden, as showed his implication in the Fabian Society, a British socialist movement whose aim was to advocate the “principles of democratic socialism”. However, this author was better known for his writing career than his political activity, and he is the sole writer to have won both the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938). Moreover, his Oscar was a prize he won after his work on the movie based on his play, Pygmalion, written in 1912, a story about the transformation of a poor flower girl into a genteel lady. This production was a clear criticism of England’s 19th century rigid class system, and emphasized the importance of language as a key factor