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The more he looks upon her, the more deeply he falls in love with her, until he
wishes that she were more than a statue. This statue is Galatea. Lovesick,
Pygmalion goes to the temple of the goddess Venus and prays that she give him a
lover like his statue; Venus is touched by his love and brings Galatea to life.
When Pygmalion returns from Venus' temple and kisses his statue, he is
delighted to find that she is warm and soft to the touch. Shaw deliberately
twists the myth so that the play does not conclude conveniently, hanging instead
in unconventional ambiguity. Shaw also challenges the possibly insidious
assumptions that come with the Pygmalion myth, forcing us to ask the following:
Is the male artist the absolute and perfect being who has the power to create
woman in the image of his desires? While Ovid has idolized his Galatea, Shaw in
humorous honesty humanizes these archetypes, and in the process brings drama and
art itself to a more contemporarily relevant and human level.
A heavy late-night summer thunderstorm opens the play. Caught in the unexpected
downpour, passersby from distinct strata of the London streets are forced to
seek shelter together under the portico of St Paul's church in Covent Garden.
The hapless son is forced by his demanding sister and mother to go out into the
rain to find a taxi even though there is none to be found. In his hurry, he
knocks over the basket of a common Flower girl, who calls him Freddy and tells
him to look where he is going. After he leaves, the mother gives the Flower Girl
money to ask how she knew her son's name, only to learn that "Freddy"
is a common by-word the Flower Girl would have used to address anyone.
An elderly military gentleman enters from the rain, and the Flower Girl tries to
sell him a flower. He gives her some change, but a bystander tells her to be
careful, for it looks like there is a police informer taking copious notes on
her activities. This leads to hysterical protestations on her part, that she is
only a poor girl who has done no wrong. The refugees from the rain crowd around
her and the note taker, with considerable hostility towards the latter, whom
they believe to be an undercover cop. However, each time someone speaks up, this
mysterious man has the amusing ability to determine where the person came from,
simply by listening to that person's speech, which turns him into something of a
sideshow. The rain clears, leaving few other people than the Flower Girl, the
Note Taker, and the Gentleman. In response to a question from the Gentleman, the
Note Taker answers that his talent comes from "simply phonetics...the
science of speech." He goes on to brag that he can use phonetics to make a
duchess out of the Flower Girl. Through further questioning, the Note Taker and
the Gentleman reveal that they are Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering
respectively, both scholars of dialects who have been wanting to visit each
other. They decide to go for a supper, but not until Higgins has been convinced
by the Flower Girl to give her some change. He generously throws her a
half-crown, some florins, and a half-sovereign. This allows the delighted girl
to take a taxi home, the same taxi that Freddy has brought back, only to find
that his impatient mother and sister have left without him.
The next day, Higgins and Pickering are just resting from a full morning of
discussion when Eliza Doolittle shows up at the door, to the tremendous doubt of
the discerning housekeeper Mrs. Pearce, and the surprise of the two gentlemen.
Prompted by his careless brag about making her into a duchess the night before,
she has come to take lessons from Higgins, so that she may sound genteel enough
to work in a flower shop rather than sell at the corner of Tottenham Court Road.
As the conversation progresses, Higgins alternates between making fun of the
poor girl and threatening her with a broomstick beating, which only causes her
to howl and holler, upsetting Higgins' civilized company to a considerable
degree. Pickering is much kinder and considerate of her feelings, even going so
far as to call her "Miss Doolittle" and to offer her a seat. Pickering
is piqued by the prospect of helping Eliza, and bets Higgins that if Higgins is
able to pass Eliza off as a duchess at the Ambassador's garden party, then he,
Pickering, will cover the expenses of the experiment.
This act is made up mostly of a long and animated three -- sometimes four -- way
argument over the character and the potential of the indignant Eliza. At one
point, incensed by Higgins' heartless insults, she threatens to leave, but the
clever professor lures her back by stuffing her mouth with a chocolate, half of
which he eats too to prove to her that it is not poisoned. It is agreed upon
that Eliza will live with Higgins for six months, and be schooled in the speech
and manners of a lady of high class. Things get started when Mrs. Pearce takes
her upstairs for a bath. While Mrs. Pearce and Eliza are away, Pickering wants
to be sure that Higgins' intentions towards the girl are honorable, to which
Higgins replies that, to him, women "might as well be blocks of wood."
Mrs. Pearce enters to warn Higgins that he should be more careful with his
swearing and his forgetful table manners now that they have an impressionable
young lady with them, revealing that Higgins's own gentlemanly ways are somewhat
precarious. At this point, Alfred Doolittle, who has learned from a neighbor of
Eliza's that she has come to the professor's place, arrives under the pretence
of saving his daughter's honor. When Higgins readily agrees that he should take
his daughter away with him, Doolittle reveals that he is really there to ask for
five pounds, proudly claiming that he will spend that money on immediate
gratification and put none of it to useless savings. Amused by his rhetoric,
Higgins gives him the money.
Eliza enters, clean and pretty in a blue kimono, and everyone is amazed by the
difference. Even her father has failed to recognize her. Eliza is taken with her
transformation and wants to go back to her old neighborhood and show off, but
she is warned against snobbery by Higgins. The act ends with the two of them
agreeing that they have taken on a difficult task.
Click here for part 2
of the summary of Pygmalion |
