Pygmalion Review

Lauren Conn 06/07/2012 Writers Workshop Bill Rubenstein Pygmalion Movie Review Based off of Shaws 1913 stage comedy, Pygmalion is the story of both mismatched lovers Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. The story centers on Henry Higgins mission to change Eliza Doolittle from a street vendor to a lady. It would be frivolous to comment on the treatment of women, as we are forced to take into account the period in which this do work was written. Pygmalion is just another reflection of the objectification of women during those times, a representation on how women can be changed to the whim of man and the society man governs.Nevertheless, my intent is not to apply modern value judgments to non-contemporary fiction. I have dissected the play and made an attempt to understand the context in which it was written and presented. All I came to find was a story about a young cleaning lady who lost her identity. Henry Higgins is a wealthy phonetics professor who makes a bet with his friend Col. Pickering that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, an uncouth Cockney flower girl, into a lady in three months. Henry compares her to a squashed cabbage leaf.During her lessons shes put through ridiculous tasks to perfect her elocution, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth. Higgins seems relentless, an example being when Eliza swallows a marble and he states, Thats alright, we have plenty much. Elizas first test comes when she takes afternoon tea with Henrys mother during which becomes a blunder when Eliza rambles about her fathers drinking and the whereabouts of her deceased aunts straw hat. Throughout these shady experiments one has to question why Doolittle proceeds to let Higgins treat her as he does.One can be Freudian and claim that it is her drunkard father, who holds no more regard to her than an inanimate object, in which provides evidence enough to Elizas decrepit state of self-worth. By the end of these trials Doolittle becomes a success, a lady but not without losing the essence of who she is. By becoming a lady, Eliza has thrown herself into a state of limbo. She is no longer a Cockney flower girl, but calling herself a lady would be a lie. Instead, Eliza has been transformed into a shell a canvas to which Higgins painted the portrait.Shaw makes a vain attempt into transforming Eliza into a self-empowered woman by the end of this. We are expected to believe that at some point, the hapless street vendor surpasses Higgins the master professor. In a way, this almost seems like Shaws justification to Elizas harsh treatment. For me personally, I was not swayed. I did not believe in her strength by the end of Pygmalion. To me, Elizas self-empowered identity as a new phonetics master is just a mask to hide the lack of identity within.