George Bernard Shaw is anti_romantic, he mentioned in his letters “Don’t talk to me of romances; I was sent into the world to dance on them with thick boots–to shatter, stab, and murder them.”
Dukore observes “What is essential[in his confrontation], he retains, for example, the difference between Higgins and Pickering, Liza’s determination not be passed over, her resolution to marry Freddy and her independence. What is less dramatically essential or depicted elsewhere, he removes, for instance, the similarity between Higgins and Dolittle, Higgin’s independence on Liz aand his lecture on the difference between life at his flat and life in the gutter.
The idea forPygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts first came to Shaw in 1897, and the play was written specifically for one of the leading actresses of the time. The production history of Pygmalion, oddly enough, began with a German language production in 1913, followed by a New York production the following spring. The London production opened then a month later, in April of 1914.
George Bernard Shaw use the word “Romance” in the title. He refers to something other than romantic love. Now the history of Eliza Doolittle, though called a romance because of the transfiguration it records seems exceedingly improbable…” it can be related to the ideals of Romanticism, which is something different than was is popularly conceived of as “romance.” As the quote above demonstrates clearly, Shaw hated “romances.” George Bernard Shaw was an anti-romantic. Dirty , shabby and cockney speaking flower girl is transformed into a fascinating lady, fit enough to pass for Duchess even in garden party of an ambassador, is romantic enough in the sense that such creations are not usual but Pygmalion cannot be regarded as a romance , because in it the Heroine Eliza , does not marry Higgins the hero. The transformation of Eliza is romantic enough , but the play does not have the conventional ending of a romance for the hero and the Heroine are not in love and are not happily married at the end. Rather the heroine throws the slippers of the hero into his face goes out his face in anger. After throwing his slippers at
him, she confronts Higgins with, “Whats to become of me? Whats to become of me?” Higgins interest in Eliza is merely scientific and it comes to an end as soon as he has achieved success in his experiment . He is cold and scientific and not at all a lover.
Romance as a subtitle of the play is ironical for Higgins, anti-romantic and a confirmed bachelor.He is interested in Eliza only as the object of the experiment and his interest in her ceases as soon as her experiment is over. Higgins' many insults "squashed cabbage leaf", "draggle-tailed guttersnipe" to Eliza are cruel And Eliza an uncultured, uneducated and shabby flower girl at the opening of the play . Higgin is a mentor, teacher, and in his own strange way, a friend, that she does not throw Higgins out of her life completely, but remains (by choice) tied to this huge personality . "You see, she'll be a pupil; and teaching would be impossible unless pupils were sacred." That cements their relationship as unequal. In addition, Higgins' passion would always be phonetics, and learning - all other people and things are second - and this is something that is converse to Eliza's values - the one she marries must love her foremost. "The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls” in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another. This line seems to sum up Higgins' thoughts of his finished Galatea -"By George, Eliza, I said, I’d make a woman of you; and I have. I like you like this."
In short, Higgins is interested in nothing but the pursuit of the science of phonetics:
He [Higgins] is of the energetic, scientific type, heartily, even violently interested in
everything that can be studied as a scientific subject, and careless about himself and
other people, including their feelings. He is, in fact, but for his years and size,
rather like a very impetuous baby “taking notice” eagerly and loudly, and requiring
almost as much watching to keep him out of unintended mischief.
On the one hand, Higgins’s proposal that he will make a lady out of Eliza seems a purely
scientific enterprise; on the other, the proposal suggests a baby wanting to play with a toy
merely for “mischief.” When Mrs Pearce wants to stop him doing “anything foolish,” he
declares
HIGGINS [becoming excited as the idea grows on him] What is life but a series of
inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it
doesnt come every day. I shall make a duchess of this draggletailed guttersnipe.
Higgins’s “care for life and humanity” is so abstract and self-centered that no woman can
live with him. Even his mother does not like to see him very often.
Eliza does not have romantic intentions towards Higgins and her feelings towards him were regarded by the statement
Eliza[much troubled] I want a little kindness. I know I am a common Ignorant girl and you a book-learned gentleman; but I’m not dirt under your feet.What I done[correcting herself] What I didwas not for the dresses and taxis: I did it because we were pleasant together and I come-came-to care for you; not want you to make love to me, and not forgetting the difference between us, but more friendly like.
But like the legendary Pygmalian he does not fall in love with his own creation. However we get a touch of romance in love and marriage of Eliza and Freddy. It is developed as Prose Epilogue which Shaw has added to the play. The Prose Epilogue is given in the Epilogue regarding Eliza’s marriage to Freddy Eynsford Hill after the playends, is one of Bernard Shaw’s least successful piece of writing. Audience would expect the kind of happy ending but the writer refused to have Eliza marry Higgins. But it often happens in plays and novels that the character comes to life on their own account and behave differently from what the author intended. Although Higgins and Eliza might not have lived happily ever after, as the heroes and heroines of fairy tales usually do, they would have been better matched than Eliza and the feeble Freddy could be. By the Principles of drama, Pygmalion have been its natural end arise the disappointment of the reader and audiences in keeping with the anti-romantic attitude of Shaw.
When one night Eliza comes out of Higgins house because she can no longer endure his neglect and bullying. She encounters Freddy in the street and asks him what he is doing there. Freddy replies that he spends most of his nights here in the street because it is the only place where he feels happy. He then tells her that she is the loveliest, the dearest being for him, and the losing all self-control , he smothers her with kisses. She hungry for comfort , responds fully to his love making and they stand there in the street in each other’s arms till they are interrupted by another police constable. Eventually, they got into a taxi and spend the rest of night driving about the town. Subsequently, Eliza tells Higgins the Freddy has been writing very lengthy love-letters to her and that she has decided to marry him. This whole episode is romantic even though it appears only towards the end.
Eliza, though, wants love - someone who cares for her and respects her. She finds this in Freddy - who is not worthy for her due to his foolish nature and blind adoration, but she accepts him anyway. However, Sexual love is an essential element in a romance and this element of romance is provided by the Freddy_Eliza love story. Freddy falls deeply in love with Eliza when he meets her at the house of Mrs. Higgins. He is simply fascinated by her and from that day onwards he begins to haunt whimpole street where Eliza lives in Higgins house. Freddy keeps looking at Eliza’s room every night until the light go out , when he says ‘Goodnight, darling, darling, darling”. Freddy thus becomes a love-lorn man.
Pygmalion is “one of the great English Comedies of the twentieth century–not only because of its brilliantly drawn characters, wit, satire, and subversiveness, but also for its underlying concerns of socialism, feminism and gender.”
For her to stand up to him and declare her independence seems exactly right to us, and for her to return to a romantic relationship with Higgins seems absurd after being treated as she’s been, especially when his own “conversion” or “awakening” is nothing more than the fact that he’s “grown accustomed to her face.” “An Ibsen-inspired tale of a woman’s escape from class and gender oppression to a position of economic and personal freedom.”
References
Text book Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
http://www.wakayama-nct.ac.jp/gakka/ippan/ippan-staff/morikawa/GBS_Japan/mythslegendsinPygmalion.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment