the statue and transformed it into a really alive woman. The fable
was chosen to allow him to discuss the theme he had set himself.
The principal characters of the play are Eliza. Doolittle and
Henry Higgins. Eliza, a girl of eighteen, comes from the lowest
social level and speaks with a Strong Cockney (East End of
London) accent, which is considered to be the most uncultured
English. Eliza’s father is a dustman. Eliza does not went to stay
with her father and stepmother. She makes her own living by
selling flowers in the streets of London.
Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics. He studies the
physiological aspects of a person’s speech, the sounds o f the
language. One day he sees Eliza in the street and bets with his
friend Colonel Pickering that he will change this girl. He will not
only teach her to speak her native language correctly, but will
teach her manners too. Higgins works hard and before six months
are over, she is well prepared to be introduced into society. Higgins
wins his bet. When the game is over the girl doesn’t know where
to go. She doesn’t want to return to her previous life, but at the
same time she is not admitted to the high society as she is poor.
Higgins and Eliza remain friends, but the play is without
ending. The dramatist thought it best not to go on with the story.
Higgins loves Eliza only as his pupil. But he loves his profession
as an artist. He has created a new Eliza. She is the work o f a
Pygmalion.
“Pygmalion” shows the author’s concern for the perfection of
the English Language. Shaw was passionately interested in the
English language and the varieties of ways in which people spoke
and misspoke it. Shaw wished to simplify and reform English. He
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