Citizendia

For other uses, see Pygmalion.
Illustration depicting Mrs Campbell as Eliza
Illustration depicting Mrs Campbell as Eliza

Pygmalion (1913) is a play by George Bernard Shaw based on Ovid's tale of Pygmalion. Mrs Patrick Campbell ( February 9, 1865 &ndash April 9, 1940) was one of the most successful British stage actresses of her generation Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common A play, or stageplay, is a form of Literature written by a Playwright, almost always consisting of Dialogue between Fictional characters George Bernard Shaw ( (26 July 1856 &ndash 2 November 1950 was an Irish Playwright. Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including Pygmalion is a Legendary figure of Cyprus. Though Pygmalion is the Greek version of the Phoenician royal name Pumayyaton, he is most It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics (based on phonetician Henry Sweet), who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. The meaning of the word professor ( Latin: professor, person who professes to be an expert in some art or science teacher of highest rank) varies Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech Henry Sweet (1845-1912 was an English philologist, phonetician and Grammarian As a philologist he specialized in the Germanic languages The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations Is a concept in Sociology that refers to the group of people at the top of a Social hierarchy. Etiquette is a code that governs the expectations of Social behavior, according to the contemporary conventional norm within a Society, In the process, Higgins and Doolittle grow close, but she ultimately rejects his domineering ways and declares she will marry Freddy Eynsford-Hill – a young, poor, gentleman.

Shaw wrote the lead role of Eliza Doolittle for Mrs Patrick Campbell (though at 49 she was considered by some to be too old for the role). Mrs Patrick Campbell ( February 9, 1865 &ndash April 9, 1940) was one of the most successful British stage actresses of her generation Due to delays in mounting a London production and Campbell's injury in a car accident, the first English presentation did not take place until some time after Pygmalion premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on October 16, 1913, in a German translation by Shaw. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. The Burgtheater ( en: (Imperial Court Theatre originally known as K Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Events 456 - Magister militum Ricimer defeats the Emperor Avitus at Piacenza and becomes master of the western Year 1913 ( MCMXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The first production in English finally opened at His Majesty's Theatre, London on April 11, 1914 and starred Mrs Patrick Campbell as Eliza and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Henry Higgins; it was directed by Shaw himself. Her Majesty's Theatre is a West End theatre, located on The Haymarket, in the City of Westminster. Events 491 - Flavius Anastasius becomes Byzantine Emperor, with the name of Anastasius I. Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Mrs Patrick Campbell ( February 9, 1865 &ndash April 9, 1940) was one of the most successful British stage actresses of her generation Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree ( 17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English Actor -manager

The Pygmalion myth was a popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on the story in 1871, called Pygmalion and Galatea. Culture The Victorian fascination with novelty resulted in a deep interest in the relationship between modernity and cultural continuities Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 &ndash 29 May 1911 was an English Dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen Pygmalion and Galatea an Original Mythological Comedy is a Blank verse play by W Shaw also would have been familiar with the burlesque version, Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed. Burlesque is a genre of entertainment also known as Travesty. Galatea or Pygmalion Reversed is a musical burlesque that parodies the Pygmalion legend

Contents

Plot

First American (serialized) publication, Everybody's Magazine, November 1912
First American (serialized) publication, Everybody's Magazine, November 1912

Act One

'Covent Garden' - 11. 15p. m. A group of people are sheltering from the rain. Amongst them are the silly, shallow, social climbing Eynsford-Hills, consisting of mother and daughter, Clara. Freddy Eynsford-Hill enters after being unable to find a cab to take them home. He is a weak and ineffectual character. His sister bullies him, and enjoys seeing him look ridiculous. As he goes off once again to find a cab, he bumps into a flower girl, Eliza. Her flowers drop into the mud of Covent Garden, the flowers she needs to survive in her poverty-stricken world. Shortly they are joined by a gentleman, Colonel Pickering. While Eliza tries to sell flowers to the Colonel, a bystander informs her that a man is writing down everything she says. The man is Professor Henry Higgins. A row occurs when Higgins tells people where they were born, which creates both amazement and irritation. One man accuses Higgins of coming from Hanwell Insane Asylum. The (1st Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell, also known as Hanwell Insane Asylum, was built for the pauper insane and has evolved to become the It becomes apparent that he and Colonel Pickering have a shared interest in phonetics. Indeed, Pickering has come from India to meet Higgins and Higgins was planning to go to India to meet Pickering. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Higgins tells Pickering that he could turn the flower girl into a duchess. These words of bravado spark an interest in Eliza, who would love to make changes in her life and become more mannerly, even though, to her, it only means working in a flower shop. At the end of the act, Freddy returns after finding a taxi, only to find that his mother and sister have gone and left him with the cab. The streetwise Eliza takes the cab from him, using the money that Higgins tossed to her out of pity, leaving him on his own.

Act Two

Higgins' Laboratory - Next Day. As Higgins demonstrates his equipment to Pickering, the housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, tells him that a young girl wants to see him. She is shown up, and to his disappointment it is Eliza. He has no interest in her, but she says she wants to pay to have lessons, so she can talk like a lady in a flower shop. Higgins claims that he could turn her into a duchess. While in Higgins presence Eliza they quarrel about her dialect and how she lives. Pickering makes a bet with him on his claim, and says that he will pay for her lessons. She is sent off to have a bath. Mrs. Pearce tells Higgins that he must behave himself in the young girl's presence. He must stop swearing, and improve his table manners. He is at a loss to understand why she should find fault with him. Then Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father, appears with the sole purpose of getting money out of Higgins. He has no interest in his daughter in a paternal way. He sees himself as member of the undeserving poor, and means to go on being undeserving. He has an eccentric view of life, brought about by a lack of education and an intelligent brain. He is also aggressive, and when Eliza, on her return, sticks her tongue out at him, he goes to hit her, but is prevented by Pickering. The scene ends with Higgins telling Pickering that they really have got a difficult job on their hands.

Act Three

Mrs Higgins' drawing room. Henry tells his mother he has a young 'common' whom he has been teaching. Mrs Higgins is not very impressed with her son's attempts to win her approval because it is her 'at home' day, in which she is entertaining visitors. The visitors are the Eynsford-Hills. Henry is rude to them on their arrival. Eliza enters and soon falls into talking about the weather and her family. The humour stems from the knowledge the audience have of Eliza, of which the Eynsford-Hills are curiously ignorant. When she is leaving, Freddy Eynsford-Hill asks her if she is going to walk across the park, to which she replies; " Walk! Not bloody likely. . . " (This is the most famous line from the play, and, for many years after, to use the word 'bloody' was known as a pygmalion. ) After she and the Eynsford-Hills leave, Henry asks for his mother's opinion. She says the girl is not presentable, and she is very concerned about what will happen to the girl; but neither Higgins nor Pickering understand her, and leave feeling confident and excited about how Eliza will get on. This leaves Mrs Higgins feeling exasperated, and she says "Men! Men!! Men!!!"

Act Four

Higgins' laboratory - The time is midnight, and Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza have returned from the ball. Pickering congratulates Higgins on winning the bet. As they retire to bed, Higgins asks where his slippers are, and on returning to his room Eliza throws them at him. The remainder of the scene is about Eliza not knowing what she is going to do with her life, and Higgins not understanding her difficulty. Higgins says she could get married, but Eliza interprets this as selling herself like a prostitute. "We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Tottenham Court Road is a road in Central London, England, running from St Giles' Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross " Finally she returns her jewellery to Higgins, including the ring he had given her, as though she is cutting her ties with him, but retrieves it from the hearth.

Act Five

Mrs Higgins' drawing room. Higgins and Pickering are perturbed at discovering that Eliza has walked out on them. Doolittle returns now dressed in wedding attire and transformed into the middle class in which he feels '. . intimidated. . '. The scene ends with another confrontation between Higgins and Eliza, which is basically a repeat of the previous act. The play ends with everyone leaving to see Doolittle married, except for Higgins, who stays behind shuffling through his pockets and pacing about the room.

Ending

Despite the intense central relationship between Eliza and Henry, the original play ends with her leaving to marry the eager young Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Shaw, annoyed by the tendency of audiences, actors, and even directors to seek 'romantic' re-interpretations of his ending, later wrote an essay[1] for inclusion with subsequent editions, in which he explained precisely why it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting married.

Some subsequent adaptations have changed this ending. Despite Shaw's insistence that the original ending remain intact, producer Gabriel Pascal provided a more ambiguous end to the 1938 film: instead of marrying Freddy, Eliza apparently reconciles with Henry in the final scene, implying that they probably will get married. Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on George Bernard Shaw 's play of the same name, and adapted by him for the screen The musical version My Fair Lady and its 1964 film have similar endings. My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw 's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner My Fair Lady is a musical Film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical My Fair Lady, based in turn on the play However, some productions of the play have emphasised that Eliza does marry Freddy.

Adaptations

The play led to a series of adaptations:

Man Pasand is a 1980 Hindi movie directed by Basu Chatterjee. Purushottam Laxman Deshpande (पुरुषोत्तम लक्ष्मण देशपांडे (8 November 1918 &ndash 12 June 2000 was a Marathi writer Marathi (mr मराठी Marāṭhī) is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of what is considered western India. The storyline seems inspired by My Fair Lady. the film stars Dev Anand, Tina Munim, Girish Karnad, Mehmood and Dimple Kapadia. The films music is by Rajesh Roshan

Willy Russell's 1980 stage comedy Educating Rita, and the subsequent film adaptation, are similar in plot to Pygmalion. William Russell (born 23 August 1947 in Whiston Merseyside) is a British Playwright, Screenwriter, Author, Educating Rita is an award-winning stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. [2]

There is a play The First Night of Pygmalion depicting the backstage tensions during the first British production. The First Night of Pygmalion is a 1972 play by Richard Huggett.

References in popular culture

On May 22, 2008, the Final Jeopardy question response was "What is Pygmalion"? The answer was which work's preface includes the line "The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. "

In the 2004 film Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen starring Lindsay Lohan, the drama club musical is a modern-day adaptation of Pygmalion (with the Eliza character a New York woman). Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen is a 2004 American Comedy film directed by Sara Sugarman and starring Lindsay Lohan Lindsay Dee Lohan (born July 2 1986 is an American Actress, model and Pop music Singer.

In the 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation, the character, Ouisa, played by Stockard Channing calls Trent Conway (Anthony Michael Hall), "the Henry Higgins of our time", for his rapid transformation of a street hustler (Will Smith) into a refined, bourgeois con artist. Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they Stockard Channing (born February 13, 1944) is an American Academy Award - and Golden Globe Award-nominated three time Emmy Michael Anthony Hall (born April 14 1968 known professionally as Anthony Michael Hall, is an American actor producer and director who achieved

In the popular 1937 musical Me and My Girl which has had successful runs and revivals both in London and Broadway, the Duchess sends Cockney character of Sally Smith to "Wimpole Street" -- Higgins' address -- for refinement training. Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L Shaw's play was so universally popular that no more reference than that was needed to set up the scenario.

Television references include the following:

Trivia

Some have speculated that Alexander Melville Bell was the model for Professor Higgins. Alexander Melville Bell ( March 1, 1819 &ndash August 7, 1905) Teacher and father of Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor Evidence supporting this includes the fact that Eliza is not a common name, and Eliza Grace Bell was Alexander Melville Bell's wife. However, in earlier retellings of Ovid's story a similar name is used; Goethe calls her Elise, based upon the variants in the story of Dido/Elissa. ˈjoːhan ˈvɔlfgaŋ fɔn ˈgøːtə (in English generally ˈgɝːtə 28 August 1749 22 March 1832 was a German writer Evidence against this is the preface to the play, in which Shaw writes at length about Henry Sweet and notes that Higgins is not a portrait, but has several Sweet touches, and says of Sweet that "with Higgins's physique and temperament [he] might have set the Thames on fire. " The play also owes something to the legend of King Cophetua. King Cophetua was said to have been a legendary king who showed no interest in females until one day he saw a pale barefoot beggar-girl dressed all in grey

Shaw's play shocked Edwardian audiences with Eliza's swearing in the line "Not bloody likely!". Class and society Socially the Edwardian era was a period during which the British Class system was very rigid The original meaning of the adjective profane (from the Latin for "in front of or outside the Temple " was to refer to items not belonging to the church Campbell was considered to have risked her successful career by speaking the line.

Joseph Weizenbaum named his artificial intelligence computer program ELIZA after the character Eliza Doolittle. Joseph Weizenbaum ( Berlin, January 8, 1923 – March 5, 2008) was a German-American author and professor emeritus of Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. ELIZA is a Computer program by Joseph Weizenbaum, designed in 1966, which parodied a Rogerian therapist, largely by rephrasing many of the patient's

A story goes that Shaw, as part of an ongoing feud with Winston Churchill, sent Churchill tickets to the opening night of Pygmalion, with an attached note saying that "I have included two tickets so that you may bring a friend, if you have any. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC, PC (Can ( 30 November 1874 " Churchill sent a reply: "I regret to say that I am unable to attend that night; I would like tickets to the second performance, if there is one. "

References

  1. ^ page 86 of the Project Gutenberg edition.
  2. ^ Willy Russell - Introduction

External links



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