Discuss the play Pygmalion as a romance? Elaborate.
Discuss the play Pygmalion as a romance? Elaborate The play Pygmalion as a romance Pygmalion is
not a romance, as it could rightly have been called if Higgins and Eliza had
fallen in love and married. It is a problem play, and the goes much deeper than
the bare story told in Pygmalion. Every sets out to fight ignorance is in a
similar position with regard to his pupils as Higgins was with regard to Eliza.
He leads them towards a new way of life and is compelled to leave them at its
threshold to go on by themselves.”
The idea for Pygmalion: 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.
Introduction :
Bernard Shaw has called the play
Pygmalion, and added a subtitle to it, “A Romance“. As is well known, Shaw was
an anti-romantic and in one play after another he has punctured age-old
romantic notions. The play Pygmalion as a romance? ElaborateThus in his Arms
and the Man, he has shattered the romantic notion of love and war, and in his
Man and Superman he has shown that it is the woman, and not the man, who is the
courter and the chaser. It is the woman who chases her man relentlessly and ultimately
marries him. Beauty and sex appeal of a woman are shown to be a trap to capture
the man who is likely to make a suitable father and husband.
The play Pygmalion
as a romance? Elaborate
The Note of Romance
However
sexual love is an essential element in a romance and this element of
romance is provided by the Freddy-Eliza love-story. Freddy fall deeply
in love with Eliza when he meets her at the house of Mrs. Higgins is simply
fascinated by her and from that day onwards he begins to how Wimpole Street
where Eliza lives in Higgins’ house. Freddy keeps looking at Eliza’s room every
night until the lights go out, when he says: “Good
night darling, darling, darling.” Freddy thus becomes a love-lorn man.
Eliza-Freddy Love story: Its
Significance
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 this
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 then, 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 a police constable.
The
lovers then flee from that spot and halt at another place where again they
embrace each other but are once again interrupted by another police constable.
Eventually, they get into a taxi and spend the rest of the night driving about
the town. Subsequently, Eliza tells Higgins that Freddy has been writing very
lengthy love-letters to her and that she has decided to marry him. Now, this
whole episode is romantic even though it appears only towards the end.
In the
Appendix which Shaw has added to the play, he has told us that Higgins could
not love and marry, because he was a scientist, and because no woman could come
up to the level of his mother who was his ideal, and to whom he was deeply
attached. We may say that he was the victim of “Oedipus complex” even though he
lives apart from his mother. Similarly, Eliza could not love and marry Higgins
because the Life Force working within her prompted her to love and marry
Freddy, who is young and healthy, and so is likely to make a better father for
her children. Indeed, throughout the play, there is no sexual attraction or
talk of love between Eliza and Higgins. Discuss the
play Pygmalion as a romance? Elaborate
Conclusion
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.”
Eliza enters, looking coolly
self-possessed, and politely greets the two men. She then thanks Pickering for
always treating her well and showing her respect. "The difference between
a lady and a flower girl," she explains, "is not how she behaves, but
how she's treated ... I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a
lady, and always will." Higgins's arrogant, ill-mannered reaction to this
prompts Doolittle to make his presence known to Eliza. After an awkward moment,
he and Eliza are guardedly reunited, and she agrees to come along to see him
married. For a few moments before leaving, Eliza and Higgins are left alone.
Higgins tries to convince her that he did not treat her any differently than
anyone else, that he treats everybody rudely.
Then he softens a bit and tells her
that he will miss her if she leaves. Knowing Higgins will never change and
refusing to be trapped by sentimentality, Eliza suggests that she may marry
Freddy and support them both by teaching phonetics, possibly as an assistant to
Nepommuck.
Outraged, Higgins grabs her and
threatens to wring her neck if she does. Yet he suddenly sees something in
Eliza that he has overlooked until now: No longer a sniveling flower girl,
Eliza is a woman, "a tower of strength: a consort battleship." He
likes her like this. Even so, as the play closes, Eliza seems set on a path
away from Higgins. In contrast, the professor remains cheerfully confident that
she will return to Wimpole Street and continue to be part of his life.
Waiting for Godot from the perspective of the theatre of
the Absurd
For More Answers Get Solved PDF WhatsApp – 8130208920
NEXT QUESTION
0 comments:
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.