Analyse Shaw’s Pygmalion as a Problem Play

Character Sketch Eliza Doolittle
Character Sketch of Henry Higgins
Best Quotes
Mingling of Genres in Pygmalion

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Pygmalion is a richly complex play written by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950).  He was deeply interested in the sound of words as well as in their sense of meaning. As such, he wrote Pygmalion a play about speech and phonetics. It is particularly a problem- play and the problem goes much deeper than the bare story as told. Shaw demonstrates how speech and etiquette preserve class distinctions. It encloses within itself assumptions of social superiority and inferiority that underlie the class system, middle class morality, identity and kinds of manners. It shows the transformation that happens in a person’s life by teaching correct pronunciation and good manners. The problem in the play, therefore, is the world problem of education.   

                                 

 Disgusted with the misspelt of the language Shaw speaks in the preface,

      The English have no respect for their language and will not teach their children to speak it… It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

 The play centres on the professional life of Higgins, a Professor of phonetics and the main action consists of the successful attempt of Higgins to convert Eliza, a flower girl into a duchess by giving her a new speech. Eliza with her impeccable accent acquired in a few months of learning how to speak beautifully. Passing off as a duchess Eliza affirms Shaw’s undeniable view that speech is one of the dividing classes from class and emphasizing class distinction.                                                                                                                                                  In a general way Shaw also attacks snobbery. In the opening scene itself, Eliza protests against social and economic snobbery. Her repeated protest, ‘I’m a good girl, I’m’, is to assert her dignity in the face of those superiors. Mrs. Pearce is so contemptuous of Eliza and her father because they belong to the working class. Even the polite man, Pickering asks Doolittle to sit on the floor, ‘the floor is yours Mr. Doolittle’. All this shows what we call snobbery.

It is on account of the conventions of class system that Eynsford Hills have to endure a shabby existence in general poverty. She has the manners and habits of a fine lady that resist her from earning her own living. Similar kind happens with Clara. That is certain professions and jobs are below their social class. Eliza also faces the larger problem of education, what to do after it is complete. Once she moves up the social ladder by successfully winning the bet for Higgins, she cannot go back to her work of selling flowers on the pavement. Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins and even Eliza herself asks Higgins after her success, ‘What am I fit for? What am I to do?’

Also, related to class distinction is the question of manners and discrimination in our behaviour towards people of different classes. Higgins treats Eliza like dirt. Even after her winning the bet for Higgins at the party he calls her a ‘guttersnipe’. Swearing is also part of Higgins’s bad manners. In contrast the manners of Colonel Pickering are uniformly pleasant. Eliza is deeply touched when he calls her ‘Miss Doolittle’ and extends to her the courtesies normally reserved for ladies. Eliza aptly remarks about Pickering,

It was from you that I learnt really nice manners; and that is what makes me a lady.

Moreover, another kind of problem in the play is of middle class morality. Shaw highlights that middle class morality is inappropriate for lower class people through the character of Alfred Doolittle. When he comes back transformed as a respectable man, Doolittle blames Higgins for his miserable plight. He does not want to be rich because he does not want the responsibilities that befriends with richness. He tells Higgins that when he was poor, he only had to ask for money and no other work. Now, he has money and also a number of responsibilities. Earlier he lived with numerous women without getting married to them and now, he has to get tied in nuptial knots. However, Doolittle is reluctant to bear these responsibilities and prefers his former life. He was quite content with his poor life. Therefore, Shaw brings forth the emphasizing distinction between the higher class and the lower class, the attitude related to work and responsibilities and the morality that accompanies with middle class.

Therefore, the problem in the play extends to larger issue of equality and social differences. Shaw was successful in transforming the science of speech into interesting, inspiring and motivating play. Very beautifully he brought forward the problems in the play which was not confined to the play itself but is the problem of the world. Hence, it won’t be wrong to consider Pygmalion as a problem play.