PYGMALION
By George Bernard Shaw
To a generation of students raised on Disney films, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is
a familiar story: Eliza Doolittle is Cinderella, a beautiful working girl turned princess by
fairy godmother Henry Higgins. And indeed, Eliza is surrounded by beautiful ball gowns,
horse-drawn carriages, and a handsome young admirer. Yet perhaps it is Pinocchio that
is a more accurate comparison. For just as Gepetto creates his puppet and then loses
control of his naughty son, so Henry Higgins turns a flower girl into a lady only to discover
she has a will of her own. Beyond its fairy tale aspects, it is a social commentary on the
systems of education and class in Victorian England. And most Interesting to Shaw
himself is the drama’s treatment of language, its power, and the preconceptions attached
to it by society. In a society where American legislators and laymen debate the need to
make English the official language, and where musical artists and texting teenagers
continue to create dialects of their own, Shaw’s message is clear: each of us is “a human
being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech . . . Our native language is the
language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible,” and this gift needs to be appreciated.
HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES
A. Read the original story of the sculptor Pygmalion in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Read
the myth about Galatea. Focus on the relationship between the artist and his creation.
In book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to
Ovid, after seeing the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus prostituting themselves,
Pygmalion declared that he was "not interested in women", but then found his statue was so beautiful and realistic that
he fell in love with it. In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite
(ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation). There, too scared to admit
his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl." When he returned home, he
kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness.
Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish. Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture which changed to a woman under
Aphrodite's blessing.
The story of Pygmalion appeared earliest in a Hellenistic work about the history of Cyprus, "De Cypro". It is retold
in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the king Pygmalion is made into a sculptor who fell in love with an ivory statue he had
crafted with his own hands. In answer to his prayers, the goddess Aphrodite brought it to life and united the couple in
marriage.
, 1. Who is more responsible for Galatea’s “awakening,” Pygmalion or Aphrodite?
Explain.
2. Because he is her creator, is Pygmalion’s love for Galatea indicative of
self-obsession?
3. To what extent is his love ethical?
4. What rights of her own does Galatea have?
B. Study the different types of literary archetypes with emphasis on the artist as well as
the inventor, the beggar, the fairy godmother (godfather), the quest, and the initiation.
What characteristics define the archetype?
By George Bernard Shaw
To a generation of students raised on Disney films, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is
a familiar story: Eliza Doolittle is Cinderella, a beautiful working girl turned princess by
fairy godmother Henry Higgins. And indeed, Eliza is surrounded by beautiful ball gowns,
horse-drawn carriages, and a handsome young admirer. Yet perhaps it is Pinocchio that
is a more accurate comparison. For just as Gepetto creates his puppet and then loses
control of his naughty son, so Henry Higgins turns a flower girl into a lady only to discover
she has a will of her own. Beyond its fairy tale aspects, it is a social commentary on the
systems of education and class in Victorian England. And most Interesting to Shaw
himself is the drama’s treatment of language, its power, and the preconceptions attached
to it by society. In a society where American legislators and laymen debate the need to
make English the official language, and where musical artists and texting teenagers
continue to create dialects of their own, Shaw’s message is clear: each of us is “a human
being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech . . . Our native language is the
language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible,” and this gift needs to be appreciated.
HOMEWORK ACTIVITIES
A. Read the original story of the sculptor Pygmalion in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Read
the myth about Galatea. Focus on the relationship between the artist and his creation.
In book 10 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor who carved a woman out of ivory. According to
Ovid, after seeing the daughters of Propoetus from the city of Amathus on the island of Cyprus prostituting themselves,
Pygmalion declared that he was "not interested in women", but then found his statue was so beautiful and realistic that
he fell in love with it. In time, Aphrodite's festival day came, and Pygmalion made offerings at the altar of Aphrodite
(ancient Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation). There, too scared to admit
his desire, he quietly wished for a bride who would be "the living likeness of my ivory girl." When he returned home, he
kissed his ivory statue, and found that its lips felt warm. He kissed it again, and found that the ivory had lost its hardness.
Aphrodite had granted Pygmalion's wish. Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture which changed to a woman under
Aphrodite's blessing.
The story of Pygmalion appeared earliest in a Hellenistic work about the history of Cyprus, "De Cypro". It is retold
in Ovid's Metamorphoses, where the king Pygmalion is made into a sculptor who fell in love with an ivory statue he had
crafted with his own hands. In answer to his prayers, the goddess Aphrodite brought it to life and united the couple in
marriage.
, 1. Who is more responsible for Galatea’s “awakening,” Pygmalion or Aphrodite?
Explain.
2. Because he is her creator, is Pygmalion’s love for Galatea indicative of
self-obsession?
3. To what extent is his love ethical?
4. What rights of her own does Galatea have?
B. Study the different types of literary archetypes with emphasis on the artist as well as
the inventor, the beggar, the fairy godmother (godfather), the quest, and the initiation.
What characteristics define the archetype?
