Pygmalion

Title: Pygmalion

Author: Bernard Shaw

Main Characters: Freddy, Eliza the Flower Girl, Prof. Higgins, Colonel Pickering, Mr. Doolittle-Father of Eliza and Mrs. Pearce.

Description of one of the main characters: The Flower Girl, Eliza is a common girl of London. Her pronunciation is very bad when she comes to the convent garden. But she goes to Higgins and learns good English. She learns phonetics. She starts to speak well. Freddy falls in love with the flower girl and they both marry.

Setting/Theme of the story: Eliza, a cockney flower girl goes to Prof. Higgins to learn phonetics. She becomes talented and speaks good English. She used to speak the local dialect without a phonetic alphabet which is unintelligible outside London. Colonel Pickering helps Higgins to make Eliza a Duchess in three months. He watches over Eliza when she is in international parties. Mrs. Pearce helps Eliza with her costumes for the parties and she also teaches Eliza some good etiquettes to follow. She undergoes metamorphosis and becomes a nice looking lady. Because of this complete change, a young man named Freddy falls in love with the flower girl. They both marry each other and live happily.

The Part I enjoyed the most: I like the conversations between the characters. I like the theme/setting of the story. One of the conversations I enjoyed is between Prof. Higgins and his pupil:

WHISKERS : Maestro, Maestro (he embraces Higgins and kisses him on both cheeks). You remember me?
HIGGINS: No I don’t. Who the devil are you?
WHISKERS: I am your pupil: your first pupil, your best and greatest pupil. I am little Nepommuck, the marvellous boy. I have made your name famous throughout Europe. You teach me phonetic. You cannot forget ME.
HIGGINS: Why don’t you shave?
NEPOMMUCK: I have not your imposing appearance, your chin, your brow. Nobody notices me when I shave. Now I am famous: they call me Hairy Faced Dick.
HIGGINS: And what are you doing here among all the swells?
NEOPOMMUCK: I am interpreter. I speak 32 languages. I am indispensable at these international parties. You are great cockney specialist: you place a man anywhere in London the moment he opens his mouth. I place any man in Europe.
(a footman hurries down the grand staircase and comes to Nepommuck).
FOOTMAN: You are wanted upstairs. Her excellency cannot understand the Greek gentleman.
NEPOMMUCK: Thank you, yes, immediately.
(the footman goes and is lost in the crowd)
NEPOMMUCK: (to Higgins) This Greek diplomatist pretends he cannot speak nor understand English. He cannot deceive me. He is the son of a Clerkenwell watchmaker. He speaks English so villainously that he dare not utter a word of it without betraying his origin. I help him to pretend; but I make him pay through the nose. I make them all pay. Ha Ha! (he hurries upstairs).