Pygmalion

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Thinking about Character”

In this activity, students will use critical thinking and collaborative learning to develop a deeper understanding of the characters and their roles in the play.

The characters of Shaw’s Pygmalion are more than just their dialects and diction: All of them also have distinctive personalities and motivations. Split the students into small groups and assign each group a character from the play. Each group should analyze their character, considering the following questions:

• How are the character’s personality traits and motivations reflected in the way they speak?
• What are the character’s main conflicts and how are these conflicts resolved?
• What are the character’s attitudes towards education, social class, marriage, and love?
• Does the character develop or evolve throughout the play? If so, how?

Have each group present their analysis to the class once they have finished. These presentations should facilitate discussions on how the play’s characters connect to the play’s overarching themes, symbols, and motifs.

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to use textual support in forming their analysis and making their presentations, drawing on quotes from the play that illustrate their arguments and conclusions. Encourage the class to make comparisons between the different characters to identify common themes as well as conflicts between the worldviews and values represented in the play.

Differentiation Suggestion: English language learners, students with dyslexia, and those with attentional or executive function differences might find it difficult to sort through the entire text to find evidence. Consider directing these students to watch a video or film production of the play at home. As they do this, urge them to think about the choices the actors are making in representing their characters. Do they agree with these decisions? Would they portray any of the characters differently?

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. The play follows the transformation of Eliza Doolittle as she learns a new way of speaking and behaving from Higgins.

• How does Eliza change over the course of the play? (topic sentence)
• Choose 2-3 actions that show a change in her character. Be sure to cite evidence from the text.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, reflect on the meaningful changes Eliza undergoes during the play while also noting what aspects of her character remain constant.

2. Language and Phonetics are central throughout the play as a sign of one’s education, manners, and social standing.

• Why are language and phonetics so important throughout the play and what is the nature of their transformative power? (topic sentence)
• Discuss specific ways in which language and phonetics impact the lives of the characters in the play. In addition to Eliza, consider the role of language and phonetics in the lives of Higgins, Mrs. Higgins, and Pickering.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate the importance of language and phonetics and to what extent language and phonetics are truly transformative.

3. Women and Women’s Identities are important themes in the play, which largely revolves around the transformation of Eliza within a male-dominated world.

• How are women presented and treated in the play? (topic sentence)
• Discuss specific cases illustrating the play’s overall treatment of women, including their ideas about social class and marriage. Consider the characters of Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins, and Clara.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, contrast the way female characters interact with men with how they interact with other women. What does this illustrate about women’s identity?

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Explore the thematic connections between the play and the myth of Pygmalion. How is Higgins similar to Pygmalion? How is he different? What are the parallels between Eliza and Pygmalion’s statue? What comments do you think Shaw is making on the myth of Pygmalion?

2. Discuss the ways in which Shaw reflects on the hypocrisy and inconsistency of English society in the early 20th century throughout the play. How do characters such as Higgins and Pickering illustrate these flaws? How does Eliza’s transformation serve as an indictment of the society she lives in? Is the possibility of social transformation and social mobility presented as positive or negative?

3. Reflect on the ending of the play. Why do you think Shaw ended the play this way? How does the ending confirm or subvert audience expectations? Why might Shaw have chosen to leave the futures of Eliza and Higgins so ambiguous?

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Where does Eliza first meet Freddy Eynsford Hill?

A) Beneath the portico of St. Paul’s Church

B) At Mrs. Higgins’s house

C) At the ball

D) She never meets Freddy Eynsford Hill.

2. Which of the following quotes best illustrates the spiritual and cultural importance with which Higgins imbues language?

A) “What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.” (Act II)

B) “If you come back I shall treat you just as I have always treated you. I can't change my nature; and I don't intend to change my manners.” (Act V)

C) “She’s no use: I’ve got all the records I want of the Lisson Grove lingo; and I’m not going to waste another cylinder on it.” (Act II)

D) “Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible.” (Act I)

3. From whom does Higgins “buy” Eliza for five pounds?

A) Alfred Doolittle

B) Colonel Pickering

C) Mrs. Higgins

D) Mrs. Eynsford Hall

4. Why does Alfred Doolittle protest so vehemently against “middle class morality” (Act II)?

A) He believes it is not strict enough.

B) He regards it as judgmental and confrontational.

C) He prefers upper-class morality.

D) He finds it irreligious.

5. Why does Eliza insist on taking a taxi from Mrs. Higgins’s house?

A) She dislikes walking.

B) She hurt her leg.

C) She associates taxis with the upper class.

D) She wants to avoid Freddy.

6. What does Mrs. Higgins mean when she tells Higgins that Eliza is “a triumph of your art and of her dressmaker’s” (Act III)?

A) Eliza has been sabotaging his efforts.

B) Eliza looks like a lady but is inauthentic.

C) Eliza does not need to change at all.

D) Eliza’s transformation has been a success.

7. Why does Higgins resent his mother telling him that he and Pickering “certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll” (Act III)?

A) Higgins regards Eliza as his and Pickering’s equal.

B) Higgins does not care for his mother insulting Eliza by calling her a doll.

C) Higgins does not like dolls.

D) Higgins does not care for the implication that his work is easy and trivial.

8. Who is Eliza’s principal love interest in the play?

A) Freddy Eynsford Hill

B) Higgins

C) Colonel Pickering

D) Pygmalion

9. Why does Eliza feel that Higgins did her a disservice by educating her?

A) She finds her knowledge worthless without an upper-class income.

B) She has lost the ability to speak the way she used to.

C) She cannot find anybody to marry her now.

D) She has forgotten everything she used to know about selling flowers.

10. What does Eliza threaten to do with the knowledge she acquired from Higgins?

A) Forget all of it

B) Become a duchess

C) Teach linguistics

D) Use it to work in a flower shop

11. Why is Eliza angry at Higgins but not at Pickering?

A) She is in love with Higgins.

B) She is in love with Pickering.

C) Pickering always treated her with respect.

D) Higgins demanded she return her rented jewelry.

12. Why does Alfred Doolittle blame Higgins for destroying his happiness?

A) Higgins did not pay him the five pounds he owed him.

B) Higgins elevated Eliza’s social standing without elevating his too.

C) Higgins mistreated Eliza.

D) Higgins was the one responsible for Doolittle inheriting his present wealth.

13. The theme of Women’s Identity is best illustrated by which of the following quotes?

A) “I have learnt my lesson. I dont believe I could utter one of the old sounds if I tried.” (Act V)

B) “I’m afraid youve spoilt that girl, Henry. I should be uneasy about you and her if she were less fond of Colonel Pickering.” (Act V)

C) “We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road [...] I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else.” (Act IV)

D) “It is not the first time for me, Colonel. I have done this fifty times—hundreds of times—in my little piggery in Angel Court in my day-dreams. I am in a dream now.” (Act III)

14. Higgins’s code of morality is best illustrated by which of the following quotes?

A) “You won my bet! You! Presumptuous insect! I won it.” (Act IV)

B) “My manners are exactly the same as Colonel Pickering's.” (Act V)

C) “The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls.” (Act V)

D) “I'm worn out, thinking about her, and watching her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which is the quaintest of the lot.” (Act III)

15. Whom does Mrs. Higgins seem to think Eliza wants to marry?

A) Colonel Pickering.

B) Freddy Eynsford Hill.

C) Nobody.

D) Higgins.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What does Mrs. Higgins think of Higgins’s experiment?

2. How does Higgins justify his poor treatment of Eliza? What does this justification reveal about Higgins’s character and beliefs?