English 1061 Pygmalion (1913)

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English 1061 Pygmalion (1913)
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Fin de Siècle End of the age

• Influenced by French culture, late Victorian
  intellectual activity was marked by stylish
  cynicism and the failure of democracy to spread
  wealth and benefits from rich to poor
• Growing popularity of socialist movements
• An intellectual movement of existentialism and
  depression
• Less sentimental art more frank and realistic
  depictions

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George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

• 1856 Born in Dublin
• 1871 After minimal schooling, becomes an office
  boy
• 1873 Moves to London to join mother
• 1884 Joins the Fabian socialist society
• 1885-1903 Works as a music and literary
  journalist elected as city counselor

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George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

• Later in life, a full-time dramatist and
  pamphleteer for socialism
• Second only to Shakespeare in the British
  theatrical tradition non-melodramatic theater
• Irish supporter, but anti-separatist
• Lost interest in socialism, but voiced support
  for Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler defended Nazi
  policies
• Married late no children natural death of
  kidney failure

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Pygmalion (Legend)

• In Ovids Metamorphoses (AD 8), Pygmalion is a
  sculptor who falls in love with his creation
• - Based on Greek legend

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Pygmalion (Play)

• Written in 1912
• First performed in 1913 in Vienna
• First performed in England in 1914
• Adapted to My Fair Lady (Stage 1956, Film 1964)

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Themes

• - Contempt for class system Is class just a
  performance, a trick?
• - Language Is speech the great social divider?
• - Feminism Does Eliza win in the play? Is she
  justified in feeling used by the men?
• - How much of the play serves Shaws beliefs?
  (Shaw was a socialist and feminist and possibly
  had an affair with the Eliza actress)

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My Fair Lady (1964)

• - Shaw did NOT want a happy ending where Higgins
  marries Eliza. How does the movies ending change
  the storys meanings?