Skip to main content

What was Pygmalion's conflict?

Pygmalion explores class conflict. In a class-bound society like England, a conflict raged: was social class inborn or socially constructed? In other words, were people from the lower classes genetically inferior, incapable of learning the gracious behavior of upper class people, or had they been held down and "coarsened" by their lack of economic opportunities? Were they naturally "depraved" or had they been made that way? 


Henry Higgins sets out to prove that he can pass off a lower-class Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as an aristocratic lady by teaching her to speak proper English, instructing her in manners, and dressing her as an upper-class woman. 


Higgins succeeds, perhaps beyond his dreams, and in the process, upends popular misconceptions in 1913 about social class, showing that it is nurture (or lack thereof), not nature, that keeps people down. Upper class people are not innately superior. Higgins, however, can never quite get over his class prejudices, or his sexism, and thus can never treat Eliza fully as a human being. Shaw's play, therefore,  not only upsets the idea that the upper classes are naturally (genetically) superior but calls into the question the careless and often destructive way women and lower-class people were treated. 


Pygmalion's conflict at the end of the play that Eliza is caught between marriage, the only role she is fitted for now that she is a lady, and her own desire for independence and autonomy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more