George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion Pygmalion is a play set in London at the beginning of the 20th century. The play is about Eliza Doolittle‚ an illiterate flower girl‚ who is taken off the street by Professor Higgins to become a lady. The story begins on a rainy night in Covent Garden where Mr. Higgins meets Colonel Pickering (both men are experts on linguistics) and also Eliza Doolittle. Higgins bets Pickering that he could transform this flower girl into a well spoken woman‚ one that could be passed
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Du � PAGE �1� Middle Class Morality in Pygmalion Pygmalion is a brilliant play written by Bernard Shaw that gives us an idea of the value in the Victorian era through the witty and rousing lines of his characters. The message Shaw tried to limn through his genius work is vividly drawn and is dearly ambiguous to anyone who is paying attention. In Pygmalion‚ Shaw focused his theme on the Victorian decorum of the contemporary society‚ which is named in many parts of Mr. Doolittle’s speech in the
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A Character Essay on Eliza: Pygmalion The story of Pygmalion is based on a classical myth‚ and Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion plays on the complicated relationships in a social setting. Professor Henry Higgins takes Eliza Doolittle to teach her the art of phonetics and to refine her manners. Eliza was‚ at first a poor flower girl‚ but by the end of the play‚ is transformed so much‚ she is even mistaken for a duchess. It is obvious throughout the play that Eliza is changing in many aspects; the most obvious
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Pygmalion – Themes Appearances and Reality Pygmalion examines this theme primarily through the character of Liza‚ and the issue of personal identity (as perceived by oneself or by others). Social roles in the Victorian era were viewed as natural and largely fixed: there was perceived to be something inherently‚ fundamentally unique about a noble versus an unskilled laborer and vice versa. Liza’s ability to fool society about her “real” identity raises questions about appearances. The importance
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“Fair is foul and foul is fair‚” chant the witches in the first scene of Macbeth. This paradoxical statement adds to the play’s sense of moral confusion and immediately sets the stage for what becomes one of the main themes of the play‚ by implying that nothing is quite as it seems. Countless times‚ characters in the play are unable to discern the true meaning and reality behind deceptive appearances. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth‚ deception is a recurring theme‚ developed through cryptic means of speech
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“Is it Fair” Introduction Cohen (1986) argues that corruption has been described as “acting on opportunities‚ created by virtue of one’s authority‚ for personal gain at the expense of the public one is authorized to serve.” Cohen felt that it can be dangerous that the officers accept these gratuities because what might start without intent on the part of the officer may be become a patterned expectation and can lead to targeting and misuse of power if the gratuity stops. On a different
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Pygmalion: Professor Higgins’ Philosophy Professor Higgins is seen throughout Pygmalion as a very rude man. While one may expect a well educated man‚ such as Higgins‚ to be a gentleman‚ he is far from it. Higgins believes that how you treated someone is not important‚ as long as you treat everyone equally. 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: in short‚ behaving
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Claudius vs. Lady Macbeth 	 King Claudius of Hamlet and Lady Macbeth of Macbeth exhibit three similar qualities‚ dishonesty‚ evilness‚ and deceitfulness throughout the play; although sometimes they demonstrate these qualities in different ways‚ these qualities greatly affect the other characters in the plays . 	King Claudius and Lady Macbeth are similar in that they both let their crave of power and desire for the crown drive them to deceitfulness‚ corruption‚ and even murder
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“Fair is Foul‚ and Foul is Fair” The play Macbeth‚ was written around 1606 by the famous poet William Shakespeare. In the plot‚ Macbeth is told prophecies by three witches and he does everything in his power to make sure he becomes the king‚ as they proclaimed‚ including murder. In Macbeth‚ one theme presented is “fair is foul‚ and foul is fair‚” meaning that things appearing to be good are sometimes bad‚ and things that at first seem bad can actually be good. There are many examples in the play
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Pygmalion is perhaps Shaw ’s most famous play and‚ ironically‚ it is among his most abused and misinterpreted ones. Almost everyone knows the basic outlines of this story of the Cockney flower girl who is almost magically transformed into a duchess by taking speech (phonetic) lessons from her famous professor. The abuse comes partly from the fact that Shaw subtitled his play‚ "A Romance." In the popular adaptations (the film of 1938 and the musical My Fair Lady)‚ "romance" was written into the script
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