Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The end...and then some.
I can see why readers and play goers would have been upset with Pygmalion being called a romance. In ending it did leave me wanted a much nicer wrap so I read on through the sequel hoping I would find it there but what I actually found was more shocking! It never occurred to me that Liza couldn't really read or write. I mean I guess I understood that as a poor gutter girl she wouldn't have had much use for anything other than basic math, but once Higgins got a hold of her I guess I just assumed he fixed everything. When Shaw writes, "Eliza, though she could count money up to eighteen shilling or so, and had acquired a certain familiarity with the language of Milton [...], could not write out a bill without utterly disgracing the establishment" (117) my heart broke for the poor girl. How could Higgins and Pickering be so cruel as to tempt her mind with all these wonderful new thoughts and ideas, and not ensure that the woman could read and write properly! Suddenly the entire injustice of the play made sense to me. How could she go back to the gutter when she had glimpsed the world beyond? But, how could she stay in that world without more education? My inner feminist blood boils at the thought. These two gentlemen take in this poor girl solely for their own amusement and leave her more damaged than she was at the start! To Liza's credit (and some to Pickering...after all he did help her out with the shop,) she managed to find contentment in her life with Freddy and their little shop.
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I can say that Eliza does seem to be damaged more after the fact of Higgins and Pickering helping her. I can't stand here and defend the two men since I do not believe what they did was right, but at least their intentions were good. Kinda. It would be understandable if Pickering and Higgins taught her how to read and write. To do that they might end up doing more damage than they already had, or solving the problem that was starting to arise.
ReplyDeleteI would have to disagree. While Higgins and Pickering approached her phonetic education as a game, it was, afterall, Eliza who sought Higgins out to teach her how to speak like a lady. Neither one of the men sought her out, so why should they be held accountable for further education. If Eliza required to learn math and writing then it was her responsibility to seek it out if she felt it was important to her. Higgins gave her what she wanted; to speak like a lady. Perhaps she couldn't fathom the problems this would carry and they could, nevertheless, once she realized it she certainly could do something about it. Expecting to be spoon fed after you've been given what you sought out is very unreasonable.
ReplyDeleteI think that if we're to consider Eliza "damaged" after her ordeal with the two men, it's more of a less of an attack and more of a lesson that she has learned. In the end, Eliza comes out a better person. She changes and develops and blossoms, and so to does every character around her... save Higgins. Stodgy, immutable, unchangeable Higgins, stuck in his study without a blue fairy to help him become a real boy.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Eliza is hopeful. She's a strong, likable character. The story of Higgins is tragic, for he is doomed to eternally continue to remain Higgins.
Matt, very well stated. I have to agree. Higgins' character was very sad indeed and reminded me of Scrooge. Would he, too, waste his life being miserable before (if ever) having an epiphany?
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