Pygmalion
Eliza's Choice: Transformation Myth and the ending of PygmalionShaw borrowed and adapted many myths, which led to confusion at the end of the play. Actors and audiences were unprepared and unsatisfied with Eliza's decision to leave Higgins. Beerbohm Tree, actor of Higgins of the play's London premiere - ignored Shaw's instructions and at the end of every performance threw flowers to Eliza (suggesting a romantic attachment / marriage). Generally, audiences preferred the more romantic ending of Tree's interpretation. Shaw could not convert them even with his prose epilogue (published 1915) to prove that Eliza married Freddy. Even if Shaw was still alive during the production of the musical adaptation of the play, My Fair Lady, he could not have changed the romantic finale. Many actors, audiences, producers and critics favoured the revised ending. In Maurice Valency's recent book on Shaw's work - argues that Eliza and Higgins would make an ideal couple.Misinterpretations of Pygmalion come from the conflicting myths which Shaw used in the play. * Greek Pygmalion myth - Higgins's re-creation of Eliza is parallel to Pygmalion's creation of the statue of his ideal woman.* Cinderella folk tale - just as the poor an
The core of the Pygmalion myth and of the Cinderella folk tale is the transformation, not the marriage. The structure of this archetype is built around the hero, the professor of great power which he attains from his semidivine birth or divine favor. Doolittle's change is largely economic as he is basically the same person. If we recognise the play as a retelling of an archetypal transformation, we can see that Shaw gave the first part of the play to Higgins and reserves the last for Eliza. a hero who retreats, a minister who turns revolutionary, a world conqueror who abhors violence, a doctor who kills. It is after the Embassy ball that the great victory of Eliza is shown. With this power, the hero performs wondrous deeds, defeats evil forces and insures the well being of the society. Pygmalion repeats patterns and techniques that Shaw used consistently in his earlier plays. "Those who wishfully push Eliza and Higgins toward marriage are imposing the conventions of archetypal (typical) comedy on Pygmalion. She was not to be a reward for the hero, slipper fetcher and house manager. Higgins is a confirmed bachelor who can only love his mother (but both find living life under the same roof intolerable). However, Eliza's change in spiritual - she is a new person inside and out. His impending marriage is an indication of the drastic change in his lifestyle. She would be the submissive woman, fetching slippers and managing the household, while the eccentric hero tends to higher affairs. The flower girl was changed into a strong and independent woman - a woman equal to the hero.
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Acceptance Essays
