Wednesday 27 June 2007
Advertising: Blocks 3 and 4
Look at the article posted on Thursday, 24 May 2007 about the advert for the Suzuki car. That will help you in the composition of the text for your tourism brochure. This is not supposed to be a huge task. The attention span of someone reading an advert is quite short, you need to grab and hold their attention quickly, with short sentences, imperatives, appeal to emotion and vanity, make the reader feel special, flatter them ("You are a sophisticated, discerning traveller who wants only the best." etc.)
Thursday 14 June 2007
Blocks 3 and 4
As you read this, no doubt you are lying by the swimming pool in a 5 star hotel in Hawaii or Tahiti, while the sun beats down, the sea laps against the shore, palm trees wave their fronds gently in the breeze and handsome waiters or nubile waitresses serve you cool drinks. Your only thought is how to spend this leisurely day in peaceful self-indulgence. PTE is a long way away. But, spare a thought for your poor teacher and perhaps spend a minute or two thinking about the homework i.e. comment on the Frankenstein text, and there are a few notes here to help. Don't forget genre, purpose, tone, audience etc. Then write your own Gothic piece. Bit longer than before, more like 250-300. Think of the atmosphere, the vocab to be used. The theme. Look at the links to the characteristics of a gothic novel and bear those in mind when writing.
See you soon.
AK
FRANKENSTEIN
A few notes to assist you in the dreary accomplishment of your toils. These are by no means exhaustive, nor guaranteed as to their quality.
Diction (vocab) : The atmosphere being created is one of darkness, gloom, pain, dreariness, dread and fear.
State of mind: fear, guilt, dread of consequences of his action.
Sentence structure of 1st parag. sentences get longer, heightens feeling of doom, use of semi-colons slows down the pace, ratcheting up the tension. .
Purpose of 2nd parag. provides stark contrast between what Frankenstein’s intentions had been and what the reality of the creature is.
Frankenstein is seeking the sympathy of the reader. Is he successful in arousing this?
“Beautiful! Great God!” ironic. Heightening the guilt he feels.
“Horrid contrast” in his creation, between the beautiful thing he attempted to create and the hideous monster he actually created.
The nightmare sets a contrast with a romantic, idyllic view of the past, with his beautiful bride, and the present which is a situation of evil and horror.
How did you react to the passage? Remember to set this in its historical context.
What overall themes can you discern? Why the enduring popularity of this novel and why has the story been made into so many films.
See you soon.
AK
FRANKENSTEIN
A few notes to assist you in the dreary accomplishment of your toils. These are by no means exhaustive, nor guaranteed as to their quality.
Diction (vocab) : The atmosphere being created is one of darkness, gloom, pain, dreariness, dread and fear.
State of mind: fear, guilt, dread of consequences of his action.
Sentence structure of 1st parag. sentences get longer, heightens feeling of doom, use of semi-colons slows down the pace, ratcheting up the tension. .
Purpose of 2nd parag. provides stark contrast between what Frankenstein’s intentions had been and what the reality of the creature is.
Frankenstein is seeking the sympathy of the reader. Is he successful in arousing this?
“Beautiful! Great God!” ironic. Heightening the guilt he feels.
“Horrid contrast” in his creation, between the beautiful thing he attempted to create and the hideous monster he actually created.
The nightmare sets a contrast with a romantic, idyllic view of the past, with his beautiful bride, and the present which is a situation of evil and horror.
How did you react to the passage? Remember to set this in its historical context.
What overall themes can you discern? Why the enduring popularity of this novel and why has the story been made into so many films.
Wednesday 13 June 2007
Puns
A pun is a "play on words", a double meaning used for humorous effect. Here are a few interesting ones, some quite subtle, so might need a bit of thought to understand.
1. A bicycle can't stand-alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead give-away.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
12. A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
13. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
14. Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.
15. He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
16. A calendar's days are numbered.
17. A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
18. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
19. He had a photographic memory, which was never developed.
20. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
21. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
23. When you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall.
1. A bicycle can't stand-alone; it is two tired.
2. A will is a dead give-away.
3. Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In a democracy it's your vote that counts; in feudalism, it's your Count that votes.
6. A chicken crossing the road: poultry in motion.
7. If you don't pay your exorcist you can get repossessed.
8. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
9. Show me a piano falling down a mine shaft and I'll show you A-flat miner.
10. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
11. The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine was fully recovered.
12. A grenade fell onto a kitchen floor in France resulted in Linoleum Blownapart.
13. You are stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
14. Local Area Network in Australia: The LAN down under.
15. He broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
16. A calendar's days are numbered.
17. A lot of money is tainted: 'Taint yours, and 'taint mine.
18. A boiled egg is hard to beat.
19. He had a photographic memory, which was never developed.
20. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
21. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison: a small medium at large.
22. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
23. When you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall.
Wednesday 6 June 2007
Tuesday 5 June 2007
Gothic
Why don't you check out these websites.
Mwouhahahaha! (Spoken in deep scary voice)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_novel
http://virtualsalt.com/gothic.htm
http://home-1.worldonline.nl/~hamberg/
Saturday 2 June 2007
Block 2 Speeches
I was very impressed with the speeches given by the students in Block 2 today. All of you sounded leader like and some of you were quite outstanding. We know just how difficult it is to write a speech; but for you to do so in the style of another speaker and then deliver it to an audience in a foreign language is an achievement that you can all be very proud of. I put up a couple of representative photos and chose them purely because they were more in focus than any of the other ones ... sack the cameraman! Advertisements next week!
Block 4 Speeches
Well done Block 4. Very good speeches. I hope your performance will shame the layabouts of Block 3 to produce something on Monday. Block 4 has thrown down the gauntlet. It is up to Block 3 to pick it up.
Friday 1 June 2007
To EAS Blk 2 (Mrs Saunders’ class)
I’m a good girl, I am!
I believe we enjoyed the reading by Naz, Illyana and Nadia (who read the part of Eliza Doolittle ) and Khairul, Caesar and Hamin (who read the part of Professor Higgins) of an extract from Act 5 of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
For those of you who would like to read the rest of the play, you may visit this website: http://www.bartleby.com/138/index.html
And to find out more about the playwright himself, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw
The notes below are taken from the ‘Monarch’ Guide to Pygmalion:
Why ‘Pygmalion’?
In a Greek legend, Pygmalion, a sculptor and ruler of Cyprus, was known for his dislike of women. But when he had carved an ivory statue of the goddess Aphrodite, its charms so overwhelmed him that he fell in love with it. The goddess answered his prayer to bring the statue to life, and he married the women it contained, who was then named Galatea. Shaw's play is a variation on this legend, with Professor Higgins as Pygmalion and Eliza Doolittle as Galatea.
Character Analyses
Henry Higgins.
Higgins' portrait is based to some extent on real-life models. One was the famous phonetics specialist Henry Sweet, a man still revered as one of the great figures in his field. Like Higgins, Sweet was short-tempered, eccentric, and completely devoted to his work. The other model was Robert Bridges, a famous poet and student of language with a special interest in the writings of
John Milton, the English poet. Higgins too is deeply influenced by Milton.
Higgins' most attractive characteristic is a certain innocence which is in contrast to his professional skill and intellectual sophistication. He Pearce, Mrs. Higgins-but he has no intention of hurting anybody. He is neither cruel nor mean. He treats everyone fairly and decently according to his own standards. His reponses to any situation are direct and immediate, and usually loud. He simply does not give much thought to people's feelings.
Higgins' own picture of himself is as an exceptionally amiable, mild, kindly man who is often victimized by the unreasonable behavior of other people. His good intentions, as well as his comically inaccurate idea of his own nature, make him consistently appealing.
But in actuality, Higgins likes to get his own way. When an idea seizes him, as in Act II, he rides roughshod over all opposition. He does not care for Pickering's doubts, nor for Mrs. Pearce's disappoval, nor for Eliza's ignorant terror. He tries to placate Mrs. Pearce by offering her a daughter to adopt (not asking her whether she wants one, nor asking Eliza whether she wants to be one). He weaves wild fantasies of rich marriages to tempt Eliza. He is as irresponsible as a child who will do anything to get its hands on a new toy.
Higgins is completely devoted to his work. He has an exalted view of its spiritual importance. He is one of the guardians of the language of Shakespeare and Milton. He opens this mighty reasure to share with his pupils and thus ennobles their souls and frees them from the restraints of artificial class barriers.
This devotion is one of the things that help to make him such a terror. His work is of vital significance; other things are so trivial compared to it that they are a waste of time. Thus he will not bother with manners, social small talk, or the other amenities of civilized living. As a result, he is a trial to his mother. The repeated display of Higgin's bad manners is one of the comic elements of the play. He is especially funny in his outspoken honesty at times where polite lying is the usual behavior. During his mother's "at home" in Act III, he greets Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and her daughter gloomily, unable to pretend that he is glad to see them. The arrival of Freddy is the last straw. Higgins groans: "God of Heaven! another of them." It is no wonder that his mother wishes he would stay in his own house when she is having guests.
Higgins swears constantly. Mrs. Pearce puts up with his language in martyred patience. Even Colonel Pickering, who is an Army man, after all, and accustomed to such things, mentions that he has seldom heard anything like it.
Personal untidiness is another of Higgin's characteristics. He uses his dressing gown to wipe his hands on at meals. He shoves all his food onto the same plate. Mrs. Pearce mentions these matters during the amusing scene in Act II when she lectures him about improving his manners as an example to Eliza. At that time she points out that he nearly choked recently on a fish bone in the jam jar, a bone he must have dropped into the jar himself. Eliza herself points out in Act V that, if it were not for Colonel Pickering, she would never have known how ladies and gentlemen behave. She mentions particularly Higgins' habit of taking off his shoes in the dining room.
Towards Eliza, Higgins is domineering and impatient. He becomes absorbed in her as an object involved in a phonetics experiment. It turns out that Eliza is a woman with exceptional qualities of mind and heart. He senses that he has allowed himself to come to the brink of a truly profound human relationship. He fights hard to retain for himself the pleasure and convenience of Eliza's presence without making any further gift of himself to her. He does not want to change his ways or belong to anybody but himself. At the end of the play we are left uncertain about the outcome of this interior struggle.
Eliza Doolittle.
When we first see Eliza, she is a child of the London streets, dirty, shabby, ignorant, and accustomed to standing up for her own rights, since there is nobody else to do it for her. For instance, she is almost ready to quarrel with the Eynsford-Hills over payment for the flowers
Freddy has accidentally spoiled. She is quite persistent as she tries to persuade Colonel Pickering to buy a flower from her. She puts up a great howl of protest against the "policeman" (really Higgins) who is writing down her words.
But her ignorance is so great that she gives the impression of being slightly stupid. She is sure that she is about to be arrested because she has addressed Colonel Pickering as "captain", and it is very difficult to persuade her that this whole idea is absurd.
Her ignorance has its comic side. She has never seen a bathtub. When she does, she refuses to use it because she feels it is both dangerous and indecent to take off all one's clothes and get wet all over; she knows of someone who did it every Saturday night and died from it! Mrs. Pearce gets her into the tub by a combination of force and trickery.
Eliza does have standards of behavior. She does not drink. She is "a good girl," she insists, and she is convincing. We are sure that this is true; we feel admiration for the young girl who was turned out by her father and stepmother because she was big enough to look after herself, and who has managed to stay sober and self-respecting in the midst of extreme poverty.
Eliza is only eighteen or twenty when the play begins. She may have been a good deal younger when she was first forced to make her own living.
The revelation of Eliza's possibilities begins with her external self and progresses until we see the qualities of her spirit-qualities which might have stayed hidden all her life if it were not for Higgins and Pickering. A bath reveals that Eliza is attractive. A few good clothes show that she is also capable of being stylish and distinguished. Some hard work by Higgins shows that she has a sharp ear for sound and speech. Soon she can pronounce her native tongue better than most people.
But to uncover the possibilities of Eliza's mind is a much harder thing. In Mrs.Higgins' drawing room, Eliza still displays the mind of a girl brought up in a squalid world of drunkenness and violence. This contrast between her refined dress and diction on the one hand, and the content of her conversation on the other is what makes the high comedy of the scene. It also pitiful as it
reveals that Eliza's background is still very much with her. Finally, it shows that much inner development will be necessary. By the end of the play, Eliza has become a different person inside as well as outside. She is able to analyze her own situation. She can move beautifully through the world of garden parties and receptions, but she does not really belong in that world.
The other guests sense this as well as she does. They look upon her as a beautiful but alien visitor, not as one of themselves. Yet she is no longer able to return to the world she came from. Dirt and rags and flower baskets no longer constitute a possible way of life for her. She cannot see where she belongs. Hence her anguished cry: "What's o become of me?" The only emotional haven she has is the life she has built with Higgins and Pickering. But as she hears the discussion of how boring the experiment has been to Higgins, that refuge fades away. She is sure that Higgins does not want her and cannot wait to be rid of her. In this, as it happens, she is wrong. But she courageously acts on her understanding of what is going on; she leaves.
The shock of leaving the Wimpole Street house and going off on her own again changes Eliza's perspective. She is able to call upon her own dignity and self-sufficiency as she meets with Higgins. She tries to discover definitely how he feels about her, and whether her going has shocked his selfish mind into sympathy or appreciation. Here too she shows her appreciation of all that Colonel Pickering has done for her. She is also able to evaluate Freddy Eynsford-Hill. She sees his weaknesses but also understands the desirable qualities he offers as a husband.
Thus, with warm intuition and a capable brain, Eliza is able to analyze the men who are the factors in her life at the moment. We leave her considering the splendid and exasperating qualities of Higgins, and the unremarkable but comforting qualities of the adoring Freddy. She says she will marry Freddy, but we are not sure.
We should note also that by the end of the play Eliza has come to understand Higgins well enough to make him thoroughly uncomfortable when she wants to. She quarrels with him far more cleverly than he does with her. His outbreaks are noisy but blundering and innocent. She makes him squirm quite deliberately. She will never be able to cope with that difficult man completely, but she is not helpless at his hands any longer.
Colonel Pickering.
Pickering is the opposite of Higgins in almost every way. The two men are alike mainly in their interest in phonetics. Pickering is courteous, while Higgins is ill-mannered. He is patient while Higgins is brusque. He is even-tempered, but Higgins has an explosive disposition. Pickering is kindly in his impulses, while Higgins is sometimes mischievous and often thoughtless.
Eliza feels much gratitude toward Pickering, and properly so. He gives generous financial help. But, more important, he gives that courteous consideration by which she learns about being a lady. Eliza's outlook changes from the moment that Pickering calls her "Miss Doolittle" and offers her a seat. As she intelligently explains it later on: "The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated."
Pickering is also capable of showing a certain shortsightedness. Along with Higgins, he is distinctly impatient as Higgins' mother urges them to take some thought for Eliza's future. He is too amused by Eliza's progress to think about this important subject. Pickering's considerateness deserts him for a short time after Eliza's great triumph. He can do nothing but talk about his
own feelings and congratulate Higgins. He has no word of praise or reassurance for Eliza.
But on the whole, Pickering personifies sanity and conventional behavior in the play. This points up Higgins' eccentricity. It should be added that Pickering is not a dithering fool and should not be played that way, though he often is.
What is the science of phonetics? What is its practical importance in the play? What is its symbolic importance?
Phonetics concerns the sounds of human speech, particularly how they are produced and how they may be classified. This subject had an extremely rapid development in the nineteenth century. One of its pioneers was Henry Sweet, the cantankerous Oxford scholar who was one of the models for Shaw's portrait of Higgins. Sweet was an inventor (though not the only one) of
the International Phonetic Alphabet. This made it possible to record human speech precisely, which could not be done with the conventional alphabet. In the play Higgins is the inventor of a fictional phonetic alphabet named Higgins' Universal Alphabet.
Shaw took delight in writing Pygmalion because he was thus able to show that what seemed like a dry, unpromising subject could be turned into a lively play. This was done by making clear the practical implications of phonetics.By means of it, a person's speech could be changed. With the change in speech, a change in life was possible. By developing the idea of this change, Shaw
developed the play.
Thus, a familiar and enjoyable story is retold. It is the story of Galatea, as the title suggests. It is also the story of Cinderella. Only here the chief force is not magic, but the expert ability of Higgins. The change includes dramatic alterations in cleanliness, manners, and dress, but the
original and most important element is the change in speech.
The change in speech also has symbolic value. The difference between cultivated and unacceptable speech is one of the chief symbols of the difference between social classes. This difference has been for most people unchangeable. The speech with which most human beings grow up is the speech they keep all their lives. It marks them unmistakably. Here Higgins, and
through him Shaw, shows that this great difference between human beings can be destroyed. And when this disappears, the class distinction it represents also largely disappears. The flower girl does not have to stay on the curbstone with her basket all her life. To re-make human speech is a method of re-making modern society.
*********
Hope you enjoyed that.
Mrs Saunders
I believe we enjoyed the reading by Naz, Illyana and Nadia (who read the part of Eliza Doolittle ) and Khairul, Caesar and Hamin (who read the part of Professor Higgins) of an extract from Act 5 of the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
For those of you who would like to read the rest of the play, you may visit this website: http://www.bartleby.com/138/index.html
And to find out more about the playwright himself, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bernard_Shaw
The notes below are taken from the ‘Monarch’ Guide to Pygmalion:
Why ‘Pygmalion’?
In a Greek legend, Pygmalion, a sculptor and ruler of Cyprus, was known for his dislike of women. But when he had carved an ivory statue of the goddess Aphrodite, its charms so overwhelmed him that he fell in love with it. The goddess answered his prayer to bring the statue to life, and he married the women it contained, who was then named Galatea. Shaw's play is a variation on this legend, with Professor Higgins as Pygmalion and Eliza Doolittle as Galatea.
Character Analyses
Henry Higgins.
Higgins' portrait is based to some extent on real-life models. One was the famous phonetics specialist Henry Sweet, a man still revered as one of the great figures in his field. Like Higgins, Sweet was short-tempered, eccentric, and completely devoted to his work. The other model was Robert Bridges, a famous poet and student of language with a special interest in the writings of
John Milton, the English poet. Higgins too is deeply influenced by Milton.
Higgins' most attractive characteristic is a certain innocence which is in contrast to his professional skill and intellectual sophistication. He Pearce, Mrs. Higgins-but he has no intention of hurting anybody. He is neither cruel nor mean. He treats everyone fairly and decently according to his own standards. His reponses to any situation are direct and immediate, and usually loud. He simply does not give much thought to people's feelings.
Higgins' own picture of himself is as an exceptionally amiable, mild, kindly man who is often victimized by the unreasonable behavior of other people. His good intentions, as well as his comically inaccurate idea of his own nature, make him consistently appealing.
But in actuality, Higgins likes to get his own way. When an idea seizes him, as in Act II, he rides roughshod over all opposition. He does not care for Pickering's doubts, nor for Mrs. Pearce's disappoval, nor for Eliza's ignorant terror. He tries to placate Mrs. Pearce by offering her a daughter to adopt (not asking her whether she wants one, nor asking Eliza whether she wants to be one). He weaves wild fantasies of rich marriages to tempt Eliza. He is as irresponsible as a child who will do anything to get its hands on a new toy.
Higgins is completely devoted to his work. He has an exalted view of its spiritual importance. He is one of the guardians of the language of Shakespeare and Milton. He opens this mighty reasure to share with his pupils and thus ennobles their souls and frees them from the restraints of artificial class barriers.
This devotion is one of the things that help to make him such a terror. His work is of vital significance; other things are so trivial compared to it that they are a waste of time. Thus he will not bother with manners, social small talk, or the other amenities of civilized living. As a result, he is a trial to his mother. The repeated display of Higgin's bad manners is one of the comic elements of the play. He is especially funny in his outspoken honesty at times where polite lying is the usual behavior. During his mother's "at home" in Act III, he greets Mrs. Eynsford-Hill and her daughter gloomily, unable to pretend that he is glad to see them. The arrival of Freddy is the last straw. Higgins groans: "God of Heaven! another of them." It is no wonder that his mother wishes he would stay in his own house when she is having guests.
Higgins swears constantly. Mrs. Pearce puts up with his language in martyred patience. Even Colonel Pickering, who is an Army man, after all, and accustomed to such things, mentions that he has seldom heard anything like it.
Personal untidiness is another of Higgin's characteristics. He uses his dressing gown to wipe his hands on at meals. He shoves all his food onto the same plate. Mrs. Pearce mentions these matters during the amusing scene in Act II when she lectures him about improving his manners as an example to Eliza. At that time she points out that he nearly choked recently on a fish bone in the jam jar, a bone he must have dropped into the jar himself. Eliza herself points out in Act V that, if it were not for Colonel Pickering, she would never have known how ladies and gentlemen behave. She mentions particularly Higgins' habit of taking off his shoes in the dining room.
Towards Eliza, Higgins is domineering and impatient. He becomes absorbed in her as an object involved in a phonetics experiment. It turns out that Eliza is a woman with exceptional qualities of mind and heart. He senses that he has allowed himself to come to the brink of a truly profound human relationship. He fights hard to retain for himself the pleasure and convenience of Eliza's presence without making any further gift of himself to her. He does not want to change his ways or belong to anybody but himself. At the end of the play we are left uncertain about the outcome of this interior struggle.
Eliza Doolittle.
When we first see Eliza, she is a child of the London streets, dirty, shabby, ignorant, and accustomed to standing up for her own rights, since there is nobody else to do it for her. For instance, she is almost ready to quarrel with the Eynsford-Hills over payment for the flowers
Freddy has accidentally spoiled. She is quite persistent as she tries to persuade Colonel Pickering to buy a flower from her. She puts up a great howl of protest against the "policeman" (really Higgins) who is writing down her words.
But her ignorance is so great that she gives the impression of being slightly stupid. She is sure that she is about to be arrested because she has addressed Colonel Pickering as "captain", and it is very difficult to persuade her that this whole idea is absurd.
Her ignorance has its comic side. She has never seen a bathtub. When she does, she refuses to use it because she feels it is both dangerous and indecent to take off all one's clothes and get wet all over; she knows of someone who did it every Saturday night and died from it! Mrs. Pearce gets her into the tub by a combination of force and trickery.
Eliza does have standards of behavior. She does not drink. She is "a good girl," she insists, and she is convincing. We are sure that this is true; we feel admiration for the young girl who was turned out by her father and stepmother because she was big enough to look after herself, and who has managed to stay sober and self-respecting in the midst of extreme poverty.
Eliza is only eighteen or twenty when the play begins. She may have been a good deal younger when she was first forced to make her own living.
The revelation of Eliza's possibilities begins with her external self and progresses until we see the qualities of her spirit-qualities which might have stayed hidden all her life if it were not for Higgins and Pickering. A bath reveals that Eliza is attractive. A few good clothes show that she is also capable of being stylish and distinguished. Some hard work by Higgins shows that she has a sharp ear for sound and speech. Soon she can pronounce her native tongue better than most people.
But to uncover the possibilities of Eliza's mind is a much harder thing. In Mrs.Higgins' drawing room, Eliza still displays the mind of a girl brought up in a squalid world of drunkenness and violence. This contrast between her refined dress and diction on the one hand, and the content of her conversation on the other is what makes the high comedy of the scene. It also pitiful as it
reveals that Eliza's background is still very much with her. Finally, it shows that much inner development will be necessary. By the end of the play, Eliza has become a different person inside as well as outside. She is able to analyze her own situation. She can move beautifully through the world of garden parties and receptions, but she does not really belong in that world.
The other guests sense this as well as she does. They look upon her as a beautiful but alien visitor, not as one of themselves. Yet she is no longer able to return to the world she came from. Dirt and rags and flower baskets no longer constitute a possible way of life for her. She cannot see where she belongs. Hence her anguished cry: "What's o become of me?" The only emotional haven she has is the life she has built with Higgins and Pickering. But as she hears the discussion of how boring the experiment has been to Higgins, that refuge fades away. She is sure that Higgins does not want her and cannot wait to be rid of her. In this, as it happens, she is wrong. But she courageously acts on her understanding of what is going on; she leaves.
The shock of leaving the Wimpole Street house and going off on her own again changes Eliza's perspective. She is able to call upon her own dignity and self-sufficiency as she meets with Higgins. She tries to discover definitely how he feels about her, and whether her going has shocked his selfish mind into sympathy or appreciation. Here too she shows her appreciation of all that Colonel Pickering has done for her. She is also able to evaluate Freddy Eynsford-Hill. She sees his weaknesses but also understands the desirable qualities he offers as a husband.
Thus, with warm intuition and a capable brain, Eliza is able to analyze the men who are the factors in her life at the moment. We leave her considering the splendid and exasperating qualities of Higgins, and the unremarkable but comforting qualities of the adoring Freddy. She says she will marry Freddy, but we are not sure.
We should note also that by the end of the play Eliza has come to understand Higgins well enough to make him thoroughly uncomfortable when she wants to. She quarrels with him far more cleverly than he does with her. His outbreaks are noisy but blundering and innocent. She makes him squirm quite deliberately. She will never be able to cope with that difficult man completely, but she is not helpless at his hands any longer.
Colonel Pickering.
Pickering is the opposite of Higgins in almost every way. The two men are alike mainly in their interest in phonetics. Pickering is courteous, while Higgins is ill-mannered. He is patient while Higgins is brusque. He is even-tempered, but Higgins has an explosive disposition. Pickering is kindly in his impulses, while Higgins is sometimes mischievous and often thoughtless.
Eliza feels much gratitude toward Pickering, and properly so. He gives generous financial help. But, more important, he gives that courteous consideration by which she learns about being a lady. Eliza's outlook changes from the moment that Pickering calls her "Miss Doolittle" and offers her a seat. As she intelligently explains it later on: "The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated."
Pickering is also capable of showing a certain shortsightedness. Along with Higgins, he is distinctly impatient as Higgins' mother urges them to take some thought for Eliza's future. He is too amused by Eliza's progress to think about this important subject. Pickering's considerateness deserts him for a short time after Eliza's great triumph. He can do nothing but talk about his
own feelings and congratulate Higgins. He has no word of praise or reassurance for Eliza.
But on the whole, Pickering personifies sanity and conventional behavior in the play. This points up Higgins' eccentricity. It should be added that Pickering is not a dithering fool and should not be played that way, though he often is.
What is the science of phonetics? What is its practical importance in the play? What is its symbolic importance?
Phonetics concerns the sounds of human speech, particularly how they are produced and how they may be classified. This subject had an extremely rapid development in the nineteenth century. One of its pioneers was Henry Sweet, the cantankerous Oxford scholar who was one of the models for Shaw's portrait of Higgins. Sweet was an inventor (though not the only one) of
the International Phonetic Alphabet. This made it possible to record human speech precisely, which could not be done with the conventional alphabet. In the play Higgins is the inventor of a fictional phonetic alphabet named Higgins' Universal Alphabet.
Shaw took delight in writing Pygmalion because he was thus able to show that what seemed like a dry, unpromising subject could be turned into a lively play. This was done by making clear the practical implications of phonetics.By means of it, a person's speech could be changed. With the change in speech, a change in life was possible. By developing the idea of this change, Shaw
developed the play.
Thus, a familiar and enjoyable story is retold. It is the story of Galatea, as the title suggests. It is also the story of Cinderella. Only here the chief force is not magic, but the expert ability of Higgins. The change includes dramatic alterations in cleanliness, manners, and dress, but the
original and most important element is the change in speech.
The change in speech also has symbolic value. The difference between cultivated and unacceptable speech is one of the chief symbols of the difference between social classes. This difference has been for most people unchangeable. The speech with which most human beings grow up is the speech they keep all their lives. It marks them unmistakably. Here Higgins, and
through him Shaw, shows that this great difference between human beings can be destroyed. And when this disappears, the class distinction it represents also largely disappears. The flower girl does not have to stay on the curbstone with her basket all her life. To re-make human speech is a method of re-making modern society.
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Hope you enjoyed that.
Mrs Saunders
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