Reading Pygmalion: Shaw's criticism of the English language and society

There are two central questions at the heart of “Pygmalion” - the more obvious, is the question of identity and how easy or difficult it is to render a different identity to a person and the second, more subtle question is of the very plausibility of the metrics used for class distinction - namely speech in this case. In fact, phonetics would undoubtedly have been a close affair with the author himself, a Dublin-based clerk with his Irish accent wishing to make his career as a writer in England. Classified as a “romance comedy”, “Pygmalion” is a scatching satire on class distinctions in nineteenth-century England. It is, also, a tantalizing reworking of the ancient Ovidian myth in a modern feminist light. And, a cheeky commentary on the English language itself.

Concerning the English language

Although, having assumed the throne of the lingua franca due to various reasons, linguists and scholars have long debated and agreed on the shortcomings of the English language. And perhaps, you have too. if you have used it for long enough. The utter disregard for phonetic values (imagine the many ways you have heard people pronounce the vowel ‘a’) and absence of a much richer English alphabet to accommodate for the various speech values have led to different cluster of people assigning different sounds to the poor 26 alphabets - the five vowels having suffered the most. But who really suffers? It is impossible to learn to speak English by merely reading it and it is a grave disability for a language that has come to touch and dominate the lives of most people today. GBS knew of this mediocrity and hence notes in the preface of the play - “The reformer we need most today is an energetic phonetic enthusiast: that is why I have made such a one the hero of a popular play.”

But he is not ashamed of his language, in fact, he revels and prides himself in it. Note how our astute and learned Professor Henry Higgins preaches in Act 1:

HIGGINS: “Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible…”

I can only imagine whether it was painful for GBS to love his mother tongue in spite of its impediment or perhaps for it.

The feminism of Pygmalion

In GBS’s masterful command of language, his commentary and reproaches are not glaringly on the face but gather subtle. Take for instance, when Liza in Act 5 expresses her anguish at being reduced to just another bourgeois lady at the mercy of her “lord” the husband.

ELIZA: “We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road…I sold flowers. I didnt sell myself. Now youve made a lady of me I’m not fit to sell anything else.”

Brilliant is GBS’s manner of criticising the condition and status of woman in the English society. He doesn’t refrain from unleashing the impudence of the official police body when Liza, young and foolish and tender as she was, shows considerable maturity and knowledge as to the behaviour of the policeman while she is in a loving embrace with Freddy on the road:

FREDDY: “I had no idea the police were so devilishly prudish.”
LIZA: “It’s their business to hunt girls off the streets.”

A superficial reading of the text might direct us to believe that Mr. Higgins must be a distraught misogynist as he liberally humiliates the female kind and garners the most creative insults on poor Eliza (“draggletailed guttersnipe” and “squashed cabbage leaf” for instance). That sheer hatred towards women might also have translated to his aversion to marriage altogether as he declares in Act 2:

HIGGINS: “Women upset everything.”

But consider Higgins once again. His only female contact, perhaps, has been his mother, a cultured, refined and gentle lady, versed in the arts and the literature. Naturally, a man brought up witnessing such delicate and superior manners and not mere gaudy in class but one, that comes truly and deeply from the soul of a noble character, would seek the company of a woman in equal if not better. Therein lies the dilemma as such fair women of noble characters are scarce and few, as society happens to turn most of them on their toes to duties and responsibilities, most becoming of a “woman”. GBS is asking us to elevate the status of the women from mere caregivers to one equal to the modern Englishman so that they become fitting as companion rather than housekeepers in their eyes.

Morality and the middle class: A picture of Mr. Doolittle

PICKERING: “Have you no morals, man?”
DOOLITTLE: “No, no, I can’t afford them, governor. Neither could you if you were as poor as me.”

This brief intercourse between Pickering and Doolittle, a common dustman, is rather instructive of Doolittle’s demeanour. He represents the wretched, ill-mouthed, and rough common man. Right after this dialogue, he engages in a nifty and eloquent persuasion monologue where he soundly (and impressively) convinces Higgins to pay five pounds for his daughter Eliza. But ironically, this intense repulsion towards what Doolittle calls “middle-class morality” bears little fruit as he himself is forced to accept middle-class morality. He quickly engages his oratory skills to good use at an opportune time and climbs the ladders of the social class. What does Shaw want to say? Perhaps he wants to indicate the possibility of how a man with little means can accrue wealth and status in time based on his skills. Or perhaps, he didn’t think this much and left Mr. Doolittle as a comical digression from the main concern.

A commentary on the namesake

It is unmistakable to miss the tribute of the play’s title to the Greek mythology of Pygmalion and Galatea. But although Pygmalion did fall in love with his creation, Shaw refused to let his creation be just a mere reiteration of the same old story. In this play, Mr. Higgins, harboring his intense hatred towards women (an indicator of the misogynistic society at that time), never falls in love, although he did admit to having “grown accustomed to her face”. And perhaps, the greatest triumph of Shaw in Pygmalion is the last couple of pages of Act 5 where, unlike her Greek counterpart, Eliza stands up for her rights and dignity, putting to good use the same lessons of articulation and speech that her teacher had taught her.

ELIZA: “I want a little kindness. I know I’m a common ignorant girl and you are a book-learned gentleman. But I’m not dirt under your feet.”

Shaw saw Eliza, not merely as another “live doll” to be manipulated by English men but as a tender and thoughtful independent woman. It is such a delight to read through Higgins and her conversation where she systematically dismantles the falsely assumed pedestal of Higgin’s English superiority and presents her concerns and demands to him. And I think Pygmalion is a brilliant play, if for nothing then just that.