Transcript Pygmalion Outline - Willis High School

Pygmalion Outline
You will need a sheet of notebook paper.
Use the book to create an outline for
the Preface of Pygmalion by George
Bernard Shaw. Key words have been
provided to guide the process.
I. English have
A. They cannot
1. consequently
B. European languages
1. we need
II. Heroes for many years past*
A. Alexander Bell*
1.
B. Alexander Ellis*
1.
C. Tito Pagliardini*
1.
D. Joseph Chamberlin*
1.
III. Current Shorthand*
A. It can express every sound
1. vowels
2. your hand
3. scribbling them
IV. Higgins is not
A. I think Oxford
1. I know how hard it is
2. who keep all
3. he cannot expect
V. Pygmalion has been
A. on stage and
B. All over
C. It is
D. Great art
VI. For the encouragement of people
A. The change wrought
1. thousands of
2. an honest slum dialect
3. imitation will
Shorthand
Example
As we read, remember…
Accents in England often indicate social class. At
the time in which Pygmalion is set, the upper
class spoke with an accent sometimes called the
Queen’s English to suggest its formality and
propriety. Eliza Doolittle and her father speak
cockney, a dialect spoken in working-class
neighborhoods in the East End of London.
Directions for act questions
Act One
1. What tensions already show in the relations between the Mother (later
named as Mrs. Eynsford Hill), the Daughter (later named as Clara), and
the son, Freddy?
2. Shaw's Preface indicates enthusiasm for phonetics, but what "dark
side" might we infer from the opening scene in which everyone
misconstrues Henry Higgins' motives for taking down Eliza the Flower
Girl's speech?
3. What coincidences in the first act seem likely to structure the rest of
the play?
Act Two
4. Why does Eliza want to improve her speaking skills and lose her accent?
What does she expect to gain?
5. What concerns do Colonel Pickering and Mrs. Pearce (Higgins'
housekeeper) raise about Higgins' scheme to educate Eliza? How does he
respond to their concerns?
6. How does Higgins treat Eliza and her desire for education? Discuss a few
instances--what assumptions does he make about her, and why do you think
he makes them?
7. How would you sum up the creed of Eliza's father, the dustman Alfred
Doolittle? What does he have against "middle-class morality," and why?
Act Three
8. Shaw offers rather full stage descriptions and directions and includes a long explantion
about Henry Higgins' personality. What do you think he is up to by all the references to
William Morris decorations? And why provide an account of a character's personality
when, in most plays at least, we get a sense of that from the events and dialogue of the
play?
9. How does Clara take Eliza's incredible attempt to "talk proper" during an accidental
meeting with the Hills at Mrs. Higgins' "at home" social occasion? How do Freddy and
Mrs. Eynsford Hill interpret Eliza's performance?
10. What do you think of Higgins' relationship with his mother, as it is developed in this
third act? And how does she view her son's scientific experiment with Eliza?
11. What do you think of Higgin's own attitude towards his experiment with Eliza, up to
this point in the play? What does he reveal towards the end of the third act?
Act Four
12. In the 1930's film production we plan to watch, we actually see Eliza dazzle the
audience at a big party, and pass herself off as royalty. In the play, we don't see her
performance. What difference does the change make, if any?
13. What does Higgins say he has accomplished when Eliza succeeds? What does
Pickering apparently think has been accomplished?
14. Why is Eliza so distraught at after the party? What cogent criticism of Higgins
and his ideas about class and language does she offer in this fourth act?
Act Five
15. Higgins boasted earlier in the play that he would be able to transform Eliza's very
being and make her anything he wanted. Judging from this fifth act, would you say he
was right or wrong? Is Eliza still the "Eliza" we met at the beginning, or is she another
person altogether? Explain.
16. How does Alfred Doolittle's transformation into a married gentleman reflect on the
exploration of class and linguistic variety we find in Pygmalion as a whole? What lesson
are we supposed to learn from what happens to him?
How to make your character book
Materials:
a sheet of paper, scissors, your hands, a brain
Directions:
 Fold paper
 Unfold paper
 Cut paper
 Fold paper
again…
Like this
What to put in your book
(front pages only)
PAGE 1- Eliza Doolittle (the flower girl in Act I), a cockney flower
seller. Eliza dreams of a better life and sets out to improve her lot by
taking the speech lessons that Henry Higgins boasts about.
PAGE 3- Henry Higgins (the note taker in Act I), a phonetician and
professor of linguistics. Higgins calls himself an expert in “the science
of speech.” He boasts that by giving Eliza speech lessons, he could
pass her off as a duchess.
PAGE 5- Colonel Pickering (the gentleman in Act I), an expert in
Indian dialects. Pickering takes Higgins up on his boast that he could
pass Eliza off as a duchess after six months of lessons.
PAGE 7- Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s father; a dustman. Doolittle’s life is
changed when he comes into money and feels impelled to join the
middle class. Shaw uses him as a comic mouthpiece for many of his
own ideas about “middle class morality.”