Pygmalion Essay


Comedy has traditionally been viewed as being inferior to tragedy. Gallagher and Lundin, however, argue differently in LIterature Throught the Eyes of Faith. They contend that "By exposing our many limitations, the comic vision makes us laugh-but also think about our vices and excess, our finite human condition." (169) George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion reflects this vision by exposing the absurdity and senselessness of class hierarchy through wit and comedy. Shaw demonstrates the absurdity of a system based on such frivolous foundations as dialect, allowing his audiences to laugh at such a ridiculous, yet real, system. His audience laughs not only at the system presented to them on stage, but also at themselves for participating in such a system. Shaw uses Mr. Higgins' attitude toward people , and Eliza's character to demonstrate the absurdity of such a system.

Henry Higgins makes no reserves on how he treats people, despite their social status. He comes across as being blunt, even bordering rude, and slightly excentric with little reguard for anything which does not apply to his work. The attitude of Higgins' provides comical scenes, specifically in Act III. While the speech of all others present are 'sophisticated' and formal, Higgins is rather blunt and informal whether speaking to Eliza, Mrs. Eynsford Hill or Colonel Pickering. Higgins is indifferent to who he is speaking to, treating everyone present with the same level of respect desipte their status. "The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you have ever heard me treat anyone else better." (Shaw 67). Higgins' has no concern, or even no idea, of the emotional aspect of people, viewing them only as a mind without a body. His attitude towards this highlights his view that all minds have an equal opportunity for improvement, needing only the right education. Using Eliza's character to prove the senslessness of their social structure, Shaw employes Higgins to demonstrate that, since status is meaningless, everyone should be treated with equal respect (whether for better or for worse). "Shaw believed that to be significant, drama must lead the audience to right action." (Brockett and Findlay 53) Though Shaw is not suggesting to be rude to everyone, he is suggesting that the audience should follow Higgins' example in treating everyone with equal respect despite status. While the audience is laughing at Higgins' rude behavour, they are assessing their own behavours towards people, of how to act towards others to ensure they are not laughed at in the same way they are laughing at Higgins. By encouraging such a reaction, Shaw is "hold[ing] the mirror up to nature [the social heirarchy] and depict[ing] the vices and follies of man in order to reform the age." (Wilson 119). In this way, Shaw employs comedy to demonstrate the vices of class hierarchy, exposing its absurdity and senslessness. 

Eliza Doolittle's transformation from a lower-class flowergirl to a lady provides the strongest evidence for the absurdity of the social hierarchy. Through education, Eliza was able to rise above her status and better herself, proving that class is relative rather than inherent and that no one person is born superior to another. It is rather through such frivolous things as dialect, that class superiororty is determined, and how anyone, when given the means, is able to overcome their condition and better themselves. Within the ridiculous flowergirl presented in Act I, lay the potential to become a lady if only given the means, and while the audience laughs at Eliza, her antics, speech and actions, they see all members of the lowerclass in her. By the end of the play, however, though the audience is still laughing at Eliza, it is no longer Eliza the flowergirl but Eliza the lady. While the audience is laughing, they see the transformation of Eliza, and just as they saw the whole of the lower-class represented in the flowergirl, they see that class transforming as well. Eliza's character shows the audience that class qualities are not inherent, but rather learned, and the possibility of all people to learn these qualities. It is the way one is treated which determines their status, not their birth. "apart form the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves but how she's treated." (Shaw 63). When laughing at the treatment and scenarios of Eliza, they laugh at those who are treating her as such, and who are engaging in those scenarios with her. In those people however, the audience also sees themselves, and are largely laughing at themselves. Shaw, through the use of comedy, uses Eliza's character to dissolve stereotypes his audience may have had of the lower-class and to cause them to reasses their ideas and beliefs. "Through his plays Shaw sought to correct wrongheaded notions, shake prejudices and arouse skepticism." (Brockett and Findaly 53). Through the use of comedy and wit, Shaw uses Eliza's transformation to cause the audience to laugh at themselves enough to make them recognize at what, and at who the laughter is directed, and how truly absurd and sensless it really is.

As Gallagher and Lundin suggest, and Shaw attempts to prove in Pygmalion the comic vision as described in Literature Through The Eyes of Faith can be used to expose vice and folly, and set the stage for reform. Shaw uses wit and comedy to expose absurb and sensless class heirarchy, attempts to bring about change.