The division of society in Pygmalion

A detailed Summary of The division of society in Pygmalion

Since almost the beginning of civilisation, people have been divided into social classes. There was always an upper class; rich, powerful and in control. Then there was a middle class; less comfortably off than the upper class, and certainly less powerful, but respected nonetheless. Last of all (and usually least) the lower working class making up the majority of people, rarely having the necessities of life and never considered by other classes no matter how long or hard they worked on improving their situation. In the following essay, I will discuss whether George Bernard Shaw agreed with this distinction and division of society and how he exhibited his views through his renowned play "Pygmalion".

Throughout the play, ladies and gentleman are continuously recognised for who they are through four factors: how they are dressed, their manners, how they speak and their money. It is however noticeable that a combination of all four factors is rarely to be found. For instance Henry Higgins, although well - dressed, well spoken and with money, has manners which could not be characterised as genteel. Alfred Doolittle (after acquiring some money) is well dressed, has some form of manners and could be classified as rich, yet is not wel

"Really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick (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 is treated... I learnt really nice manners and that's what makes one a lady."

The appearance of Doolittle is taken into main consideration when it comes to deciding what class he belongs to. The question is the raised, what separates the classes really, if clothing can do so much for how someone is perceived. Apart from the way people dress, they are also defined by the way they speak. In Pygmalion the way people converse is a very important part of the play, not least because the structure of it is based on the fact that Eliza can't speak "properly" and Higgins can teach he how. It was obviously considerably important to speak well at that time, which is emphasised by Shaw over and over again. The play even starts with Higgins criticising the way that Eliza speaks, because it is not only up to standard compared to "proper" English it will also resultantly keep her in the gutter for the rest of her days. He expresses that he could teach even someone with such dreadful pronunciation within 3 - 6 months, this already means that whether you can speak adequately or not doesn't actually mean anything, if you can be taught how to in such a short period of time. Noticeably Shaw doesn't make it a must to speak correctly, this is probably for the reason that a lady or gentleman, although would preferably

Some common words found in the essay are:
Noticeably Shaw, Dustman Oh, Alfred Doolittle, , Bly Eliza, Bystander E's, Pygmalion Throughout, Wimpole St, Bernard Shaw, Henry Higgins, upper class, lady gentleman, lower class, own daughter, class class, alfred doolittle,

Approximate Word count = 1011
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English