After reading Pygmalion Act I, I realize that the social classes were even worse in the time period than it is in present time. “She is no doubt as clean as she could afford to be; but compared to the ladies she was very dirty.” Not only did the lower class people get looked down on by the upper class citizens, but they had such little money, they couldn’t even afford to be clean. Today, the lower class can afford to be clean, except for the small percentage that is homeless. So in the time that Pygmalion takes place, the homeless people make up more of the population than the homeless do now. Instead of blended lines between classes, there were huge gaps and even if you were in a lower class and received money, you couldn’t break into another class. Also, after reading Act I, I realized that Pygmalion is the play they put on in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen. In the last chat session, it was said that Pygmalion is the back-story of My Fair Lady.
I can’t believe that Eliza was sold to Mr. Higgins for 5 pounds. This whole bet that Higgins and Pickering had going on is kind of cliché. “Well, sir, in three months I could pass this girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party” They didn’t even ask her if she wanted to join. It’s just like in the movie She’s All That. The guys don’t even ask her if she wants to be changed into the prom queen. They just assume that teens want to be popular, however, some teens are just fine being a nerd or band geek. Throughout the bet and ‘experiment’ they still treat Eliza like a lowly flower girl and not like the lady she is turning into. The way they treated her easily explains why she flipped out and threw her slippers at Higgins.
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2 comments:
Jennifer,
Very nice job in this post. I like very much the way you connect this play to more recent films, and use the connection to ask some interesting questions about this play's depiction and treatment of Eliza. Nice work!
You make a good point about how the men don't treat Eliza like a lady and yet they expect her to be one. I hadn't ever really thought about how the way they treat her will ultimately hinder her transformation, and I don't think they did either. Now it makes complete sense that if they wanted her to change they had to treat her like a different woman. You did good job, especially pointing out how several movies have been made based on this cliche, including "Pretty Woman." Why do you think the movie makers chose to have the two fall in love in each of these adaptations?
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