Pygmalion Blog 2

I like the non-traditional way Shaw dramatically ends Pygmalion, moving away from the typical “fairly tale” ending one sees with the original Pygmalion myth. Eliza doesn’t need to follow some literary formula by marrying Higgins. It is an especially poetic ending because of Higgins’s comment that, “You will jolly soon see whether she has an idea that I havnt put into her head or a word that I havnt put into her mouth” (Shaw, act 5, page 93). Eliza shows she is a human being who can make decisions on her own.

I was amused by Higgins and Pickering when they arrived at Mrs. Higgins’s house in a state of bewilderment at the beginning of act 5. Although his mother said there would be problems with his experiment, Higgins just shrugged her warning off and continued on with it. Now, though, he all of a sudden needs her help. Pickering made a humorous comment about the policeman helping in the search for Eliza: “The inspector made a lot of difficulties. I really think he suspected us of some improper purpose” (Shaw, act 5, page 86). Pickering says this comment as if the policeman were nosily interfering with them, when that’s the policeman’s job—to make sure nothing illegal is going on, like them owning Eliza like she is, as Mrs. Higgins says, “a lost umbrella” (Shaw, act 5, page 86).

I was also amused by Higgins’s little rant directed at Eliza at the end of the play about the sort of life she wants to have. The phrase he ended this rant with especially amused me: “If you cant appreciate what youve got, youd better get what you can appreciate” (Shaw, act 5, page 103). It sounds like one of those Yogi Berra-isms, where it seems to make little sense. No matter how much Higgins rambles, though, Eliza is resolute in her judgment of him and does not bend to his will, showing she has finally overcome the power of his words.