1

DRAMA II
MODERN DRAMA

Lecture 21
 SYNOPSIS
2

1. A Conclusive Talk
2. George Bernard Shaw
3. The Myth Behind the Play
4. Contextual Background
5. George Bernard Shaws Philosophy
6. Plot Overview
7. Characters, Role, Relationship, Conflicts &
Significance
8. Themes and the major Conflicts
 3

George Bernard Shaw

PYGMALION
 A Conclusive Talk
4 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 14

Waiting for Godot By Samuel Beckett

3. Samuel Becketts Biography
An Overview of Waiting for Godot
4. Characters in the Play
Setting of the Play
Becketts Theatrical Concept and Style
 A Conclusive Talk
5 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 15

SUMMARY: Waiting for Godot

2. Summary and Analysis
Act I: Introduction & Pozzo and Lucky's Entrance
Act II: Introduction & Pozzo and Lucky's Entrance
3. Discussion Questions / Aspects to be analyzed
 A Conclusive Talk
6 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 16

SUMMARY: Waiting for Godot (Conti)

2. Summary and Analysis
Act I: Introduction & Pozzo and Lucky's Entrance
Act II: Introduction & Pozzo and Lucky's Entrance
3. Discussion Questions / Aspects to be analyzed
 A Conclusive Talk
7 Waiting for Godot
Lecture 17

Absurdist Drama
Dialogue and Language/Humor
of Absurdist Drama
Plot & Structure of Absurdist Drama
THEMES in Waiting for Godot
Aspects to Consider
 A Conclusive Talk
8 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 18

1. Waiting for Godot Symbolism, Imagery & Allegory

2. Setting
3. Waiting for Godot Genre, TONE, STYLE & Title
4. Waiting for Godot as Bookers Seven Basic Plots Analysis:
Tragedy Plot
5. Social Acceptance of Waiting for Godot
Critical Analysis
 A Conclusive Talk
9 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 19

An Introduction to
1. Philosophical Background of Waiting for Godot
Theatre of Absurd
Existentialism
The Paradox of Consciousness
2. Becket: Critical Analysis (Analytical Mapping)
Characters
 A Conclusive Talk
10 Waiting for Godot

Lecture 20
. Analytical Mapping: Social Significance
2. Philosophical Background: Themes
A. Social
B. Psychological
C. Religious
3. Dramatic references: Themes
 George Bernard Shaw
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George Bernard Shaw (1856-

1950) was the third and
youngest child (and only son) of
George Carr Shaw and Lucinda
Elizabeth Gurly Shaw.
Technically, he belonged to the
Protestant ascendancythe
landed Irish gentrybut his
impractical father was first a
sinecured civil servant and then an
unsuccessful grain merchant
 George Bernard Shaw
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George Bernard grew up in an atmosphere of

genteel poverty, which to him was more
humiliating than being merely poor
 George Bernard Shaw
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Another historical point that may have some

importance is that in 1872 his mother left her
husband and took her two daughters to
London, following her music teacher, George
John Vandeleur Lee, who from 1866 had shared
households in Dublin with the Shaws.
Whatever we may feel about this, it shows him
close to an exceptionally independent woman
 George Bernard Shaw
14

In 1876 Shaw resolved to become a writer, and

he joined his mother and elder sister (the
younger one having died) in London. Shaw in
his 20s suffered continuous frustration and
poverty.
He depended upon his mother's pound a week
from her husband and her earnings as a music
teacher.
 George Bernard Shaw
15

He spent his afternoons in the British Museum reading

room, writing novels and reading what he had missed at
school, and his evenings in search of additional self
education in the lectures and debates that characterized
contemporary middle-class London intellectual activities.

His fiction failed utterly. The semiautobiographical and aptly

titled Immaturity (1879; published 1930) repelled
every publisher in London.
 George Bernard Shaw
16

His next four novels were similarly refused, as were

most of the articles he submitted to the press for a
decade.
Shaw's initial literary work earned him less than 10
shillings a year. A fragment posthumously published
as An Unfinished Novel in 1958 (but written 1887
88) was his final false start in fiction.
Despite his failure as a novelist in the 1880s, Shaw
found himself during this decade. He became a
vegetarian, a socialist, a spellbinding orator, a
polemicist, and tentatively a playwright
 George Bernard Shaw
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Before long, Shaw had become one of the most

sought-after public speakers in England. He
argued in his pamphlets in favor of equality of
income and advocated the equitable division of
land and capital. He believed that property was
"theft" and felt, like Karl Marx, that capitalism
was deeply flawed and was unlikely to last.
Unlike Marx, however, Shaw favored gradual

reform over revolution. And there we see Alfred

Doolittle, common dustman.
 George Bernard Shaw
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In one pamphlet written in 1897, he predicted that socialism

"will come by prosaic installments of public regulation and
public administration enacted by ordinary parliaments,
vestries, municipalities, parish councils, school boards, etc."
 George Bernard Shaw
19

In 1892, Shaw wrote his first play, Widowers'

Houses, about the evils of slumlords. The play was
attacked savagely by people who opposed his
politics.
It was then that Shaw knew he was a good
playwright--he must have been to have upset so
many people with his social commentary.
He went on to revolutionize the English theater by
concentrating his writing on various social issues at
a time when most other playwrights were writing
"sentimental pap."
 20

The Myth Behind the Play

PYGMALION
 The Myth Behind the Play
21

There is never any overt reference in the play to Pygmalion;

Shaw assumes a classical understanding.
According to the Mythology Guide Pygmalion saw so much
to blame in women that he came at last to abhor the relation
with them, and resolved to live unmarried. He was a sculptor,
and had made with wonderful skill a statue of ivory, so
beautiful that no living woman could be compared to it in
beauty.
It was indeed the perfect sem-blance of a maiden that seemed
to be alive, and only prevented from moving by modesty. His
art was so perfect that it concealed itself, and its product
looked like the
workmanship of nature.
 The Myth Behind the Play
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Pygmalion admired his own work, and at last fell in love

with the counter-feit creation. Oftentimes he laid his hand
upon it, as if to assure himself whether it were living or not,
and could not even then believe that it was only ivory.
The festival of Venus was at hand, a festival celebrated with
great pomp at Cyprus. Victims were offered, the altars
smoked,and the odor of incense filled the air.
When Pygmalion had performed his part in the solemnities,
he stood before the altar and timidly said, "Ye gods, who
can do all things, give me, I pray you, for my wife" he dared
not say "my ivory virgin," but said instead "one like my
ivory virgin." Venus, who was present at the festival, heard
him
 The Myth Behind the Play
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While he stands astonished and glad, though

doubting, and fears he may be mistaken, again
and again with a lover's ardor he touches the
object of his hopes.
It was indeed alive! The veins when pressed

yielded to the finger and then

resumed their roundness. Then at last the
votary of Venus found words to thank the
goddess, and pressed his lips upon lips as real
as his own.
 The Play Itself: PYGMALION
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One of the most popular plays of Bernard Shaw,

first performed in 1913 in Vienna and published
and performed in London in 1916.
 Is it a Romance?
25

Shaw says NO!

The Text says Yes!
 26

Contextual Background

PYGMALION
 Pygmalion: Background
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Pygmalion is set in London, England, around the

beginning of the twentieth century.
 Pygmalion: Background
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During this time in London, working-class people

like Eliza Doolittle

lived in slums
had no heat or hot water
had to put coins in a
meter to get electric light
 Pygmalion: Background
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The class structure in England at this time was

very rigid.

upper class

middle class

working class
 Pygmalion: Background
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The government did provide some schooling.

However, an education did

not teach the proper speech
that was considered a sign
of the upper class.
 Pygmalion: Background
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The way that many working-class people spoke

was an obstacle to their becoming middle class.
 Pygmalion: Background
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In Greek mythology,
Pygmalion was a gifted,
young sculptor who
resolved never to marry.
 Pygmalion: Background
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But after Pygmalion created a statue of a beautiful

woman, he fell in love with the statue.

Miserable because he loved a lifeless object, he

appealed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
 Pygmalion: Background
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Sympathetic to the young artists

plight, Aphrodite turned the
statue into a live woman.

Pygmalion named the beautiful maiden Galatea,

and the two were married.
 35

George Bernard Shaws Philosophy

PYGMALION
 George Bernard Shaw
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I must warn my
readers that my
attacks are
directed against
themselves, not
against my stage
figures.
-Shaw
 George Bernard Shaw
37

Shaw wanted to force his viewers to

face the reality of unpleasant
events.
He promoted the unpleasant plays by
publishing a long preface in which he
could argue his views.
Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature in 1925.
He continued to write until he was 94.
 In turn,
38 this
Likewise, how we behave affects
impacts what people think how
about us. others
behave
towards
us.

What we believe influences how

we behave

Ultimately, how they

behave towards us
reinforces what we believed
about ourselves in the first
place

http://www.meghanwilliams.com/ugb.html
 39

Plot Overview

PYGMALION
 Pygmalion: Introduction
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In this play, George Bernard Shaw uses humor and

lively characterization to explore how

language,
class structure,
education,
and gender

influence how people are seen by society.

 Pygmalion: Introduction
41

The two main characters are

Eliza Doolittlea poor
but proud flower girl
with a cockney accent
a way of speaking
associated with the
working classes.

Henry Higginsan
arrogant and insensitive
linguistics professor
 Pygmalion: Introduction
42

Eliza comes to Higginss house to

ask him to give her speech lessons.

She wants to learn to speak properly so that she

can get a job in a flower shop instead of selling
flowers on the street.
 Pygmalion: Introduction
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Higgins decides to take the girl on as a

professional challenge.

He boasts to his associate

Colonel Pickering that with six
months of lessons, Eliza could
be passed off as a duchess.
 Pygmalion: Introduction
44

Higgins has Eliza move into his home.

With the help of Pickering and the housekeeper,

Mrs. Pearce, he teaches Eliza the proper speech
and manners of the upper class.
 Pygmalion: Introduction
45

Although Eliza wants to learn,

there is tension between her
and Higgins.
She also wants to be treated
with respectas a person.

Higgins, however, persists in

treating her as a project and an
object.
 Pygmalion: Introduction
46

Will Eliza and Henry Higgins become

friends, or will their differences drive
them apart?
If Higginss experiment
succeeds, where will
Eliza go from there?

Will learning to speak like

a duchess allow her to
live like one?
 47

A Look at the Play

Characters, Role, Relationship, Conflicts &

Significance
 Eliza Doolittle
48
 Mr. Higgins
49
 Col. Pickering
50
 Mrs. Pearce
51
 Freddy Hill
52
 53

Class Representation

PYGMALION
 impatient, rude, confident,
54 superior, self-important

kind, polite, generous,

enthusiastic, eager, confident

anxious, eager, emotional,

ambitious, unsure
Character Position Evidence in the play
in society
Behaviour:
respectful to people
of higher class
Lower
Eliza
class Language: calls
gentleman sir and
capin (or captain)
which is a
compliment 55
Character Position Evidence in the play
in society
Behaviour: rude (and
patronizing) to lower
class; polite to same
Henry Middle or upper class
Higgins class Language: calls Eliza
you silly girl and
Pickering my dear
man (an equal and
friend) 56
 57
Character Position Evidence in the play
in society
Behaviour: generally
confident and polite;
but ignores Eliza
Colonel Upper
Pickering Language: prepared
class to begin a
conversation with
Henry, whom he does
not know; generous
with praise to him
 Words to know
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Phonetics
Dialect
Cockney
Dramatist
Fin de siecle
Social satire
Aestheticism
Fabian society
Shavian
Naturalism
Fabian Society
 59

Themes and the Major Conflicts

PYGMALION
 Major Conflicts
60
 Major Conflicts
61 1. Status Divide
The nature of class structure

Upper Class: Higgins, Col. Pickering, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs.

Clair and Freddy Eynsford Hill.
Middle Class: Mrs. Pierce She does not, however,
represent middle-class morality alone. In many ways that
is also a quality of Higgins and Col. Pickerings class.
Lower Working Class: Eliza, Alfred Doolittle and his
never seen but often heard about wife. and Elizas step-
mother.
 Major Conflicts
62 1. Status Divide
A vast gulf between the poor and even
the lower upper class.
Higgins cast-off change is a fortune
to Eliza who assumes later that he must
have been drunk.
Elizas belief that riding in a taxi is the
ultimate badge of upper class quality of
life.
 Major Conflicts
63 2. Gender Relations/Differences

The relationship between genders

No, no, no, you two infinitely stupid male creatures!
 Major Conflicts
64 2. Gender Relations/Differences
Gender Differences
Neither Col. Pickering nor Henry Higgins have a
clue about the situation they are putting Eliza or
themselves into.
Mrs. Pierce recognizes that Higgins is immorally
using the power granted him by his patriarchal
culture to pressure Eliza, a presser which if she
gives in could lead her to a life of wickedness.
 Major Conflicts
65 3. Self-consciousness

Self Perception
Elizas sense of worth
She is infected with the lie.
 Major Conflicts
3. Self-consciousness
66

Eliza learns that women in the upper classes in fact

do not have the independence that women of the
lower classes do. They must be connected to a man
in some way to be respectable within middle-class
morality.
Eliza rejects being a gold-digger and Higgins
rejects female puppy-dog tricks.
Only a working skill frees Eliza.
 Major Conflicts
67 3. Self-consciousness
Eliza has a powerful sense of her value: Im a
good girl I am! Therefore she will never become
a kept woman.
She has ambition willing to give up two thirds of
her daily income to improve herself.
But she is infected with class-prejudice
Put the girls in their place just a bit
Youre going to allow yourself to marry that low born
woman?
 Major Conflicts
4. Social Snobbery
68

Elizas Struggle
To work at a flower-shop
She is infected by social snobbery herself.
Discovers that a rise in culture means a loss of
independence (as does her step-mother).
Eventually achieves independence.

Probably the most Important conflict in the play: the class

system is Elizas primary antagonist
 69

Review

PYGMALION
 Review Lecture 21
70

1. George Bernard Shaw

2. The Myth Behind the Play
3. Contextual Background
4. George Bernard Shaws Philosophy
5. Plot Overview
6. Characters, Role, Relationship, Conflicts
& Significance
7. Themes and the major Conflicts