"Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw. What are some central themes of the play? List a few and explain at least two in detail.

Another important theme in the book is Gentility and Manners, as in every society those two aspects are overlooked by some people and they take it very seriously, the atmosphere in the book is no exception. Since Shaw is a socialist author, manners were no importance to him because it divided the classes and this is demonstrated, in the book, by Professor Higgins, who has the tendency to treat everyone like dirt, no matter to what social class this person belongs to he treats him the same way. “LIZA. I know. I am not blaming him. It is his way, isn’t it? But it made such a difference to me that you didn’t do it. You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and soon), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” This example is important since Shaw describes the difference of good mannered people and bad mannered and how it has an effect on people. Liza was not happy at Higgins because the way that he treated her from the beginning, with Pickering it is another different story since he did have good manners and was a gentleman with her from the first day he met her.

Finally the last central theme is myths of creation. Pygmalion was a famous sculpture artist that created a woman’s statue from which he fall in love with. In the play, Galatea, which is the creation of Pygmalion, is represented by Eliza and Pygmalion is Professor Higgins. "You have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul." This is an example of change and creation in a way. Professor Higgins takes the challenge in creating another class type woman which is quite an achievement and his cockiness reminds us how successful he was when Eliza went to the dance party and shocked everyone. Compared to the myth it is quite different because towards the end of the book Eliza does not fall in love with Higgins, not that we know of but she does develop affection towards him.

In conclusion I can say that the themes of the play relate with the real life of Britain in those days and it is a reflection of it. The way that Bernard Shaw demonstrates how society was in those days with the class borders and the different kind of people clearly showed us that people really cared about what other people thought of them back in the day. The main themes of the play due involve all of the characters and how different they are, in the different scenarios of the play.