Compare the opening scene of Educating Rita to the opening scene of Pygmalion. Discuss the similarities and differences between Shaw's characterisation of Eliza and Higgins, and Willy Russell's characterisation of Frank and Rita

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Compare the opening scene of Educating Rita to the opening scene of Pygmalion. Discuss the similarities and differences between Shaw’s characterisation of Eliza and Higgins, and Willy Russell’s characterisation of Frank and Rita

These plays revolve around the theme of an upper class, well-educated man transforming a lower class woman into someone like himself. One is Pygmalion; a play set in the time when there was a very distinct class system and members of different classes avoided each other as much as possible. Educating Rita is set much more recently, when the classes mingled much more frequently and when the class system was much less distinct. However, the differences between Frank and Rita are still very apparent. Both of these are situations which could prove to be quite comical because of the culture clash. I am going to compare the opening scenes and explore the characterisation of the main characters.

In both plays, the teachers are reluctant to teach their pupils. Higgins is reluctant at the beginning of the scene to teach Liza, but towards the end, when he gets more excited about the challenge, he really wants to. This is different to Educating Rita, in which Frank is willing to teach Rita at the beginning of the scene, because he needs the money, but as he learns more and more about her, he becomes more and more reluctant. He realises that Rita wants to be more like him, but he doesn’t like what he is. He sees something in her that perhaps he wishes he was, or had.  He realises that it isn’t that great being an upper-middle class intellectual, and he doesn’t believe that it is worth the effort that Rita has to go through to be one. This is apparent later on in the play, in Act II Scene iv:

RITA                I’ve got a room full of books. I know what clothes to wear, what wine to buy, what play to see, what papers and books to read. I can do without you.

FRANK         Is that all you wanted? Have you come all this way for so very, very little?

Higgins is seen throughout the play as a very rude man, especially towards Eliza – referring to her as a “draggle-tailed guttersnipe”, and describing her as “so deliciously low – so horribly dirty”. He claims that he treats every one equally, perhaps as a way of justifying his treatment of her – “the great secret, Eliza, is not having good manners or bad manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls, in short, behaving as if you were in heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.” This theory would be fine IF Higgins himself lived by it. Henry Higgins, however, lives by many variations of this philosophy. It is easily seen how Higgins follows this theory. He is consistently rude towards Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and his mother. His manner is the same to each of them, in accordance to his philosophy. However the Higgins we see at the parties and in good times with Pickering is well mannered. This apparent discrepancy between Higgins' actions and his word may not exist, depending on the interpretation of this theory. There are two possible translations of Higgins' philosophy. It can be viewed as treating everyone the same all of the time or treating everyone equally at a particular time. It is obvious that Higgins does not treat everyone equally all of the time, as witnessed by his actions when he is in "one of his states" (as Mrs. Higgins' parlour maid calls it). The Higgins that we see in Mrs. Higgins' parlour is not the same Higgins we see at the parties. When in "the state" Henry Higgins wanders aimlessly around the parlour, irrationally moving from chair to chair, highly unlike the calm Professor Higgins we see at the ball. Higgins does not believe that a person should have the same manner towards everyone all of the time, but that a person should treat everyone equally at a given time (or in a certain situation). When he is in "one of those states" his manner is the same towards everyone; he is equally rude and disrespectful to all. Yet when minding his manners, as he does at the parties, he can be a gentleman. If the second meaning of Higgins' theory, that he treats everyone equally at a particular time, is taken as his philosophy, there is one major flaw. Higgins never respects Eliza, no matter who is around. In Act V of Pygmalion, Eliza confronts him about his manner towards her. "He (Pickering) treats a flower girl as a duchess." Higgins, replying to Eliza, "And I treat a duchess as a flower girl." In an attempt to justify this Higgins replies "The question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone else better."                

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In many cases in Act II, he speaks about Eliza as if she isn’t there: “Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down, or shall we throw her out of the window?”. When he does, he is very brusque and dismissive: “Somebody is going to touch you, with a broomstick, if you don’t stop snivelling. Sit down.” He probably does this because he is just a rude man, but it is also because he is a member of the upper class and regards the lower class as worthless. She is also a woman, which gives him another excuse ...

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