What is the Importance of Alfred Doolittle to Shaw's 'Pygmalion?'
What do you consider to be the importance of the role of Alfred Doolittle for the play as a whole? Alfred Doolittle is a working class dustman. He is Eliza's father and an important character to the theme of class distinction. To the original middle-class Edwardian audience, Doolittle would be a very representational working-class figure. His name alone, 'Doo-Little,' epitomises the stereotypical middle-class view of the working class man, who doesn't do as much as he could, therefore making him 'undeserving.' However, this view is challenged by Doolittle's pride in being one of these 'undeserving poor.' He says he 'means to go on being undeserving.' Doolittle takes this social stigma as a compliment, which would have shocked his audience, but also created humour. Doolittle's values in life would also have challenged the middle-class perception of the working classes. His attitude to marriage and sex would have shocked the audience. Doolittle says of his mistress, 'catch her marrying me!' His mistress will not marry Doolittle, because that would give him dominion over her. This challenged the middle class view that marriage before sex was the natural order of things. As Doolittle says to Pickering, 'it ain't the natural way; it's the middle class way.' In some ways, Doolittle confirms the social stereotype that the poor are undeserving because they are lazy. Doolittle
A View From The Bridge Essay
A View from the Bridge - How does Arthur Miller show tension escalating during Act 1? Tensions exist in families because of arguments and disagreements occurring between parents and their children especially teenagers, about boyfriends and the way they dress, which refers back to Eddie and Catherine Carbone's disagreement in the first scene when Eddie comments on Catharine's skirt. 'A View from the Bridge' was set in the 1950s in an Italian American neighbourhood under the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. The area, which the Carbone family lived in, was called 'Red Hook'. It is a poor place where crime, gangsters and the Mafia had been well known in recent history. Tension in the Carbone household is present right from the beginning of the play and the narrator, lawyer and family friend Alfieri warns the audience of a tragic ending in his opening speech. Alfieri also gives us some background information on the Carbone family and it sets a mood to the start of the scene. Alfieri introduces the play, narrates the story in flashback, focussing on key scenes, and then closes the play. Arthur Miller himself says, " I wanted to write a play that had the cleanliness... the clear line of some of the Greek tragedies." Meaning that the audience would be confronted with a situation and that the audience would be told in the beginning what the ending was. The question was not what was
