How and to what effect does the use of language empower Higgins and transform Eliza in G.B. Shaws Pygmalion?

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Extended Essay

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How and to what effect does the use of language empower Higgins and transform Eliza in G.B. Shaw’s Pygmalion

Content

  • Title page…………………………………………………1
  • Content……………………………………………………2
  • Abstract…………………………………………………...3
  • Introduction……………………………………………….4
  • Social Class Distinction…………………………………..4
  • Gender Inequality ……………………………………..…9
  • Conclusion……………………………………………….15
  • Bibliography……………………………………………...17

Abstract:

While reading Pygmalion, I was fascinated by the intricate details of language and how it affected the identity of Eliza. Realizing that language and identity were somehow connected in Pygmalion, I dove deeper into this issue and researched the effect of language on the social identities of Eliza and Henry Higgins. Keeping all this in mind, I came to formulate the research question “How and to what effect does the use of language empower Higgins and transform Eliza?”

 Shaw felt that the only way to improve ones position in society was by improving their language. He was determined to raise the social consciousness of his audience while emphasizing the use of language. Shaw portrays this through Higgins and Eliza in Pygmalion who are at the opposite ends of society. This essay is a development of Shaw’s frame of thought.

This essay is divided into two sections where each will be analyzing an area of inequality that set back England’s progression in Shaw’s view.

The first section focuses on the social class distinction; Shaw tries to highlight the use of language. In his perception, the language that the two characters used defined their identities. I will be arguing that the language doesn’t define their identities but rather steals it away.

The second section focuses on gender inequality and how according to Shaw, the improvement of education and language would reduce the gender inequality. I would then argue that language doesn’t hold a connection to the gender inequality in the society. Rather, language is only used to demoralize Eliza. I will also be stressing the fact that as a well refined lady, Eliza faces an identity crisis and more gender inequality than she did living on the streets as a common girl.

Introduction

In G.B Shaw’s comedy of purpose Pygmalion, language is seen as an effective tool of social power which imposes hierarchy on society. Shaw believed that language causes social inclusion and exclusion and this Edwardian mannerism and prejudice finds expression in the social, educational and gender injustice of his times. Shaw ridicules these aspects of the society he lived in. He felt it necessary to highlight these three aspects and awaken the social consciousness of his audiences. Vesonder rightly observes “Even a superficial examination of Pygmalion will show that the main focus of the play is not erotic involvement but the power of language…” Even though learning English for Eliza is like learning a whole new language, this education, helps in emancipating and finding a new identity for her . On the contrary, Higgins is already empowered with a strong sense of self identity due to his use of language and education. Shaw critiques how language acts as a determinant of not only social status but also social acceptability. It’s ironic how this division of social inequality is mirrored by Henry Higgins who in transforming Eliza is given great social significance. Social judgment based on linguistics is evident in the way Eliza speaks and immediately Higgins places her in a lower social position than his and considers her as an inferior. Thus we see how Shaw critiques social discourse, nature of inequality in itself and the superficial issues of his time. This essay is an attempt to discuss how on one hand the empowered use of language corrupts Higgins and on the other compromises Eliza’s identity in her journey to transform herself.

Social Class Distinction

Shaw displays disparity among people in terms of their appearance and specifically in terms of their language. In the Preface, Shaw enthusiastically applauds the new scientific approach to language by phoneticians, "if only because it raised pronunciation above the intense self-consciousness and class snobbery which had always bedeviled the subject in England" Bernard Shaw, signifies that it is language alone that makes the difference between a flower girl and a duchess, therefore endowing “this action line with a fine satiric thrust at the basic artificiality of social ranking” At the very beginning of the play, Shaw presents us with a stratified society in which linguistic competence is one of the indicators of social status.

When Mrs. Eynsford Hill asks Eliza how she knew her son Freddy, Eliza responds: "Ow, eez ye-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y' de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel's flahrzn than ran awy athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f' them?” Here, with apologies, this desperate attempt to represent her dialect without a phonetic alphabet must be discarded as unintelligible outside London. Shaw tries to use this not only as an indicator of the different societies that Eliza and Mrs. Eynsoford Hill live in, but also tries to portray the changes in character when these people from different classes interact.

This non-standard and ungrammatical speech clearly manifests that Eliza lacks linguistic competence. Through Eliza's poor articulation and social grace, Bernard Shaw also tries to criticize the vulgarity of lower class language. Shaw's parenthetical comment on Eliza's speech stresses his distaste for the cockney accent.

The importance of language is further brought into view when Eliza comes across Professor Higgins in the street, a proud phonetician, who can distinguish everybody's origin from his/her accent. He tells her:

“Woman: cease this detestable boohooing instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship.... A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere-no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulating speech: that your native language is of Shakespeare and Milton and the Bible: and don't sit here crooning like a bilious pig.”

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The cockney accent is one of the main determiners for her class. Eliza being told that she has no right to live because of her colloquial accent shows that she doesn’t possess power of being able to feel confident and stand up for herself against such crude remarks.

Shaw cleverly uses the vulgarity of specific dialect to criticize the lower class and also the superficiality of upper class. Higgins, belonging to the higher society was an altogether diverse man. He was a “gentleman” who wore gentlemanly “be-oots” (boots). He could talk in fine, sophisticated, Standard English with clear and flawless pronunciation ...

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