Shaw questions the defining criteria of what constitutes a gentleman through the character of Higgins. It is obvious that Higgins's manners are not much better than those of the Covent Garden flower girl. The fact that such an ill- mannered person is accepted by society as a "gentleman" provides Shaw with an opportunity to expose the shallowness and hypocrisy of such a society.
Shaw was a feminist and uses Higgins to highlight the chauvinistic qualities that most men possessed at that time. Higgins bullies Eliza into submission and is not shy about doing so in company, calling her a ‘squashed cabbage leaf' (Shaw pg18), he also humiliates her, ‘A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere' (Shaw pg18). Higgins strips Eliza of her own identity, providing her with new clothing and destroying her own items but Eliza uses all of this to her advantage and is a good student for the professor.
The constant intimidation from Higgins creates a great deal of tension culminating with an action that surmises Shaw's opinion of the oppression of women. During an argument in Act Four, after Eliza hears Higgins explain that he is glad the experiment is over because ‘the whole thing has been a bore' (Shaw pg75) she throws Higgins' slippers at him and this reflects Shaw's defiance of the male expectation that women should look after men, bringing their slippers to them at the end of the day.
Perhaps the most striking part of this supposedly ‘romantic' text is that the hero and heroine part company at the end. This is because Shaw did not want the traditional ‘Cinderella' ending to the story as feminists see marriage as a completely patriarchal institution that further dominates women. If Eliza had married Higgins, he would probably have expected her to play the part of the doting wife but Eliza has transformed herself from a helpless girl to a very independent woman and does not wish for this kind of life. Her alternative, Freddy, although perhaps a little dim for Eliza, is kind and would not treat her as subordinate.
In Euripides play, the main character has already undergone a transformation but this time she has changed from being Medea, the queen and mother, instead taking on a more masculine and at times, an extremely ‘barbaric' role. The play begins with Medea's nurse setting the scene and introducing the main topic running through the play, the oppression of women in society. The nurse explains the betrayal of Medea by her husband Jason and brings to light the feelings that Medea is experiencing, ‘scorned and shamed' (line 19) and forecasting that a brutal act is to follow, ‘I am afraid/Some dreadful purpose is forming in her mind' (lines 36-37).
Medea has realised that the roles for women in society at that time are oppressive and this is seen in her speech to the Women of Corinth, ‘When…we have bought a husband we must accept him as/Possessor of our body' (lines 31-33), she scorns men for thinking they are brave for going out to battle and compares this to child birth ‘I'd rather stand three times in the front line than bear/One child' (line 285).
The act of adultery by Jason has made her aware of the differences in the values of marriage that men and women hold ‘For women, divorce is not/Respectable…If a man grows tired/Of the company at home, he can go out, and find/A cure for tediousness' (lines 235 and 245) and so she begins to plot her revenge, this being a typically male attitude of the Athenians. She plots to show Jason that women do not always have to be passive and that she herself is not weak by murdering his new bride and her father.
This revengeful tactic is followed by her total rejection of the ultimate feminine role: motherhood. However, the act of infanticide is implicated not so much as an act of revenge but in her eyes it is the best thing that she can do for her children, ‘now my course is clear: as quickly as possible/To kill the children…not delay and so consign them to another hand/To murder with a better will. For they must die/In any case; and since they must, then I who gave/Them birth will kill them' (line 1233ff).
Jason insists on his male roles until the end of the play, pleading with Medea that she will allow him his paternal rites of burying the children but again she takes on this task herself, emphasising to Jason how important vows are and that he has to endure the heartache that she has encountered since he married Glauce.
The Chorus act as a moral voice throughout the play. However, as women, they also sympathise with Medea's situation and offer her support. This seems to show a kind of female loyalty in a play that concerns itself mainly with male attitude and characteristics.
Euripides’ portrayal of manliness could be read as a reaction to the Aristophanic way of depicting masculinity and misogynist jokes on stage. Euripides’ men may be reliable sources for any inferences about masculinities in the Athenian public. If there is a loss of typical spheres of manliness such as heterosexual oppression, political conviction or successful fights in the years between 411 and 408, Euripides certainly is the poet who can aptly describe this loss and create the narrative and public space for the “new” man.
In both Pygmalion and Medea, the playwrights express their beliefs and opinion through their main characters, but in opposite ways. Shaw represents through his characters many of the contrasting attributes traditionally assigned to men and women and challenges these. It is one of Shaw's master ironic strokes to make such a rude and boorish egotistical bully (thus critiquing a society that views wealth and the ability to speak correctly as the constitutive criteria of a prescriptive gentleman) the main agent for transforming a common flower girl into a lady. On the other hand, Euripides Medea pushes the limit of the stereotypical restrictions on her gender by committing murderous acts; while her husband Jason acts very womanly. The two main characters seem to almost switch or reverse gender roles. To outline the low status that women in Ancient Greece endured, he has managed to glorify the male stereotype and in doing so Medea loses her femininity altogether.
Bibliography
Block Book 5, Myth and Conventions, The Open University
Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw, Penguin Books, London.
Medea and Other Plays, Euripides, Penguin Books, London.
Tracks 19-21, DVD Disc 3, The Open University
