Pygmalion Entry #1

After reading about half of this play, only one thing really confused me, and that was the title. Despite my limited knowledge of ancient fiction, I was somewhat familiar with the character of Pygmalion, a man who fell madly in love with a statue he sculpted, and I could not see any reason why this would be the title for this play. Suddenly, though, it hit me: Higgins is, in a way, "sculpting" Liza to his expectations, like Pygmalion sculpting his perfect woman. This leads me to wonder if later in the play, Higgins, like Pygmalion, will develop a love for Liza. I think it would make for quite a shocking twist in the play, and also would help to make it even more of a bit of a modern retelling of the story of Pygmalion.

     One thing I've really liked about this play so far is the usage of different dialects. Having Higgins speak very properly, as he is a phoneticist, and Liza speak in a stereotypical Cockney accent really helps to show how different these two characters really are, and what a challenge Higgins will be facing by attempting to turn Liza into a classy lady. I also like that Bernard Shaw didn't overdo the dialects, like some authors tend to do. Although I am a fan of Mark Twain, some of Jim's lines in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are nearly impossible to make any sense of. Shaw does a good job of avoiding this. His use of dialect is rather subtle, but still obvious enough to show you a bit of each character's personality.