Pygmalion Study Guide.docx - Pygmalion Introduction: Pygmalion came from Greek Mythology Pygmalion a lonely man created a statue and prayed to

Pygmalion Introduction: ❖Pygmalion came from Greek Mythology ❖Pygmalion a lonely man created a statue and prayed to Aphrodite for a wife like her, Aphrodite made the statue a woman named Galatea ❖Eliza Doolittle is Shaws Galatea ❖Shaw was inspired by actress Patrick Stella Campbell she then played Eliza in the play in 1914 ❖Henry Higgins is a character similar to Shaw himself who falls in love with Eliza ❖Before writing Pygmalion Shaw had written Mrs. Warren's Profession and Major Barbara ❖George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland on July 26, 1856 ❖1872 his mother left his father and went to London with his two sisters, he stayed and left school to work as a junior clerk in an office at 20 he moved to London. He lived in poverty for 10 years. ❖He educated himself at the British Museum, wrote 5 unsuccessful novels ❖He became a music art and theater critic ❖He became a radical: he was a vegetarian, socialist, and women's rights activist, Fabian Socialist ❖His first play was Widowers Houses in 1892 He wrote 50 plays by the time he died and was the leading playwright of his time ❖Married Charlotte Payne-Townshend in 1898 an Irish Heiress ❖Many people used pygmalion like William Morris in The Earthly Paradise ❖In Shaws setting many people did not believe in earning money through business or trade so they would continue with activities they couldn't afford, like the Eynsford-Hills ❖Eliza makes her living selling flowers on the street and has a cockney accent ❖Shaw created his own alphabet because he believed 26 letters did not accurately represent all the sounds in the english language ❖Shaw helped found the new Labour Party in 1900-gave working class citizens a greater political voice ❖ Timeline: George Bernard Shaw

❖He was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1856 ❖