Comment
on the ending of Shaw’s Pygmalion.
As a question of personal perspective any opinion might be
suitable, however, one must analyze a number of hidden elements that transpire
in Act V of GB Shaw's Pygmalion.
Act V, the final act, brings with it a series of things that were not dealt
with before in the play. One of these things is Eliza's contained anger and
resentment against Higgins. Although Eliza is a strong woman from beginning to
end, at no time have we witnessed her so truly rebellious and extremely angry.
She faces Higgins with such firmness that we must question whether her feelings
come from true ire or from feeling unappreciated from a man to whom, deep
inside, she feels indebted to. However, since he is not worthy of her, Eliza
takes an unprecedented step towards female self-assurance and self
affirmation by telling him like it really is:
Aha! Now I know how to deal with you. What a fool I was not to
think of it before! You can't take away the knowledge you gave me. You said I
had a finer ear than you. And I can be civil and kind to people, which is more
than you can. Aha! That's done you, Henry Higgins, it has. Now I don't care
that [snapping her
fingers]for your bullying and your big talk. I'll advertise it in
the papers that your duchess is only a flower girl that you taught, and that
she'll teach anybody to be a duchess just the same in six months for a thousand
guineas. Oh, when I think of myself crawling under your feet and being trampled
on and called names, when all the time I had only to lift up my finger to be as
good as you, I could just kick myself.
Secondly, we also witness Henry's own fit of flagrant rage
and fury that goes to the point of really offending Eliza like perhaps no other
character has offended a lady in this genre:
You damned impudent slut, you! But it's better than snivelling;
better than fetching slippers and finding spectacles, isn't it? [Rising] By George,
Eliza, I said I'd make a woman of you; and I have. I like you this way.
In the end Eliza marries Freddy but the two end up still
connected to Col. Pickering and Higgins. There is no ultra special change in
anybody, nor is there a miracle solution to anyone's problem.
This is the romantic period; the reality genre. All things are meant to be the
way they would be in real life. Hence, as per the characteristics of the genre,
nothing out of the ordinary is supposed to happen in the end..............................................................
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