Development of an extracurricular event on the topic: “The originality of Bernard Shaw’s play “Pygmalion”

This extracurricular activity can be held in 10th grade. Play

"Pygmalion" is enough interesting work, which can cause heated discussions and discussions on the part of students. Since Bernard Shaw, without any doubt, can be called a great paradoxist, his work, full of paradoxes, will certainly arouse great interest among students and activate their mental activity and make them think about the mysteries that the writer left us.

Target: introduce students to the works of Bernard Shaw.

Tasks:

1) Familiarize students with the basic facts of the playwright’s biography;

3) Develop the creative abilities of students;

Meta-subject results:

1) Formation of the ability to clearly formulate one’s train of thought and draw conclusions;

2) Formation of the ability to organize, plan one’s activities and collaborate with other students;

3) Formation of the ability to competently construct one’s speech in accordance with the assigned tasks;

4) Formation of the ability to listen to an interlocutor, conduct a dialogue with him or discuss competently;

5) Formation of the ability to argue your point of view;

6) Formation of the ability to work with information: the ability to analyze, systematize, etc.;

Personal results:

1) Skill formation independent work and responsibility for its results;

2) Formation and development of ethical feelings, politeness, goodwill, equality;

3) Formation and development of skills of teamwork and cooperation with peers, the ability to conduct dialogue without conflicts and avoid conflict situations;

4) Formation of skills to adequately assess one’s own activities, the ability to determine one’s strengths and weaknesses;

Planned results:

1) Familiarization with the biography and work of Bernard Shaw;

2) Formation of the concepts of paradox, intellectualism based on the analysis of the play “Pygmalion” and awareness of their role in the writer’s work;

3) Development of students' creative abilities based on writing a short essay;

Extracurricular activity plan.

1) Teacher's word. Determining the structure of the event.

2) Biography of the writer. One of the students gives a short presentation.

3) Conversation about the title of the play. Students talk about different meanings the words “pygmalion” and talk about why the author gave this name to his work.

4) The system of characters in the play “Pygmalion”. Students are invited to discuss the main characters of the work, characterize them based on the text of the play and express their point of view.

5) Discussion of the ending of the play “Pygmalion”. Students should pay attention to the ambiguous and ambivalent ending of the work and express their opinion about what kind of ending they expected to see.

6) Writing an essay. Students are encouraged to show their creative possibilities and come up with your own ending to this play.

7) Game “Guess who?” Students are presented with a number of quotes from the text of the play. They must determine which of the characters owns this or that statement.

8) Summing up. The teacher briefly announces the results of the event and thanks the students for their work.

Progress of the event.

1) The teacher's word. Determining the structure of the event.

Good afternoon, dear guys!

Today we will get acquainted with the life and work of the famous English writer, playwright and one of the reformers English theater 20th century. We will also get acquainted with one of his works, namely the play “Pygmalion,” and talk about the title of the play, the characters and the features of its ending.

2) Biography of the writer.

Speech by a student with a report on the biography of the author. In it, he reflects the main facts concerning the life and work of Bernard Shaw: years of life, main works, information about his family and upbringing, the beginning of his creative path, innovation in the field of drama. (The talk lasts 10 minutes.)

3) Conversation about the title of the play.

(Students were asked to look up the meaning of the term at home

"Pygmalion").

So, the term “pygmalion” has several meanings. Let's voice them.

1) Pygmalion is one of the characters in ancient mythology

Greece, sculptor who created ivory beautiful girl Galatea.

2) “Pygmalion” is a play by English playwright Bernard Shaw.

3) Pygmalion - king of Tyre, one of the characters of ancient mythology.

4) “Pygmalion” - a short film by Georges Méliès.

5) “Pygmalion” - black and white feature film, based on a screenplay by Bernard Shaw. (1938)

6) “Pygmalion” - a performance by the Maly Theater, which was created based on Shaw’s play of the same name. In 1957, its television version was presented.

7) Pygmalion - a crater on an asteroid.

8) Pygmalion - an asteroid named after a mythological character Ancient Greece Pygmalion.

As we may have noticed, the word “pygmalion” has a large number of meanings.

Let's think about why the playwright chose this title for his play. To do this, we turn to ancient Greek mythology.

The plot of Shaw's play was based on the myth of Pygmalion. It tells about the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a beautiful statue of Galatea from ivory. He gave her gifts, dressed her in beautiful and expensive clothes and treated an ordinary statue as a living creature. And therefore, the sculptor, delighted and in love with his creation, asked Venus to breathe life into this statue and revive it. And the goddess, touched to the depths of her soul, fulfilled the sculptor’s request and turned the statue into a wonderful woman, who later became his wife.

After talking about the myth of Pygmalion, the teacher can ask students the following questions for discussion:

Is the myth of Pygmalion connected in any way with the work of Bernard Shaw?

It is worth drawing students’ attention to the fact that the author did not leave the myth of Pygmalion intact and transferred it to the setting of modern London.

In this regard, you can ask a few more questions: Why did the author choose such an unusual interpretation of the myth? What did the author want to achieve through this interpretation of the myth?

It is after discussing these questions that students understand one of the important features in the works of Bernard Shaw and get acquainted with such concepts as “paradox” and intellectualism in his plays.

The teacher says that the playwright deliberately presented the reader with such an ironic and paradoxical interpretation of the well-known myth of Pygmalion. The reader who just saw the title of the play will probably associate it with the myth of the king of Cyprus. But as soon as he opens the first pages of the work, all his expectations and assumptions will be destroyed in an instant. And it is at this moment that the reader will begin to actively look for images of Pygmalion and Galatea among the characters, and he will begin to reflect on the riddle that the author presented to him.

In this way, the most important task of Shaw's intellectual theater is fulfilled - awakening thoughts and activating thought processes.

Due to the fact that students have come across such a concept as “paradox” in Shaw’s work, you can ask them the following question:

As we have noticed, Shaw used a paradoxical interpretation of the myth.

What other paradoxes did you encounter when getting acquainted with the work of this author?

(Here students can point out that an ordinary street flower girl and a lady differ from each other only in pronunciation. Another example is Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, who was an ardent opponent of the bourgeoisie, but having become rich, could not refuse such

“comfortable” life and favorable conditions. On some level, the image of the professor of phonetics, who taught the young lady correct speech, is also paradoxical, although he himself is far from the manners that he is trying to teach Eliza).

4) The system of characters in Bernard Shaw's play.

Now let's talk to you about the main characters of this play.

Here the teacher can ask students a few questions to find out about their attitude towards the characters in the work:

Which of the characters evoked the most sympathy?

Which character did you like least? Why? What qualities do the characters in the play have?

After the teacher has listened to all the answers, it will be possible to move on to a more detailed discussion of each of the characters in the work.

The image of phonetics professor Henry Higgins.

The students were asked to find characteristics of the main characters in the play (these could be stage directions, dialogues, and monologues of the characters). The teacher asks to voice all the characteristics of Higgins that the students found in the text of the work.

In this regard, you can ask the following questions:

What was your impression of Phonetics Professor Higgins?

Can he be classified as a positive or negative character in the play?

What is the reason for the professor's rude behavior towards Eliza?

Did Higgins' behavior change in any way towards the end of the work?

Most likely, the children will pay attention specifically to the rudeness, lack of restraint, and aggression on the part of the professor towards Eliza. Indeed, he treated the girl very ugly and incorrectly, but the teacher needs to explain to the students that this behavior of Higgins is due to the fact that he is a man of science and is very devoted to his work. For him there is no difference between an ordinary street flower girl and a lady. He behaves with the lady in exactly the same way as with Eliza. In the image of the professor, the author emphasizes his inner freedom and spirit of contempt for norms and conventions modern society. It is not without reason that Shaw, in one of his remarks, compares Higgins to a restless child. This is childish and allows him to interfere in the life and destiny of a person without making him think about the consequences.

Also, the teacher should note that Higgins actually changes towards the end of the work. If at the beginning we are presented with a man who treats Eliza with rudeness, neglect, aggression, then at the end of the play the professor understands that the girl occupied a significant part in his life and even indicates that she was a part of his life, in which he I put my soul into it.

Image of Eliza Dolittle.

The teacher asks to voice all the characteristics of Eliza that the students found in the text of the work.

What impression did Eliza Doolittle make on you? Why? How did the girl change throughout the play?

What is the reason for the young lady’s changes?

What thought did Bernard Shaw put into the image of this heroine?

Despite the fact that the girl’s speech is full of vulgarisms and is far from ideal, the image of Eliza will most likely arouse sympathy among students. It is important to note and draw the attention of children to the fact that although the girl lived in poverty, she was still able to maintain her honor and dignity and avoid many of the vices that were inherent in the environment in which she was.

And the further the students get to know this girl, the more her image is revealed to them. The teacher should certainly point out that the reason Eliza has changed is not simply the work the professor has done. Undoubtedly, Higgins’ role in the girl’s metamorphosis cannot be diminished, but what is important is that he awakened those vitality and the abilities that were already inherent in it from the very beginning. The amazing abilities of the young lady, her sober look life and faith in one’s own strength contributed to the miraculous transformation of an ordinary flower girl.

Shaw put a very important thought into the character of Eliza. In his opinion, it is in ordinary people The people have an incredible reserve of strength and energy; they represent a very valuable material from which a real work of art can be made. Their consciousness, which is constrained only by poverty, is not corrupted by the lies and hypocrisy that are inherent in the privileged strata of society. Therefore, it is much easier to teach an ordinary flower girl correct and beautiful speech than the duchesses with their corrupt thoughts.

Also, the teacher here can refer to the afterword and analyze it together with the children. It is in the afterword that Shaw says that this experiment is not something incredible and fantastic. As the playwright himself states, such stories happen very often to those women who are not devoid of determination, honor and dignity.

Also, the teacher should note that Eliza herself became Pygmalion for Higgins. After all, it was after the girl rebelled and the professor realized that he could lose her that he first started talking about her soul and thought that in front of him was a person who occupied a significant place in his life and even taught him something.

Pickering's image.

The teacher asks to voice all the characteristics of Pickering that the students found in the text of the work.

The teacher can then ask the following discussion questions: What impression did Pickering make on you? Why?

How does the colonel feel about Eliza?

What role does his image play in the work?

Students should note the colonel's courtesy and politeness towards Eliza. He repeatedly reprimanded Higgins about his rude attitude towards the girl. From the very beginning, Pickering showed tact and politeness in his treatment of the girl.

The most important thing that the teacher should pay attention to is that, according to Eliza, the colonel played an important role in her transformation into a lady.

As the girl says, it was Pickering’s polite attitude, kindness and even condescension at certain moments that made it possible to feel a real lady. We can say that Eliza considers him the person thanks to whom the metamorphosis took place.

Alfred Dolittle image.

The teacher asks to voice all the characteristics of Alfred Dolittle that the students found in the text of the work.

After the students have voiced their answers, the teacher asks them the following questions:

What impression does this character make on you? What emotions did this character evoke in you?

Why does Bernard Shaw introduce this character into his play?

The image of Eliza's father Alfred Dolittle is very interesting and important for of this work. Students may find this image quite comical and paradoxical. And, indeed, the story of this hero is quite unusual. A person who previously rejected bourgeois morality suddenly becomes its hostage. Having suddenly become rich, Dolittle complains about this difficult burden, but at the same time, he is not ready to give up such a life. The hero's fear of poverty and desire for comfort does not allow him to refuse favorable conditions.

And therefore, a seemingly minor character is a very important figure and prominent representative and an exposer of a morally sick society.

5) Discussion of the ending of the play “Pygmalion”.

It is worth noting that the play we are considering has a very ambiguous ending. The girl, who rebelled against her creator, is now not ready to give him shoes and grovel before him again. Higgins is amazed at such dramatic changes in Eliza and this is exactly the Eliza he likes. The first time he noticed her was after the girl threw her shoes at him.

The girl now treats the professor with disdain and even some contempt; she is stern and unapproachable. Higgins, in turn, is confident that she will certainly stay with him and even asks him to buy her some things for herself.

Thus, although the writer does not directly say that these two heroes will be together, the reader can hope for favorable outcome events. It was not for nothing that Eliza endured such a rude attitude from the professor and it was not without reason that she talked about how good she felt with him. Higgins also changed his attitude towards the girl, saw her from a different side, and that is precisely why she interested him.

It turns out that the ending that the playwright presented to us can be considered open.

In this regard, you can ask students:

In the afterword, Shaw talks about Eliza becoming Freddie's wife. Before reading the afterword, what did you think, would Eliza and Higgins be together? And why?

Thus, students are introduced to another feature of Shaw’s work, namely, the introduction of open endings into his works.

6) Writing an essay.

The teacher invites students to come up with their own ending to this play. Which ending would you choose? Would Eliza have stayed with Higgins? Or would you prefer Freddie? Or maybe she would even want to be left alone? And why?

Students write down their thoughts in a notebook in the form of a short essay, and then voice and justify their answers. Here, too, children can give free rein to their imagination and approach this task creatively. This form helps children feel like they are in the writer’s shoes and show their creative abilities.

7) Game. "Guess who?"

Students are asked to guess which character owns a certain quote from the text of the play.

“You see, the difference between a lady and a flower girl lies not only in the ability to dress and speak correctly - this can be taught, and not even in the manner of behaving, but in how others behave around them.” (Eliza Doolittle)

“To create life means to create anxiety.” (Higgins)

“... one has to choose between the workhouse Scyllia and the bourgeois class Charbidia, but one does not raise one’s hand to choose the workhouse. I'm scared, ma'am. I decided to give up. I was bought." (Alfred Dolittle)

(Higgins)

“...doesn’t it occur to you that this girl might have some feelings?” (Pickering)

“What have you prepared me for? Where will I go? What's next? What will happen to me? (Eliza)

“Your idiotic ideas about life have taught me a lot - I confess with humility and gratitude.” (Higgins)

8) Summing up the event.

So, today we got acquainted with the work of the famous English writer Bernard Shaw. Using the example of the play “Pygmalion,” we became acquainted with such important concepts as paradox and intellectualism, talked about the title of the play, the system of characters and the features of the ending.

As you understand, paradox was one of the playwright’s favorite techniques; it was with the help of it that he revealed the whole essence of phenomena and the inconsistency of life, and it was this technique that helped him achieve the important goal that he set for himself - to intensify the mental activity of his reader.

I hope that you enjoyed our event and that you were able to sympathize with this interesting figure.

Thank you for your active participation in the work and creative approach!

Composition

Experience shows that the initial perception of the play by schoolchildren occurs quite easily, without complications. The same cannot be said about the secondary, in-depth perception, which should be the result of students’ analysis of the work. In this case, the unconventionality and paradoxical nature of Shaw’s creative manner in general and the play “Pygmalion” in particular makes itself felt. This play in many ways amazes with its unusualness and confuses. Take at least “ open ending”, which requires a kind of “speculation” from the viewer dramatic action- and therefore raises a number of questions in him instead of giving an answer to them. The aesthetic originality of the work significantly complicates the study of the play. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to express several considerations regarding the organization of the process of studying the play by students.

As noted, let us draw the teacher’s attention to some of its key points, the clarification of which would help students understand the author’s position and the concept of the work. Title of the play. Pygmalion is a well-known hero in world culture ancient Greek myth. This myth is based on a story about a sculptor. At the everyday level, it is believed that the sculptor Pygmalion passionately fell in love with the sculpture he created, this feeling breathed life into it. But over time, the content of the myth to a certain extent lost its original meaning, which in ancient times was completely different!

This is how R. Graves describes the story of Pygmalion and Galatea: “Pygmalion, the son of Bel, fell in love with Aphrodite, and since she would never share a bed with him, he created her statue from ivory, put her in bed with him and began to pray to the goddess to have mercy on him. Entering the statue, Aphrodite revived it with the name Galatea, who gave birth to Paphos and Metharma. The heir of Pygmalion, Paphos, was the father of Cinyras, who founded the Cypriot city of Paphos and built in it the famous temple of Aphrodite.” After getting acquainted with the myth, it is easy to notice that the mythological basis was interpreted by Bernard Shaw in a very original way - even for the beginning of the 20th century. If the myth is about the love of a man (albeit a king, but still a man!) for a goddess, about love, which from eternity can be perceived as a challenge to the universe, which destroys the order of people's lives, then in Shaw's play we meet with an eccentric professor and a street a flower girl, not even “divine”.

And the relationship between these characters is so far from tender feelings (at least at the beginning of the play) that the use of Pygmalion’s name in the title can be considered a mockery. In addition, in comparison with the mythological story, the relationship between the contemporary playwright Pygmalion and Galatea (by the way, “who is who” in the duet Eliza Doolittle - Henry Higgins?) is so confusing and surprising that the question involuntarily arises: was it not the choice of the name for the story , which is described in the play, another paradox of the “great paradoxist” Bernard Shaw?

Such a boyish desire to prove to the respected Colonel Pickering his “omnipotence”, a complete, bordering on outright impudence, disregard for the interests of the “experimental material”, a thick skin that borders on callousness towards Eliza on the day of her triumph, a kind of “intellectual bargaining” that ends play, - these are the stages of the relationship between “Pygmalion” and his “Galatea”. A stubborn desire to rise up the social ranks, crazy haggling over tuition fees, being transformed into a mentally dubious “masterpiece” despite having impeccable appearance and pronunciation, throwing boots at the one who pulled her out of the swamp, running away from Higgins’ house and the hypothetical returning to him with acquired gloves and a tie - this is the path that Shaw’s “Galatea” created before our eyes overcomes, thereby allegedly acquiring the right to happiness... The very relationships of the characters throughout the entire play indicate that its title was deliberately chosen by the author according to the principle “from the opposite.”

This contrast between the everyday meaning that is embedded modern writer consciousness in ancient myth, and reality in the relationship between the main characters is one of the sources of the formation of a new, “intellectual” drama. The collision of not just feelings, but feelings, intellectually faceted (after all, behind the experiences of each of the main characters of the play there are certain ideas), gives dramatic conflict“Pygmalion” has a special poignancy. At the same time, it provides him with a fundamental “openness”, predetermines the impossibility of his solution, since when in terms of feelings the conflict is supposedly exhausted, his second, intellectual, plane is “slightly revealed” to the viewer, and vice versa.

We can conclude that it is in the title that Shaw “encodes” the main features of the “intellectual drama” he created, indicating its fundamental difference from traditional drama. The unconventionality of the play is manifested primarily in the genre features of the work. The author characterizes it as a “novel in five acts” or “a poem in five acts.” And Shaw creates a paradoxical “unification” of the supposedly incompatible! After all, according to all genre canons, a novel, of course, can consist of five, but these should be parts? If we are talking about “actions,” then it must be something from dramatic works? So, the author completely consciously created a kind of “hybrid” of epic and drama. Shaw's work is intended to be staged, but according to the canons of the epic, there is no list of characters in this “novel” (we only meet them when they appear on stage).

Regarding the “poem”, the “lyrical coloring” of the dramatic action is beyond doubt, therefore, in the supposed “intellectual drama” the emotional substratum is completely obvious. The peculiar “love story” of Romeo and Juliet at the beginning of the 20th century is what the story presented by Bernard Shaw represents... So, before us is a dramatic work in which the traditional canons of dramatic art are consciously touched upon. There are stage directions in this dramatic work, but let's see what they sometimes look like. At the beginning of Act II, the stage directions take up the entire page!

She describes not only Professor Higgins' laboratory, but also... his state of mind, caused by certain life events, his behavior... Numerous remarks “explain” in detail the intonations, gestures, facial expressions, body movements that accompany the characters’ remarks. All this creates the feeling that the reader is actually reading the novel, but the viewer during the performance cannot see all this - as a text! Under such conditions, the author of a “novel in five acts” practically deprives the director of the opportunity to change anything in the work proposed to him for stage interpretation, so carefully is the smallest stage movement provided.

Over time, such dramaturgy will be called “director’s”. The re-enactment of plays of this kind on stage will force directors to choose: whether they conscientiously follow the “author’s instructions” in the form of countless remarks, thereby limiting the range of their own creative searches, or whether they will need to significantly “deviate” from the author’s plan, creating, in essence, their own stage version“novel-poem”. Challenge the playwright? Although, perhaps, this is exactly what the “great paradoxist” was counting on? So, while studying the work, the teacher must take into account the fact that the text of “Pygmalion” is a kind of synthesis of epic, lyrical and dramatic foundations. Combining all three literary families! This is also necessary because at school, as a rule, it is the text of a dramatic work that is studied. In general, studying a performance based on a work at school is fundamentally impossible, since the performance exists only for the time it lasts.

Therefore, the problems of the “image of the author” and the “lyrical hero”, which are very relevant when working with epic works, V this time also significant. Students’ comprehension of author's assessment depicted, which is reflected in the stage directions. A comparison of images - the main character, Professor Henry Higgins, and one, in our opinion, of the main characters - the scavenger Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father. We believe that each of the heroes can be considered as a “Pygmalion” regarding his role in the process of “creating” the personality of Eliza Doolittle.

Among the works written in the pre-war period, Shaw's most popular play was the comedy Pygmalion (1912). Its title recalls the ancient myth, according to which the sculptor Pygmalion, who sculpted the statue of Galatea, fell in love with it, and then the goddess of love Aphrodite, who heeded the pleas of the desperate artist, revived it. The show gives its own, modern version ancient myth. .

In the play Pygmalion, Shaw transferred the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea to the setting of modern London. But the paradoxist could not leave the myth untouched. If the revived Galatea was the embodiment of humility and love, then Shaw's Galatea rebels against her creator; if Pygmalion and Galatea of ​​antiquity got married, then Shaw's heroes should under no circumstances marry. Thus, contrary to the traditional ideas of the viewer, caused by the title of the play, its plan took shape. But the logical course of action and the truth of the images captivated the writer, and in many respects he turned out to be much closer to the myth and to the sincere expectations of the audience than he would like.

In Pygmalion, Shaw combined two equally exciting themes: the problem of social inequality and the problem of classical English. .

Phonetics professor Higgins makes a bet with Colonel Pickering that in a few months he will be able to teach a street flower vendor to speak correctly and make sure that “she can successfully pass for a duchess.”

We feel the charm and originality of Eliza Dolittle already in the first acts, when she still speaks in ridiculous street slang. We feel them in her energy, gaiety, inner dignity, stern morality, which she preserved in the world of the slums.

Only pronunciation distinguishes a street flower girl from a duchess, but Eliza Doolittle has no intention of becoming a duchess. It is Higgins, in his scientific enthusiasm, who shouts that in six months he will turn Eliza into a duchess.

To show how radically a person can be changed, Shaw chose to move from one extreme to the other. If such a radical change in a person is possible in a relatively short time, then the viewer must tell himself that then any other change in a human being is possible.

The second important question of the play is how much speech influences human life. What does correct pronunciation give a person? Is it enough to learn to speak correctly to change social status? Here's what Professor Higgins thinks about this: “But if you knew how interesting it is - to take a person and, having taught him to speak differently than he spoke before, make him a completely different, new creature. After all, this means - destroy the gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul." .

Shaw was perhaps the first to realize the omnipotence of language in society, its exceptional social role, which psychoanalysis indirectly spoke about in the same years. It was Shaw who said this in the poster-edifying, but no less ironically fascinating “Pygmalion.” Professor Higgins, albeit in his narrow specialized field, was still ahead of structuralism and post-structuralism, which in the second half of the century would make the ideas of “discourse” and “totalitarian linguistic practices” their central theme.

But language is not the only expression of a human being. Going out to see Mrs. Higgins has only one drawback - Eliza does not know what is being said in society in this language.

"Pickering also recognized that it was not enough for Eliza to have the ladylike pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. She must still develop the interests characteristic of a lady. As long as her heart and mind are filled with the problems of her old world - the murders over the straw hat and the beneficial effect of the gin on her father's mood - she will not be able to become a lady, even if her language is indistinguishable from that of a lady."

One of the theses of the play states that human character is determined by the totality of relationships of the individual, linguistic relationships are only part of it. In the play, this thesis is concretized by the fact that Eliza, along with studying the language, also learns the rules of behavior. Consequently, Higgins explains to her not only how to speak the lady's language, but also, for example, how to use a handkerchief.

The totality of behavior, that is, the form and content of speech, the way of judgment and thoughts, habitual actions and typical reactions of people are adapted to the conditions of their environment. The subjective being and the objective world correspond to each other and mutually permeate each other.

But Eliza looks at life more soberly - she dreams of becoming a saleswoman in a large flower shop, where she is not hired because she speaks very poorly. However, Higgins himself admits that the profession of a maid in a rich house or a saleswoman in a reputable store requires even more careful work on the language, even more refined pronunciation than the position of a duchess.

Eliza's training is completed in a much shorter time thanks to her abilities. But Higgins made a fatal mistake: he did not think about the living soul of the man that was in his hands. The experiment does not go unpunished: Galatea rebels against her creator with all the strength of an offended and indignant soul; the wind of tragedy breaks into the small world of the salons where the results of the experiment were tested.

From the very beginning, Higgins displays a brutal indifference to Eliza as a person. When she appears at his house, he does not greet her, does not invite her to sit down, and, making sure that her dialect is already represented in his notes, tells her: “Get lost!” The girl herself, who grew up in the slums, still has an idea of ​​​​the rules of politeness; she remarks that he could offer her a seat if he is a gentleman; after all, she came on business. In response, the astonished Higgins asks: “Pickering, what should we do with this scarecrow? Should we invite her to sit down or lower her down the stairs?” .

Mrs. Pierce, the housekeeper, a woman of the people, and Colonel Pickering, a man of a more subtle mental organization, feel this rudeness and try to reason with Higgins. Mrs. Pierce demands maximum correctness from Higgins in the presence of the girl.

Colonel Pickering is polite to Eliza, invites her to sit down, calls her "Miss Dolittle." Subsequently, having become an elegant society woman, she says to Pickering: “Do you know when my upbringing really began? The minute you called me Miss Dolittle... That first awakened my self-respect.” .

However, to imagine Higgins only as bourgeois scientists would be a simplification and a distortion of Shaw's intention. The show in every possible way emphasizes Higgins' inner freedom and his complete lack of servility. With noble ladies, he behaves as arrogantly and rudely as with Eliza. His mother always talks about his inability to behave in society. He hurts and insults people without any bad intentions, simply because he is not interested in them. He is only interested in his science. In Higgins's relationships with people, Shaw sees a conflict between genius and ordinary people.

Shaw managed in his play to highlight the issue of social inequality of people. Educated Eliza remains the same beggar as she was when she sold flowers. The only thing that has increased is the tragic awareness of one’s poverty and limitless inequality between people. All Eliza’s reproaches to Higgins reflect precisely this moment: “You pulled me out of the mud! And who asked you? Now you thank God that everything is over and you can throw me back into the mud!.. What will happen to me? What will happen to me? .. What am I good for? What should I do? What will happen to me now?.. I used to sell flowers, but now you have made me a lady, and I am nothing. I can’t trade except for myself. It would be better if you didn’t touch me!.. Which of my things belongs to me... I want to know what I have the right to take with me. I don’t want to be called a thief later... ". .

These exclamations convey both Eliza’s mental turmoil and the cruel truth that appeared before her - she cannot overcome social inequality, a piece of bread and honest work are not guaranteed for her, despite the acquired polish and some education.

It was important for Shaw to show that all of Eliza's qualities that she reveals as a lady can already be found in the flower girl as natural abilities, or that the flower girl's qualities can then be found again in the lady.

Unlike his daughter, her scavenger father has no moral virtues. Poverty, dirty work, the position of a pariah among London residents, drunkenness - all this fostered in him a kind of cynicism and indifference to people. In the afterword, Shaw calls him a Nietzschean. Extorting money from Higgins in payment (as he thinks) for the honor of his own daughter, Dolittle shows exceptional eloquence and delights Higgins with this.

Of course, Shaw does not give in Dolittle a typical image of a man of the people, and does not strive to give one. Best Features English people embodied in Eliza with her strict morality and colossal hard work. But Father Dolittle also has a certain amount of charm that is felt by those around him. He is very intelligent and frank in his opinions; Shaw puts into his mouth a poisonous characterization of bourgeois society. At the end of the play, according to Shaw's plan, he receives money from the will of an American millionaire and becomes a slave to the bourgeois morality that he always denied - he even goes to church to marry his fifth friend, a grumpy and always drunk woman. Yesterday's worker, he became a minion of the bourgeoisie, a participant in its profits. Dolittle characterizes his situation as follows: “For me, an unworthy poor man, the only salvation from the State bed is this money, which drags me into the company of the bourgeois bastard - excuse the expression, ma'am! .. I have to choose between the Cecilia of the workhouse and the Charita of the bourgeoisie; but I don’t have the courage to choose a workhouse. I’m telling you; I’m intimidated.” .

Thus, falling as usual into rhetorical turns and distorting the words he heard somewhere (Scylla and Charybdis), Dolittle quite aptly characterizes the position of that part of the working class that is forced to take handouts from the bourgeoisie.

The transformation of Father Dolittle from a ragged scavenger into a wealthy gentleman in a shiny top hat reeks of something Dickensian. Shaw managed to resurrect here the atmosphere of an English realistic novel, replete with such transformations.

The interpretation of the ending of Pygmalion is obvious. It is not anthropological, like the previous theses, but of an ethical and aesthetic order: what is desirable is not the transformation of slum dwellers into ladies and gentlemen, like the transformation of Dolittle, but their transformation into ladies and gentlemen of a new type, whose self-esteem is based on their own work. Eliza, in her desire for work and independence, is the embodiment of the new ideal of a lady, which, in essence, has nothing in common with the old ideal of a lady of aristocratic society. She did not become a countess, as Higgins repeatedly said, but she became a woman whose strength and energy are admired. It is significant that even Higgins cannot deny her attractiveness - disappointment and hostility soon turn into the opposite. He seems to have even forgotten about the initial desire for a different result and the desire to make Eliza a countess.

Pygmalion has an unclear and ambiguous ending. All characters They go to a fashionable church for the wedding of Eliza’s father and her stepmother, and a jubilant (for reasons unknown to us) Higgins instructs Eliza to buy a tie and gloves for herself.

For viewers with a direct psychological sense, another meaning lurks behind this minor ending: Eliza will be Higgins' wife. No wonder her love for him, the desire to become everything to him, burst forth in every indignant word she said. And he has already repeatedly told her and the audience that he cannot live without her. So, Eliza must accept all his demands, all the whims and eccentricities of the great scientist, become his devoted life partner and assistant in his scientific works. But under the influence of this extraordinary woman, he too will perhaps become softer and more humane. .

The show takes readers to this logical conclusion, but ends the play... and then, in the afterword, declares that Eliza will marry Freddie, a puny young aristocrat to whom she has not paid the slightest attention.

For Shaw, it is important to shock the audience, to stun them at the end with some unexpected turn of action, to destroy their traditional romantic ideas. Everyone is waiting for the marriage between Pygmalion and Galatea; this is also required by the ancient myth on which the play is based. And that is why the stubborn paradoxist dismisses the expected “happy ending” and laughs at the puzzled viewer.

The popular English playwright, second only to Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw left a deep imprint on world culture.

His work was awarded two prestigious awards: Nobel Prize The great novelist was awarded for his contribution to literature, and an Oscar for his screenplay based on Bernard Shaw's play of the same name, Pygmalion. A summary of the play in this article.

Pygmalion and Galatea

Literary scholars and critics have made various assumptions about what prompted Shaw to write this play. Some refer to the famous myth of Ancient Greece and suggest remembering the legendary sculptor who created the statue of a beautiful girl. Others believe that Shaw recalled Gilbert's play Pygmalion and Galatea. Still others went so far as to accuse Shaw of almost plagiarism, pointing to Smollett's novel as the source of the borrowing.

In fact, the story of writing Pygmalion began with the great playwright’s infatuation with actress Stella Campbell, which he wrote about in his diary. He often began affairs in the form of correspondence with actresses, including Florence Farr and Ellen Terry, but Stella occupied an exceptional place in both Shaw’s life and work.

The correspondence continued for several years. But Shaw did not want to change anything in his life. Stella was faithful to her unlucky husband, who lived on her income. Bernard recognized her as a brilliant actress and tried to help her financially. But she refused financial help. Having once seen Forbes-Robertson and Mrs. Campbell play in Hamlet, he decided to create a play for her.

In one of his letters to Ellen Terry, he shared the idea that he would like to write a play where Robertson would be a gentleman and Stella would be a girl in an apron. While the London diva was considering whether to play the dirty flower girl, the play premiered in Vienna, then was a resounding success in Berlin. On the English stage, the play Pygmalion was staged only in April 1914. main role played by Mrs. Campbell.

Characters

The London flower girl Eliza, transformed by the eccentric professor of phonetics Higgins into a society lady, became one of the favorite heroines of the world's theatrical stage. This role became the favorite female role and glorified many theater actresses, going around all the world's stages - from the famous London diva to the Russian D. Zerkalova. Which is not surprising.

As will be clear from the summary below, Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is a cheerful, brilliant comedy, the last act of which contains an element of drama: the flower girl coped well with the role of a society lady and is no longer needed. The main characters of the play are Eliza and Professor Higgins with Colonel Pickering, who made a bet:

• Flower girl Eliza is a girl of eighteen to twenty years old, she cannot be called attractive. She is wearing a hat, badly damaged by dust and soot, which was hardly familiar with the brush. Hair of a color not found in nature that requires soap and water. A faded black coat barely covers his knees. Eliza's shoes knew better days. It is clear from everything that the girl is clean, but next to others she looks dirty.
• Professor of Phonetics Higgins is a man of about forty, strong and healthy. He is wearing a black frock coat, a starched collar and a silk tie. He belongs to people of science who treat everything that can become the subject of research with interest. He treats everything that attracts his attention with genuine passion. If something doesn't go his way, the professor's good-natured grumpiness gives way to outbursts of anger. But everyone forgives him because he is very sincere.
• Colonel Pickering is a model gentleman. It was his courtesy that played an important role in Eliza’s transformation.

Other participants in the play

Not only the main characters played an important role in Eliza’s amazing transformation. The girl's father can be called Pygmalion No. 1. IN socially the scavenger is, one might say, at the bottom. But Alfred is a bright and extraordinary personality. By many positive features The flower girl owes her character to her father. His impressive behavior is obvious: the ability to explain himself to anyone, originality of thinking, self-esteem.

Interesting personality Alfred adapts to any situation and remains himself. In other words, circumstances may change, but the person will not change: the personality will remain a personality. However, Shaw would not be Shaw if he had not put self-respect into the soul of a street girl, and would not have done interesting person, who valued paternal affection at five pounds. Why are the characters of Henry, the housekeeper, Pickering, Eliza and the girl's father so powerful, and the people from the drawing rooms so weak? How masterfully the great playwright managed this can be seen from the summary of Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw and from minor characters made interesting personalities:

• Eliza's father Alfred Doolittle is an elderly but strong man. He's wearing a scavenger's outfit. An energetic person who knows no fear or conscience.
• Professor Higgins's housekeeper is Mrs. Pierce.
• Professor Higgins' mother is Mrs. Higgins.
• Mrs Hill's daughter is Clara.
• Mrs Hill's son is Freddie.
• Mrs Higgins's guest - Eynsford Hill.

In the five acts of the play Pygmalion, Shaw, as a wise and insightful artist, discovered in a street girl those traits that made possible her transformation, unexpected but plausible. He says that if you change the conditions of existence, create a favorable environment, and you will see a miracle happen: natural abilities will reveal themselves, self-esteem will increase.

Eliza will pass a severe test in social manners and secular ritual. She would look like a duchess at a reception at any embassy. This is the development artistic thought Bernard Shaw. IN summary In Pygmalion you can get to know Eliza and follow her amazing transformation from a scruffy girl to a duchess.

Summer rain

A violent torrential rain gathered several people under the portico of the church. Two ladies, chilled in their evening dresses, were waiting for the taxi that Freddie went to fetch. A passerby, having heard their conversation, said that it was impossible to find a taxi, since people were leaving the theater at that time and, moreover, it was pouring rain.

Freddie, the old lady's son, came and said that he couldn't find a taxi. His mother sent him back. Freddie, accompanied by his sister's indignant exclamations and thunderclaps, went back in search, and ran into the flower girl, who was hurrying to cover. The street vendor did not mince words: while picking flowers, she wailed in the dialect of a commoner and angrily answered the ladies’ questions.

Then she caught sight of an elderly gentleman, hurrying to take shelter from the rain. The flower girl switched to him, persuading him to buy a bouquet. A random passer-by noticed to the girl that the guy standing nearby, probably a policeman, was writing everything down in a notebook. Those present immediately drew attention to the man standing with notebook person. He explained that he was not a policeman and, nevertheless, told who was born where, down to the street.

The gentleman, who is also a colonel, showed interest in this man. This is how the creator of the alphabet, Higgins, met with the author of the book “Spoken Sanskrit,” Pickering. They had been planning to meet each other for a long time, so they decided to continue their acquaintance over dinner. Along the way, Higgins threw a handful of coins into the flower girl's basket. The girl, who has acquired a huge amount of money, gets into the taxi that Freddie caught and leaves.

The professor and the colonel's bet

The next morning, Higgins received Colonel Pickering at his house and demonstrated phonographic equipment. Housekeeper Mrs. Pierce reported that a certain girl had come to him and wanted to talk to him. When she was invited to enter, the professor recognized her as yesterday's flower girl. Eliza explained that she wanted to take phonetics lessons from Higgins because, with her terrible pronunciation, she couldn’t get a good job.

The money is small, but the colonel encourages Higgins to prove that he can, as he assured, turn a street vendor into a duchess. They make a bet, and the colonel undertakes to pay all the expenses for training. The housekeeper takes the flower girl into the bathroom to wash.

After some time, the girl’s father showed up at Higgins’ house. The drunken guy demands five pounds from the professor and promises not to interfere. Higgins is surprised by the scavenger's eloquence and persuasiveness, for which he received his compensation. Eliza Dolittle enters the room in an elegant kimono and no one recognizes her.

Entering secular society

After a few months of training, Higgins decided to check how his student coped with the task assigned to her. As an exam, he takes the girl to his mother's house, who gives a reception. Mrs. Hill is also there with her daughter and son Freddie. They don't recognize the girl as the flower girl they dated a few months ago.

Eliza behaves impeccably, but when it comes to her life, she breaks into common expressions. Higgins saves the day by explaining to those present that this is the new secular jargon. When the guests have left, the colonel and professor tell Mrs. Higgins how they teach the girl and take her to the theater and opera. In addition, she has an excellent ear for music.

In response to their enthusiastic stories, the professor’s mother remarks that the girl should not be treated like a living doll. They, somewhat disappointed, leave Mrs. Higgins's house and continue their studies, taking into account all the mistakes that the old lady pointed out to them. Freddie did not remain indifferent to the charming guest, and bombarded Eliza with romantic messages.

Eliza's success

Higgins, having devoted a few more months to his student, arranges a decisive exam for her - he takes her to an appointment at the embassy. Eliza has dizzying success. Upon returning home, the colonel congratulates the professor on his success. Nobody pays attention to Eliza anymore.

The disgruntled girl tells her teacher that she cannot lead her old life. She asks what will happen to her now, where will she go and what should she do now? The professor is unable to understand her soul. The girl throws slippers at the professor in anger, and leaves Higgins' house at night.

Twist of fate

The Colonel and the Professor arrive at Mrs. Higgins' house and complain about Eliza's disappearance. The professor admits to his interlocutors that without her, he is like without hands - he does not know what is planned for the day, where his things are.

The girl's father comes to the house - he looks different - a completely wealthy bourgeois shows Higgins that it was his fault that he had to change his lifestyle. A few months ago, the professor wrote a letter to the founder of the Moral Reform League, saying that Alfred Doolittle was perhaps the most original moralist in England. The millionaire left in his will an annual allowance for the garbage man on the condition that he would give lectures at the League several times a year.

Mrs. Higgins is relieved that now there is someone to take care of the girl. Eliza arrives and has a private conversation with the professor. Higgins believes that he is not guilty of anything and demands the girl to return. To which she replies that she will immediately go to his colleague, get a job as his assistant and reveal the Higgins method, which she now knows.

The professor defiantly instructs the girl to do some shopping on the way home in front of everyone. To which Eliza replies with contempt: “Buy it yourself.” And he goes to the wedding of his father, who, given his current situation, is forced to officially marry the woman with whom he lived for twenty years.

Metamorphoses of "Pygmalion"

Analysis of this comedy shows a brilliant and impressive plot that turns into a realistic drama in the finale. Fascinated by a linguistic experiment, Higgins discovers that he has created more than just a beautiful girl capable of delivering elegant speeches. To his amazement, he realizes that before him is a human being with a soul and a heart.

George Bernard Shaw pursued this goal: to show representatives of blue blood that they differ from the lower class only in clothing, pronunciation, education and manners. For the rest, and ordinary people inherent decency and emotional sensitivity, nobility and self-esteem. The playwright wanted to show that the difference between them can and should be overcome. And he succeeded.

The open end of the play, as the author left it, caused a lot of criticism and indignation from the public. The excellent playwright, in turn, did not want to repeat anyone. George Bernard Shaw showed originality and ingenuity in embodying artistic design. In the subtitle, he indicated that this was a fantasy novel, and thereby precisely defined the genre features of the play.

As the author himself later wrote, he called the play a novel because it is a story about a poor girl who, like Cinderella, met a handsome prince and was turned by him into a beautiful lady. And for the indignant public, at a loss as to who Eliza would marry, he wrote comments in which he did not assert, but assumed the girl’s future. Shaw supplemented the play with new scenes for the film script, which premiered in 1938 and was a resounding success.

Pygmalion is a play by Bernard Shaw. The author called it “a novel in five acts.” There are several options for translating the Pygmalion genre into Russian - for example, “a fantasy novel in five acts”, or “ sentimental novel in five acts." Like most of Shaw’s dramatic works, which invariably brought theater closer to journalism, “Pygmalion” has a short preface entitled “Professor of Phonetics” and an extensive afterword telling about the further fate of main character- London street flower girl Eliza Doolittle. The play was written in 1912-1913, first staged on October 16, 1913 in Vienna. The English premiere took place at His Majesty's Theater in London on April 11, 1914 and ran for 118 performances. Shaw himself acted as a director; the role of Eliza Doolittle was written by him specifically for Stella Patrick Campbell; professor of phonetics Higgins was played by Herbert Beerbohm Tree.

Bernard Shaw, working on the play “Pygmalion,” was guided by the ancient myth about the sculptor Pygmalion, who sculpted the statue of Galatea. Shocked by the beauty of his own creation, the artist begs Aphrodite to revive the marble figure. Galatea gains a soul, becomes beautiful woman, the happy wife of Pygmalion. However, Shaw is very far from obediently repeating the images and situations of ancient myth; on the contrary, they are paradoxically transformed in his play. Galatea-Eliza, according to the plan of the 20th century playwright, will never be the wife of Pygmalion-Higgins. Happy ending impossible. During the first production, Shaw categorically forbade the actors to portray Eliza's mutual love And Higins. He was interested in something completely different - the tragic impossibility for an educated, talented, spiritual rich woman, deprived of capital, to arrange their life with dignity in the conditions of a capitalist society. It didn’t cost Eliza-Cinderella anything to perfectly master modern English, manners and behavior of society ladies in order to pass for a duchess or princess at any reception. But her further fate remains unpredictable. Bernard Shaw reworked the ending of Pygmalion several times: at first, Eliza decisively left Higgins, never to return to him; then, in an afterword, Shaw suggested that she might marry socialite slacker Freddie Aysford-Heale and with material support Higgins and his friend Pickering to open a flower shop. Finally, a sketch of another ending arose: Eliza again settled in the Higgins house, but not as a wife or lover, but solely on a friendly, business basis.

The ideological foundations of the play “Pygmalion” are deeply humane. Shaw believes in the inexhaustible supply of creative power that lies within the people of the people. Poverty can disfigure a person’s appearance and destroy his individuality. But under favorable circumstances, all the best quickly awakens. Thus, Eliza’s father, the scavenger Alfred Doolittle, grotesquely written by Shaw, having suddenly become rich, gives lectures to an elegant audience with the brilliance and manners of a first-class speaker.

During the period of writing Pygmalion, Shaw was especially interested in phonetics. He thought it was perfect English speech, free from Cockney vulgarisms and the pretentious phraseology of aristocratic salons, is capable of changing a person’s thinking, strengthening his will, and developing a correct understanding of reality. Subsequently, in his will, he donated a large sum of money for the compilation of a new English alphabet, helping to eliminate the line between writing and pronouncing words.

Constantly experimenting with characterization genre features of his plays, while coming up with the most unexpected definitions, B. Shaw in most cases remained what he was primarily by vocation - a comedian. And “Pygmalion” is one of his best comedies. Here the dialogues of the characters are replete with aphorisms, sharp comedic episodes replace each other, and the relationships between the characters are paradoxical. The play “Pygmalion” with amazing ease underwent the most unexpected metamorphoses, turning into works of other types of art. Its stage history is extremely rich and varied.

“Pygmalion” has been played in Russia since 1915. Among the first directors is V.E. Meyerhold. The best performers of the role of Eliza in Russia were D.V. Zerkalova (Moscow Maly Theater) and A.B. Freundlikh (Leningrad Lensovet Theater).

The first film adaptation of Pygmalion was made in England in 1938 (directed by Gabriel Pascal; Wendy Hiller as Eliza and Leslie Howard as Higgins). In 1956 dramatic work The show became the basis for the musical "My lovely lady" (music Frederica Lowe, libretto by Alan Jay Lerner). This musical, which won the stage of theaters all over the world, was in turn filmed and entered into competition with Shaw's comedy. The Russian ballet returned to the original source of Shaw's play in the television performance "Galatea" (E.S. Maksimova - Eliza Doolittle).

Letters from Shaw and Stella Patrick Campbell, published after their deaths, prompted the American actor and playwright Jerome Kielty to write the play Pretty Little Liar, much of which was devoted to the preparation of Pygmalion, the complex creative and human relations, which developed between Shaw and Stella Patrick Campbell, eccentric, capricious, insanely afraid at 49 years old to play a young street flower girl, but in the end she coped with the role perfectly, accurately and subtly guessing the playwright’s intention. After the production of Kilty’s play, a new “marathon” of the world’s strongest actresses began: now they played not just Eliza Doolittle, but Stella Patrick Campbell, who comprehends the essence of Shaw’s heroine. These were the Frenchwoman Maria Cazares, the American Catherine Cornell, the German Elisabeth Bergner, and the Russian actresses Angelina Stepanova and Lyubov Orlova. Stella Patrick Campbell's performance as Eliza was an inspiration to all actresses as well as the actors who play Bernard Shaw. In one of his letters, he called the creative relationship that arose in the process of creating Pygmalion between him and Stella Patrick Campbell “magical.” The real “magic” was new life"Pygmalion" in Pretty Little Liar.

Written on the eve of the First World War, Shaw's famous comedy had a significant impact on the entire European artistic culture XX century It is noteworthy that each new work created on the basis of Shaw's play, no matter what type of art it belonged to, was independent in nature and had new aesthetic features. And at the same time, there is a strong, organic connection between all of them. The life of “Pygmalion” in time is unique and inimitable in its own way.