-
Essay / The Repression of Women in Pygmalion - 1377
20th century Britain is called the Victorian era in which woman is only the wife of humanity and has certain things to do in society. It is socially accepted that women only take care of the children, house, cooking and cleaning and men are the breadwinners and disciplinarians. The writer Bernard Shaw, who “dedicated himself to tearing down what he saw as the oppressive veil of the Victorian ideal of femininity – that women were selfless, pure, noble and passive” (2215). Damrosch, Dettmar, and Wicke, the editors of The Longman Anthology of British Literature, argue that Shaw denotes the enthusiasm, vigor, and advancement of women who exploded out of the confines of domestic work and entered the workforce British by marginalizing them with the “latest ideas”. However, Shaw suppresses the women; the main character of Pygmalion is Eliza Doolittle, a poor young woman and Professor Higgins is influenced by the challenge to become a good young woman by teaching her to speak correctly. Although Higgins gives her the chance to learn to speak like a lady, it is not through grammar that one advances in social classes but through relationships and hard work to earn money. By giving Eliza the gift of grammar, Higgins says she could get a job at a flower shop and pursue her dreams from there. However, Higgins forces her to pretend to become a typical Victorian lady; the one who courts and then marries a gentleman like Freddy and stays at home in accordance with Victorian ideals of womanhood. Pygmalion presents Eliza as a poor flower girl, hurrying to shelter from the rain. While hiding under a music hall awning, she interacts with a number of people, including Professor Henry Higgins and Co...... middle of paper ...... Eliza appears to have defended against Higgins and supported her. Shaw's theory that Victorian women break the ideals of housewifery and child-rearing, but once she is married to Freddy, or someone else, and founds a family, she will have to go behind the scenes, keep the house and take care of her children. Pulling Eliza out of the gutter and making her a duchess revolves around a friendly bet between Higgins and Pickering. Eliza pretends to be a duchess, but as the play draws to a close, the bet is discovered and Higgins and her feud. The play ends ambiguously, we are told that she is going to marry Freddy but their marriage is left to the reader's choice. However, it is through understanding Victorian ideals that the reader can make assumptions about what will happen once they get married; which reprises the original roles of men and women in the Victorian era.