The structure of
Pygmalion/Play/George Bernard Shaw
Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion’ is a very
well-constructed play. It has:
exposition,
complication, and,
conclusion.
Act-1 works as exposition. Main characters are introduced. Prof.Higgins, the hero of the play claims
that he can train ignorant and ill-educated flower girl, Eliza Doolitle in such
a way that after six months people will accept her as a Duchess.
In Act-II and Act-III, the complication takes
place. Eliza’s training has
started. She begins to change in her
speaking, dressing and manners after the training. Now she is presented at the Ambassador’s
party. This event works as the
climax. It comes between Act-III and
Act-IV, the complication sets in Higgins behaves in callous manners and Eliza
did not have soft feelings of love for him.
She resents her treatment as an experiment. Act-IV and Act-V function with spirited
discussion of the consequences of Eliza’s education. Higgins becomes totally dependent upon
Eliza. There takes place a verbal sword
play between them. Finally, Eliza
accepts Freddy as husband and leaves Higgins, and Prof.Higgins laughs out the
whole affairs.
Thus the play progresses from
ignorance to knowledge, the myth fades into the reality the didacticism turns
from Phonetics to life and Eliza’s spirit evolves from darkness to light. Thus the construction of the play is logical,
artistic and elegant.