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Pygmalion

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Readability Age Range

Publisher

Awards

Year Published

Book Review

Pybmalion by George Bernard Shaw has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.

Plot Summary

Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics, judges the people he meets by their dialect. Along with colleague Colonel Pickering, Henry takes in a lower-class flower girl (Eliza Doolittle) and bets he can pass her off as a duchess after several months of intense language training. The colonel and the professor successfully transform Eliza’s speech and mannerisms, but inside, Liza is undergoing a transformation of her own. When the bet is won and the project is complete, the men are surprised to find that Liza is a human being with feelings, emotional needs and concerns about her future. As she prepares to take her leave, Liza informs Henry that what makes a flower girl a duchess is not how she’s taught to behave, but the way she’s treated.

Christian Beliefs

None. There is some discussion of class morality, but it is never related to spirituality.

Other Belief Systems

None

Authority Roles

Professor Higgins, whose distaste for propriety is evident, focuses on projects, not people. He embarrasses his mother in front of her friends because he lacks manners, and his impersonal nature causes him to bully and emotionally wound Eliza. Colonel Pickering, though somewhat oblivious to the fact that his game with Henry may damage someone else, at least treats Eliza with some dignity and acknowledges her womanhood. Henry’s mother steps in and defends Eliza when Henry’s and Pickering’s disregard drives the girl to run away. Eliza’s father, Mr. Doolittle, takes little responsibility for his daughter — or any aspect of life but drinking — until money “forces” him to become a responsible citizen.

Profanity & Violence

Professor Higgins uses variations of d–n a dozen times. He also uses the words a– and slut.

Sexual Content

Henry’s maid, Eliza’s father and others feel it’s improper for Henry to keep an unmarried girl in his home because of what people will think. When Henry first invites Eliza to stay, she rejects what she believes to be an inappropriate suggestion by saying, “I’m a good girl, I am!” In reality, no sexual impropriety is present.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books.

Additional Comments

Shaw won the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.