Identity, Self and Gender (roles)  

in Pygmalion
I would like to start with a brief introduction of the play. The story of the play takes place
in 1910s and it tells the story of romance between a proffesional phonetician whose name is
Henry Higgings and a cockney, flower seller girl named Eliza Doolittle. While Higgings
talking about his new phonetic theories with his friend Pickering he makes a bet on the
cockney girl Eliza and says that he will prepare her for every aspect of the higher social class
in terms of language, behaviour, lifestyle etc.
In pygmalion we can see that identity roles are represented with different ways the first
one is patterns and structures of speech for example the lingual dialects that Higgins uses and
Eliza uses are both a big signature of their social classes and identities. Secondly one’s
physical appearance. For instance as we see in the most of the chapters, the first impression
when the charachters meet with someone new their inner voice mostly forms a first
impression by their physical appearance. In other example at the first chapters Higgins and
Eliza easily descern and judge each other with their physical appearance. As Pickering
comments in Part Four, many noble people believe that one's appearance displays one's
natural identity and character, thinking that "style comes by nature to people in their
position." Somewhat similarly, at the end of the play, Higgins tells Eliza that he cannot
change his nature.(1)
But this issue shows us that the appearance is temporal and could be changed easily with
different costumes. The biggest example for this is Eliza’s appearence transformation for
make people believe that she is from the noble part. It is unclear whether she is really changed
and lost her identity or not. But throughout the last parts we can see that Higgings is doubtful
about her identity because he thinks that in a convenient time she will turn into her old
version. That’s why in the end of the play some questions about stability of identity emerges
in the minds.,
Before starting to talk about gender roles I would like to say some informations about
Bernard Shaw. He is known for being one of the first feminism supporter so he gives more
attention on the females statues and roles in the play.
As we can see in the book the female characters in plays are faced with a mutiny of
challenges from marginalization to being treated as lesser beings to their limited
understanding of the male world (Conolly-Smith 95–121)(2). Gender roles are defined roughly
especially for woman for example the things that they have to do in their life and relationship
is often determined by the society and in fact we can see its effect in the end of the book.
While reading the play the reader keeps on thinking about happy end which involves Higgins’
and Eliza’s hapinness but we see that Eliza makes a choice for herself and marries with
another man who is an aristocrat. With this quick unexpected topic switch Bernard Shaw
wants to show the reader that the main charachter is a woman and emphasizes that may be the
end is unhappy for the reader but the thing that the woman does is her own choice and it is
something that makes her feel like a free woman because in given the times, these were
decisions primarily done by male gender. For the society the woman is expected to come one
step behind the man but in the play we see that Eliza makes from "a thing of stone," "a
nothingness," a "guttersnipe," and a "squashed cabbage leaf' to the final act where she is an
exquisite lady — totally self-possessed, a person who has in many ways surpassed her creator.
 When we look at the main male charachters who are, Higgings, Pickering, and Mr.
Doolittle (Elizas Father) even though they are from different social classes we can see that
they trace the same gender features and the roles that the society determined for them. For
example the egocentric male perspective of the Higging and Mr.Doolittle are really simular to
each other although they are from completely different backgrounds and lifestyles. They do
the same things in different ways to Eliza. Higgings never satisfies with the things that Eliza
do and the scientific informations that he took from her. In the other side her father never
quits to take benefits via using her daughter in really bad and demissionary ways. And in the
end none of them realizes exactly what they have done to the girl in their lives. So Shaw
shows the commonly accepted role of the man about using the woman for mens own sake and
how the society see it as a normal issue.
Consequently we can understand that Bernard Shaw wants to show the reader via the
character Eliza how to change gender roles and what would happen if the roles had changed
and how it would fit perfectly to the real life and current situation of the society but in the end
of the play we can not see that she gained her independence fully because in the end she is
compulsorily constrained to three man to change the way of her life.
Lastly I have some questions;
What do you think about the stability of identity? Can someone change his/her identity totally
and irreversibilly
Do you think that Eliza’s charachter and social statue changed permanently?

Hayrunnisa Kadri
INO222 (E)
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1- https://www.litcharts.com/lit/pygmalion/themes/appearance-and-identity
2- Conolly-Smith, Peter. "‘Well, I'm Dashed!’: Jitta, Pygmalion, and Shaw's
Revenge."Shaw, 33.1 (2013): 95–121. Print.
3- https://www.grin.com/document/439519#:~:text=Women%20began%20taking
%20male%20roles,education%20as%20her%20way%20out.
4- https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/p/pygmalion/character-analysis/eliza-
doolittle