NAME GROUP :

PUTRI MIFTA K.
WIKA ANGGRAINI

EL’18 DRAMA ANALYSIS 1

Comparing Shaw’s Pygmallion
and Greek’s Legend
Pygmallion and Galatea
Intertextuality is the shaping of a text's meaning by another
text. It is the interconnection between similar or related
works of literature that reflect and influence an audience's
interpretation of the text. Intertextuality is the relation
between texts that are inflicted by means of quotations and
allusion.
Pygmalion
By Shaw, George Bernard    
Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a
Greek mythological character. It was first presented on stage
to the public in 1912. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins
makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower
girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's
garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility,
the most important element of which, he believes, is
impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid
British class system of the day and a commentary on
women's independence.
In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one
of his sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of
that myth was a popular subject for Victorian era English
playwrights, including one of Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert,
who wrote a successful play based on the story called
Pygmalion and Galatea first presented in 1871.
Analysis

3 steps in intertextuality:
1. Comparing
2. Hypogram
3. Interpretating
Comparing

Similarities:
The main character in both stories equally shows his
disinterest in women. But unconsciously, they are the two
who form a woman into a perfect woman. In shaw's
pygmalion, Higgin trains an ordinary woman from the lower
classes to become a duchess. In pygmalion and galatea,
pygmalion created a statue of a very beautiful woman which
he named galatea.
Differences:
At the end of the story in Pygmalion in galatea, pygmalion
eventually marries galtea. But in Shaw's Pygmalion, Higgin
doesn't even have a good relationship with Eliza because of
the higgin's rude attitude.
Hypogram

Expansion:
In the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, it only tells about how
pygmalion fell in love and treated Galatea until finally
Galatea turned into a human and they both eventually
married. but in Shaw's pygmalion, tells about how Higgin
trains Eliza so that his father doesn't even recognize his own
daughter, Eliza meets Freddy when a higgin takes him to be
tested by higgin’s mother and Eliza who join the party until
finally running away from Higgin's house
Conversion:
In Pygmalion and galatea, galatea is a good figure who does
not oppose the desire of the one who created it, Pygmalion,
and in the end they get married. in contrast to Eliza, she
even dared to criticize Higgin for his bad attitude at the end
of the story.
Modification:
Shaw's pygmalion is a modification of the story of Pygmalion
and Galatea, or modern versions of Pygmalion and Galatea.
if in Pygmalion and Galatea, pygmalion forms a perfect work
of art in the form of a statue, in Shaw's pygmalion, Higgin
forms or trains a woman from a low class until she is able to
behave like a duchess.
Interpreting

The interpretation of these two stories is a repetition where

many scenes from the story of Shaws Pygmalion repeat the
story of Pygmalion and Galatea. An example is the main
character who is not interested in women and only sees women
as things or somethings that can be formed.