36. George Bernard Show and his literary contribution. Pygmalion.

An Irish playwright. Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. After those of William Shakespeare, Shaw's plays are some of the most widely produced in English language theatre. Irish dramatist, literary critic, a socialist spokesman, and a leading figure in the 20th century theater. Shaw was a freethinker, defender of women's rights, and advocate of equality of income. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Shaw accepted the honor but refused the money. His family belonged to the Irish protestant gentry. His father was an unsuccessful businessman; his mother was a musician of talent. Apart from the musical education he received from her, he was practically self-educated. When George Carr Shaw died in 1885, his children and wife did not attend his funeral. Young Shaw and his two sisters were brought up mostly by servants. Shaw's mother eventually left the family home to teach music, singing, in London. In 1876 he went to London, joining his sister and mother. Shaw did not return to Ireland for nearly thirty years. Most of the next two years Shaw educated himself at the British Museum. He began his literary career by writing music and drama criticism, and novels, including the semi-autobiographical IMMATURITY, without much success. He came to London in 1876, and set to work as a novelist. He joined the newly formed socialist Fabian Society, and became a leading member. Between 1885 to 1898 he was the best music and dramatic critic of his time. In 1898 Shaw married the wealthy Charlotte Payne-Townshend. They settled in 1906 in the Hertfordshire village of Ayot St. Lawrence. Shaw remained with Charlotte until her death, although he was occasionally linked with other women. He carried on a passionate correspondence over the years with Mrs. Patrick Campbell, a widow and actress, who got the starring role in PYGMALION. All the other actresses refused to say the taboo word 'bloody' that the playwright had put in the mouth of Eliza.

Pygmalion

Pygmalion was originally written for the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell. Later the play became the basis for two films and a musical. In his plays Shaw combined contemporary moral problems with ironic tone and paradoxes, "Shavian" wit, which have produced such phrases as… Pygmalion is a play by G. Bernard Shaw, written in 1912 and first staged in English in 1914. It is the story of Professor Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who wagers that he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into the toast of London society merely by teaching her how to speak with an upper-class accent. In the process, he becomes fond of her and attempts to direct her future, but she rejects his domineering ways and marries a young aristocrat. At the end of the play, Eliza leaves Higgins to marry the aristocrat Freddy Eynsford-Hill. Shaw, annoyed by the tendency of audiences, actors, and even directors to seek 'romantic' re-interpretations of his ending, later wrote an essay for inclusion with subsequent editions in which he explained precisely why it was impossible for the story to end with Higgins and Eliza getting together.

About the play

The original stage play shocked audiences by Eliza's use of a swear word. Humor is drawn from her ability to speak well, but without an understanding of the conversation acceptable to polite society.

The staging

Shaw completed Pygmalion and later that same year it was translated into German. This is important because the very first performance was played by English actors in Vienna, Austria, with none other than Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle.

The language

For example, when asked whether she is walking home, Eliza replies, 'Not bloody likely!' The actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell, for whom Shaw wrote the role, was thought to risk her career by uttering the line.