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Pygmalion’s correct pronunciations


Liza: You are sheer humbug, Professor Higgins. You think you’re great because you have a lot of knowledge. And because you belong to the wealthy class. But I know what you are. Sheer Humbug. And I also know how to deal with you.

Dear Reader, I’m writing this post for a blog hop on Rewriting the ending of a book. The character who speaks the above dialogue belongs to George Bernard Shaw’s classic play Pygmalion which Hollywood converted into an eminently successful movie, My Fair Lady. The movie did give a different ending to the play doing some injustice to Shaw.

Shaw was not alive when Hollywood made the movie. He wouldn’t have liked the movie’s alternative ending simply because he was against sentimental romance. Even love was a philosophy for Shaw. He would have condemned the movie quoting Walter Savage Landor that “to those who have the greatest power of loving, love is a secondary affair.”

Let me offer a different ending. For Blogchatter blog hop.


Liza is ordered by Prof Higgins to bring his chappals before she will be asked to get out of the house since the Prof’s job with her is over. Liza brings the chappals but throws them on to the Prof’s face.

Well, if you’re not familiar with Shaw’s play… here’s a summary copied from the internet:

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a witty and socially critical play that follows the transformation of Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl with a strong Cockney accent, into a polished lady capable of passing as a duchess. This transformation is orchestrated by Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor, who takes on the challenge as part of a bet with Colonel Pickering. As Eliza masters the art of speech and manners, the play explores themes of class, identity, and self-worth, questioning societal norms and the true nature of independence. Ultimately, Eliza asserts her autonomy, refusing to be treated as Higgins' creation or subordinate, leaving their relationship unresolved but deeply thought-provoking.

Now, back to my alternative ending:

Higgins: [shocked at his chappals falling right on his face] Eliza Doolittle, what the hell are you doing?

Liza: Showing you where you belong. To the hypocritical, shallow middle class. Col Pickering once told me about the caste system in India wherein the highest caste called Brahmins decide what all others should do. But who are they to decide all that? They make a religion, they create gods in the name of that religion, they enact rules in the name of those gods. And thus they, the Brahmins become the greatest, and others become what the Brahmins decide. You are just that sort of a Pygmalion, Professor Higgins. You sculpt people’s destinies. And you think you are the greatest. What is your greatness except the fortune you inherited from a class that the so-called Great Britain created with the same villainy that the Indian Brahmins possessed. When you tell me to get out from your house now because you’ve proved what you wanted to by using me as a mere tool, you think you are becoming a great Brahmin. Am I right, Col Pickering?

Col Pickering smiles benignly.

Liza gives him a thumbs-up. The director of the play will have to make all this dramatic enough. Liza has the spirit of the elite but she was unfortunate to have been born in a poor class. It is not the class that matters, director. The spirit. The spirit that can throw chappals on to the faces of those who make the rules and swindle us.

Liza continues her dialogue since Prof Higgins is rendered silent by the chappals thrown on to his face by a Dalit whom he picked up from what he called the gutters and made a Duchess. Not just a Dalit, but a woman too! Double disqualification in India. Even today. In spite of India becoming an economic superpower!

Well, director, how do you show all that? Your house will be raided tomorrow by the superpower’s police. Your office will be raped. Your bank accounts will be blocked.

Prof Higgins will deliver his lecture then to the whole nation. On the importance of correct pronunciation.

PS. This post is written for the blog hop run by Blogchatter – as you understood obviously.

 

 

Comments

  1. Yamini MacLeanDecember 5, 2024 at 9:44 PM

    Hari OM
    Adaptation to the events of the times - I think Shaw might approve! YAM xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Liz A.December 6, 2024 at 12:19 AM

    We read Pygmalion in my 12th grade English class. As a class. My fellow students did not like the ending. Then the teacher showed us the movie, and my fellow students were relieved. (I had seen the movie prior to this, so none of this was a surprise.) The older I get, the more I think the play's ending was actually better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalDecember 6, 2024 at 6:48 AM

      I too went through similar feelings about the play and movie. Higgins is not a hero for me now as he was when I was an undergrad studying this play.

      Delete

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