In high comedies, the characters are represented in two levels: the individual and society. The individual characters add humor to the play by their personalities. For example, in Pygmalion, Alfred Doolittle mesmerizes the audience by persuading the two upper class men, Pickering and Higgins, to buy his daughter using twisted logic. Doolittle’s downright honesty about his immoral practices also adds to a shocking but humorous portrayal of a character. In social satires like The Importance of Being Earnest the characters’ flaws are exaggerated extravagantly to bring out laughter. To quote an example, Algernon, a character from the play mentioned just above, believes that the duties of morality must be carried out by the lower class so that he doesn’t have to do them. The embellished foolishness can also be seen in the character of Lady Bracknell. When she investigates if Jack is a husband material, her comments about Jack’s answers are utterly senseless. For example, when Jack admits that he smokes, Lady Bracknell shows gladness saying that “men should always have an occupation of some kind.” Similarly, Cecily’s heightened romantic imagination for a person whom she has never met but only heard of shows her indiscreet personality.
What is manifestly noticeable in any comedy is that the playwright makes sure that each character has a specific position in the society. And they make sure these characters hardly ever step out of the generalized image associated with their positions. This is significant for social satires because social satires are directed to bring out prevalent characteristics of each class. And this naturally limits comedies from exploring wide range of human tendencies and emotions. This is where comedies become essentially different from tragedies; they are focused more on presenting the patterns of the society rather than finding out the reasons. In a comedy, characters belong distinctively to one class or the other depending on the money they make. Everything they do reflect and represent the class to which they belong. Oscar Wilde mocks the upper class by making Algernon a person who evades his responsibilities. This is shown through Algernon’s forceful manner of asking Jack to invite him for a dinner because he does not want to attend the dinner at his aunt’s. His belief that the lower class exists only to compensate for the immoral acts of the upper class reflects the common belief among the upper class at the time. Similarly, Bernard Shaw criticizes the society’s flaws by creating characters like the Eynsford Hills. The three members of Eynsford Hill, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Clara and Freddy, are all born into the upper class but lack the money to sustain themselves in that position. But they cannot work because they are born “too good” for that. For the ladies, they would not have been given any education about how to afford themselves or will be expected do so. Through this example, Shaw conveys that privileged birth in turn traps the family’s economic situation and leaves them helpless. Clara, as a young woman, is highly aware of her situation and tries very hard to fit into the society. This is evident in the way she boasts about knowing the “new small talk” and adopts it herself. In a bigger picture this incident speaks about youngsters who do things just because it is today’s fashion. Clara’s phrase “Such bloody nonsense!” brings out pathos more than humor because it shows a person who is in such a precarious state that she accepts things blindly.
There are two predominant categories under play; comedy and tragedy. There are a number of factors that contribute to antipodal characteristic of the two. Among them, characterization plays a major role in shaping plot and ambience.
Pygmalion is a comedy written by Hernard Shaw where the protagonist is not serious at all. Higgins, who is the phoneticians and decides to teach Eliza Doolittle, a common flower girl "to pass her as a duchess" condemns lower class for its lack of morality and higher class for snobbish exaggeration. His lighthearted personality deflates the seriousness in scene of Act two, where Alfred Doolittle comes inquiring about his daughter. The humorous protagonist rules over the ambience of the play and alters otherwise tragic and serious scene into to a mere joke. As Bernard Shaw uses this play to mock the society- like most comedy playwrights did (comedy of manners)- characters from all different society levels are present. Characters usually represent the particular class and in this way, the playwright can mock about aggregate upper, middle and lower classes in the society. With this variety, comedy also runs gamut from that of lower class’s joke to upper class’s intellectual humour. Bernard Shaw brings in variety of personalities in the play. There are stereo typical characters who are bounded and characterized by norms of society, for example, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Mrs. Pearce. They try their best to fit in the category of what is "proper" according to their social classes. Mrs. Higgins represents upper class, Mrs. Eisenforthill, the middle class and Mrs. Pearce lower class (again representation of all different social levels). On the other hand, there are singular characters whose individuality overwhelms norms and rules of society. Higgins does what he wants no matter what people think of him (his own mother tells him “you offend all my friends: they stop comig whenever they meet you”). Eliza also has strong individualism along with her father, Mr. Doolittle. Despite the fact they belong to lower class of the society, they are clear about their wants and beliefs. Mr. Doolittle refuses to take more than five pound when he was offered more because for him more than five pounds is great amount of money and he and his girlfriend would not have guts to spend that much of money-“ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent like; and then goodbye to happiness.” He has valid reasons for his lack of moral “cant afford the, governor”. His truthful, satirical voice makes him come out as strong character and also makes him look confident and satisfied with his life. Despite the Greek Pygmalion myth, Eliza chooses to leave Higgins and marry Freddy after her education was over. She did not wait others, especially socially higher class to make decision for her. The important thing to be noted here is those who have strong individuality are main characters, and those who succumb to the norms of society are declined to minor character. However, in their own position, and in their own ways they reveal foolishness about themselves and the society. Higgins, by being too much about himself, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, by trying to catch up with moralities of upper class when she cannot afford to do so, and Mr. Doolittle, by blaming everything on system of the society.
Characters in both comedy and tragic play always interact with each other and there are always relationships built among them. While all relationships become causes of catastrophic ending in tragedy, relationships in comedy are always constructive. Sometimes these dramatically constructive relationships make comedy look artificial and detached from reality. Higgins and Pickering encountered due to a sudden storm. They turned out to be professionals who longed to meet each other for ages. Eliza, who is only a common girl ends up having pure relationship as student and teacher with Higgins who belongs to upper class. In reality, interaction of two extreme classes never, or rarely happened. Freddy falls in love with Eliza at first sight and he happens to be willing to marry penurious Eliza despite his desperate financial state.
A play is product of interaction between the characters and surrounding situation. Situation plays a greater role in tragedy, revealing the flaws of characters and leading them “inevitable” destruction. On the other hand, protagonist in the play has greater power over surrounding ambience of the situation, curbing the plot and mood. Comedy playwrights manage to mock social system by employing characters from all classes of society with different identity. And these characters end with constructive relationship that leaves to ultimate lighthearted ending.
good analysis...now think what is the didactive value of having stereotypes as well as some characters who refuse to fall into the mould.( Hint Shaw as iconoclast) ...:)
Pygmalion is a social satire. The aim of social satires is to criticize the flaws in a particular society in a light hearted manner. Unlike a tragedy, in Pygmalion, as the play progresses, the characters make discoveries and undergo metamorphosis, yet the results are not lethal. In spite of the complications, the relationships are constructive. Thus Pygmalion has the characteristics of high comedy.
A major characteristic of a comedy is to achieve catharsis through laughter. Catharsis in a social satire occurs when the flaws of the social conventions are exaggerated to such an extent that their foolishness becomes blatantly obvious and the foolishness purges out. Bernard Shaw exaggerates the mannerisms of stereotypical characters representing different classes of the society in order to highlight the nuances of the social conventions.
Higgins represents the learned and the educated class of people. The sense of self-importance that people of this class had is exaggerated and is very pronounced in Higgins’ disdain for almost everyone. The scientific attitude of “studying” things and people with emotional detachment is also exaggerated thus making Higgins seem very heartless at times, especially in his interaction with Eliza. Lost in the their self importance, it was possible that the learned class were sometimes a little unaware of their own faults, however with exaggeration of this stereotype, Higgins seems almost unable to see his faults. He is completely ignorant of them.
Doolittle represents the lowest class of the society. The lack of morality of this class is exaggerated through his character and with it the “irresponsible” and carefree attitude towards life. Through this exaggeration Shaw suggests that the lowest class live a happy life because they do what they want and are not limited by societal expectations.
Mrs. Higgins represents the stereotypical woman of the upper middle class while Pickering represents the stereotypical man. Clara, Freddy, Mrs. Eyensfordhill and Mrs. Pearce each stereotypically represent a particular class or segment of the society.
The only non-stereotypical character in the play is Eliza. She belongs to the lower class but yet has the morality of the higher class. She is a woman and has the sensibilities of a woman with the independence, ambition and self-confidence of a typical man of the time.
The interaction of all these exaggerated stereotypical characters and their flaws, with Eliza’s non-stereotypical character, creates the humour in the play through the occurrence of obviously foolish events in the plot, while light-heartedly highlighting the nuances of the social conventions.
In a burlesque comedy, humor is produced mainly through tomfoolery. At such, it hardly becomes important to develop characters so that their natures as shown to the audience; what is more important in such comedies is that the tomfoolery is kept alive. In more high brow comedy (such as the comedy of manners), characterization becomes more important because the purpose of the comedy is not simply to produce humor but rather to produce it through dialogue instead of through physical actions. In such comedies, natures have to be shaped carefully so that they are parallel (contrast or are similar) to one another and so can produce humor. I have studied 2 comedies of manners (Pygmalion and Much Ado about Nothing) and I have read Importance of Being Ernest and an observation I have made is that many characters possess a high level of intellect. This could be a way of justifying the bon mot that forms such a big part of the way humor is produced. Characters also have to be compatible with each other to a certain degree because the nature of a comedy dictates that all must be well in the end and a general sense of lightheartedness must prevail in the play. When compared to a tragedy, characterization is not very significant in a comedy. In a tragedy, the characters of the tragic hero and the major characters around him (esp.) have to be constructed carefully because the tragic hero has to have one evident tragic flaw (or hamartia) and no other noble quality in him should be able to counteract the effect of that flaw. Also the characters around the tragic hero should lead to circumstances which fan the tragic flaw and lead to fatal consequences (as in evident in ‘Macbeth’ where the tragic hero’s flaws are fanned first by his wife and then the 3 witches). Characterization can be easier in a comedy where stock characters are frequently used and there is not much importance of developing characters because the main focus is not the plot or story line but the dialogues used as the plot progresses. The purpose of a satire (comedy of manners) is to mock and this can be done best when characters are constructed to be stereotypical. So even though characterization is a comedy is significant, it does not necessarily require as much skill as characterization in a tragedy does. The playwright’s skill in a comedy is more focused on the bon mot. In Much Ado About Nothing (which is a relatively raw comedy of manners), Leonardo, Claudio, and Hero are typical characters of their era. Admittedly, there are characters like Benedick and Beatrice who are made to be different so that they can highlight the stereotypical quality of the rest of the characters, but here the main condition of their characters is only differentiation. Similarly, in Pygmalion, Eliza is a non stereotypical figure and is the heroine of the play. She is different enough to highlight the attributes of the social class in the play (mostly upper-middle genteel), but not different enough to not possess any stock character features (for example, her pronunciation is the epitome of her class in the beginning). In Importance of Being Ernest (which is a through and through comedy of manners) all characters embody their social situation and act according to it and for many readers (including me), this is the funniest of the 3 plays.
The books that we had read in our class till now makes us divide the novels into two categories; Comedy and Tragedy. A comedy is a type of writing which is very light hearted humor and was mostly used in the early times when the playwrights would use a comedy to lighten the atmosphere after a tragedy play. But as we gradually evolved, so did out taste in comedy got deeper and thus people started wanting more comedies. The Comedy Pygmalion is written by the author Bernard Shaw. Pygmalion is a satire which mocks and criticizes the ways of the society; it mostly makes fun of the upper class people but in a light hearted manner. Unlike tragedies, where the hero falls because of his own flaw and as the novel progresses the bonds or the relationship shared by the Hero in a Tragedy breaks and at the end he is seen to be alone, for example, in Macbeth written by Shakespeare, the hero Macbeth falls because of the things that the witch had said and from being Bellona’s Bridegroom he came to be known as the Butcher of Scotland. In Pygmalion the characters undergo changes while the play is going on but unlike the tragedy, these changes are not fatal. Higgins in Pygmalion is a typical learned and educated class and has a very high moral and self-importance in him, which is represented in his disliking and lack of interest in respecting anyone or their feelings. Though he is a master of phonetics his attitude towards other people especially Eliza makes him seem more like a heartless person. Another flaw of Higgins is that because of his feeling of self-importance he seems to be totally ignorant about his own faults, which is common in most of the upper class people, Whereas Alfred Doolittle represents the lower class of the society. He lacks the morality of the people in the upper class as he says that he cannot afford it, he wins over the readers because of his straightforwardness and also his crooked sense of humor. They live life to the fullest without feeling responsible. Mrs. Pearce who is the housekeeper of Mr. Higgins represents the working middle class of the society, even though she is a housekeeper, she has high morals and even talks sense into Higgins at times when he is not being reasonable. Mrs. Higgins is a woman from the upper class while Pickering represents a proper gentleman who shows us how gentleman should behave and he is very kind and gentle which adds to his charm. The only exception to the concept of society is Eliza Doolittle; she belongs to the lower class but his morals of an upper class woman. She is a woman and behaves like a woman but has the ambition and self-confidence and independence of a man of that time. The way the play goes on and the interactions between the characters like Eliza and Higgins add to the humor of the play, and though the play is all comedy superficially the deeper meanings doesn’t take a lot of attention to notice, the way the play light heartedly mocks the society adds to the charm and the humor of Higgins just highlights the idiocy of the class system because how can a lower class woman be passed as a Duchess, this shows how the class system is baseless, though something like that won’t happen in reality, the way its nuisance is inflated adds to the comedy.
While there are numerous elements that constitute a successful comedy, the unique characterisation that Bernard Shaw so effectively employs in Pygmalion is worth emulating. With the use of this technique, Shaw manages to attach different layers of complexity to the play, and thus creates three important elements of a social satire – light-heartedness, disparity between social classes, and stereotypical roles.
In highbrow comedy, humour is created through the use of witty dialogue and the dynamic nature of the characters involved. Shaw includes all members of social classes in Pygmalion - the lowest (Eliza), the servant class (Mrs. Pearce), the genteel poor (the Eynsford Hills), and the upper class (Pickering and Higgins), and thus gently tampers with the rigid division between class structures. The seemingly unlikely interaction between members of these social classes produces sophisticated humour that appealed to audiences in 19th century Britain. Unlike tragedy which involves an irresolvable conflict caused by conflicting personalities, the characters in a comedy are carefully constructed to be compatible in nature despite their obvious differences. Moreover, in a tragedy such as Macbeth, Macbeth is manipulated by “fate” and is pulled into a tragic demise by his ambition, which serves as his tragic flaw. In this way, his hamartia conquers his virtues. In stark contrast, in Pygmalion, Higgins is overtly described as an “impetuous baby” whose “manner varies…but he is so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments”. Hence, despite Higgin’s flaws, his blatant honesty allows him to be perceived as adorable and even endearing. Furthermore, while Macbeth’s hamartia leads to moral deterioration and eventually severs his ties with his wife and close friends, the relationship between characters in a comedy is constructive. This lends to an element of light-heartedness that is very noticeable in a comedy of manners, such as Pygmalion.
From Vedya: In a comedy, characterization plays a very important role as the humor in the story is mainly produced through actions such as tomfoolery and sarcasm. To deliver these actions to the audience, it is important to develop the characters in a way that such actions can be delivered. The nature of these characters should be such that they should be able to keep the humor alive thorough tomfoolery or any other actions. Characterization helps the writer of the comedy to deliver humor in many ways.in the comedy, Pygmalion which is a social satire, which criticizes the flaws of a society but in a light-hearted manner, the writer Bernard shaw used the society and the different classes durimg the Victorian age to deliver this humor. The story of Pygmalion had characters from different classes of the society and it has helped the story to highlight the nuances of the social conventions In the story, Higgins represents the higher class of the society. He is classified as a high class citizen as he is learned and educated. Higgins’ character gives himself a lot of self-importance like it is expected of all the people of this class. This quality of self importance is exaggerated to emphasize the nature of his character. Higgins is alos shown as a very emotionally detached person, which is also exaggerated which makes him very heartless at times, as we can mainly see this with his coversations with eliza. Higgins was unable to see all his faults because of all the exaggeration of this stereotypical character. Mrs Higgins also represents the higher class of the society and represents a stereotypical women where as mrpearce represents a stereotypical man of the higher class. Doolittle represents the lower class of the society. the lower class of the society in the Victorian age were believed to be too underacheveing to have any ‘morals’. So the writer was able to use the character of Doolittle to express the humor through his irresponsibility and his his carefree attitude towards life. This exaggeration on doolittle’s character shows that the low expectations from the lower class allows them to live a happy life.The character of eliza is a very contradicting character, the only non-stereotypical character of the story as, even though she belongs to the lower class, she has the morality of a higher class person. The flaws in a character are used as a sense of humor in comedies. And unlike any serious play, such as Macbeth, these flaws don’t result in serious consequences and tragedies as there is a sense of light-heartedness in the play. The interaction between such contradicting characters in Pygmalion creates the humor in the play while, only light-heartedly highlighting the social beliefs.
Pygmalion is more of a sardonic plot by Shaw, who expressed his comments and his critical views on the Victorian society in a light hearted way.His unique style of characterization based on pointing out flaws on the social norms of the society and elevating upper middle class, by showing them as educated characters.(HIggins as exagerated version of upper class and Mr.Doolitle as an exaagerated version of lack morals). Shaw created various characters form all classes of the soceity to achieve the aim of characterization a comedy. In comedy of manners,characterization becomes a major part of the plot as it creates comedy through satirical dialogues and unique style of highlighting them.(characters) The main protangonist of the play is Eliza ,a flower girl from the lower class, seems to be more charming ,cheerful and deliciously attractive.Liza undrgoes metaphorphisis of her character as she leans phoenetics form Higgins.The change is in such a way that there is no downfall of herself towrds the end.But the change in comparison with Macbeth tragedy is quite different. Macbeth the main protangonist undergoes a change that leads to his downfall and a lot of connotations in the play referred to war,death and violence. In a comedy nothing such is seen,a simple critcism of the societal norms are seen. Despite of trgedy`s complications in relationships,in a comedy they are more constructive. Shaw acheived purging of emotions(catharasis) through humour and sattirical exaggeration of societial conventions and stereotypical characters(such as Higgins) while in a tragedy catharasis is achived through a hamartia (dagger scene in Macbeth). Shaw represents the high brow class as educated and learned class through Higgins and Pickkering in contrast with Alfred Doolittle who reperesensts the lower class lacking morality in his expression.This lower class is out of the socital pressures and are completely not tied up to the norms of the Victorian society.Eliza was the character which was not exagerrated an seen to be creating humour throughtout the course of the play in her funny intercations with HIggins and Pickering ,self-determined and a non-stereotype(even though she was from the lower class) unilke other characters in the play. Pickering has been seen as a true gentleman as he always adressed Eliza to Miss, as he would to the Dutchess.
In high comedies, the characters are represented in two levels: the individual and society. The individual characters add humor to the play by their personalities. For example, in Pygmalion, Alfred Doolittle mesmerizes the audience by persuading the two upper class men, Pickering and Higgins, to buy his daughter using twisted logic. Doolittle’s downright honesty about his immoral practices also adds to a shocking but humorous portrayal of a character. In social satires like The Importance of Being Earnest the characters’ flaws are exaggerated extravagantly to bring out laughter. To quote an example, Algernon, a character from the play mentioned just above, believes that the duties of morality must be carried out by the lower class so that he doesn’t have to do them. The embellished foolishness can also be seen in the character of Lady Bracknell. When she investigates if Jack is a husband material, her comments about Jack’s answers are utterly senseless. For example, when Jack admits that he smokes, Lady Bracknell shows gladness saying that “men should always have an occupation of some kind.” Similarly, Cecily’s heightened romantic imagination for a person whom she has never met but only heard of shows her indiscreet personality.
ReplyDeleteWhat is manifestly noticeable in any comedy is that the playwright makes sure that each character has a specific position in the society. And they make sure these characters hardly ever step out of the generalized image associated with their positions. This is significant for social satires because social satires are directed to bring out prevalent characteristics of each class. And this naturally limits comedies from exploring wide range of human tendencies and emotions. This is where comedies become essentially different from tragedies; they are focused more on presenting the patterns of the society rather than finding out the reasons. In a comedy, characters belong distinctively to one class or the other depending on the money they make. Everything they do reflect and represent the class to which they belong. Oscar Wilde mocks the upper class by making Algernon a person who evades his responsibilities. This is shown through Algernon’s forceful manner of asking Jack to invite him for a dinner because he does not want to attend the dinner at his aunt’s. His belief that the lower class exists only to compensate for the immoral acts of the upper class reflects the common belief among the upper class at the time. Similarly, Bernard Shaw criticizes the society’s flaws by creating characters like the Eynsford Hills. The three members of Eynsford Hill, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Clara and Freddy, are all born into the upper class but lack the money to sustain themselves in that position. But they cannot work because they are born “too good” for that. For the ladies, they would not have been given any education about how to afford themselves or will be expected do so. Through this example, Shaw conveys that privileged birth in turn traps the family’s economic situation and leaves them helpless. Clara, as a young woman, is highly aware of her situation and tries very hard to fit into the society. This is evident in the way she boasts about knowing the “new small talk” and adopts it herself. In a bigger picture this incident speaks about youngsters who do things just because it is today’s fashion. Clara’s phrase “Such bloody nonsense!” brings out pathos more than humor because it shows a person who is in such a precarious state that she accepts things blindly.
I liked the way you compared Pygmalion and importance of being earnest! Reading your comment brought out new perspective.
Deletegreat going Kevin...what is "indiscreet" personality but?
DeleteThere are two predominant categories under play; comedy and tragedy. There are a number of factors that contribute to antipodal characteristic of the two. Among them, characterization plays a major role in shaping plot and ambience.
ReplyDeletePygmalion is a comedy written by Hernard Shaw where the protagonist is not serious at all. Higgins, who is the phoneticians and decides to teach Eliza Doolittle, a common flower girl "to pass her as a duchess" condemns lower class for its lack of morality and higher class for snobbish exaggeration. His lighthearted personality deflates the seriousness in scene of Act two, where Alfred Doolittle comes inquiring about his daughter. The humorous protagonist rules over the ambience of the play and alters otherwise tragic and serious scene into to a mere joke.
As Bernard Shaw uses this play to mock the society- like most comedy playwrights did (comedy of manners)- characters from all different society levels are present. Characters usually represent the
particular class and in this way, the playwright can mock about aggregate upper, middle and lower classes in the society. With this variety, comedy also runs gamut from that of lower class’s joke to upper class’s intellectual humour.
Bernard Shaw brings in variety of personalities in the play. There are stereo typical characters who are bounded and characterized by norms of society, for example, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, Mrs. Pearce. They try their best to fit in the category of what is "proper" according to their social classes. Mrs. Higgins represents upper class, Mrs. Eisenforthill, the middle class and Mrs. Pearce lower class (again representation of all different social levels). On the other hand, there are singular characters whose individuality overwhelms norms and rules of society. Higgins does what he wants no matter what people think of him (his own mother tells him “you offend all my friends: they stop comig whenever they meet you”). Eliza also has strong individualism along with her father, Mr. Doolittle. Despite the fact they belong to lower class of the society, they are clear about their wants and beliefs. Mr. Doolittle refuses to take more than five pound when he was offered more because for him more than five pounds is great amount of money and he and his girlfriend would not have guts to spend that much of money-“ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent like; and then goodbye to happiness.” He has valid reasons for his lack of moral “cant afford the, governor”. His truthful, satirical voice makes him come out as strong character and also makes him look confident and satisfied with his life. Despite the Greek Pygmalion myth, Eliza chooses to leave Higgins and marry Freddy after her education was over. She did not wait others, especially socially higher class to make decision for her.
The important thing to be noted here is those who have strong individuality are main characters, and those who succumb to the norms of society are declined to minor character. However, in their own position, and in their own ways they reveal foolishness about themselves and the society. Higgins, by being too much about himself, Mrs. Eynsford Hill, by trying to catch up with moralities of upper class when she cannot afford to do so, and Mr. Doolittle, by blaming everything on system of the society.
continued-
ReplyDeleteCharacters in both comedy and tragic play always interact with each other and there are always relationships built among them. While all relationships become causes of catastrophic ending in tragedy, relationships in comedy are always constructive. Sometimes these dramatically constructive relationships make comedy look artificial and detached from reality. Higgins and Pickering encountered due to a sudden storm. They turned out to be professionals who longed to meet each other for ages. Eliza, who is only a common girl ends up having pure relationship as student and teacher with Higgins who belongs to upper class. In reality, interaction of two extreme classes never, or rarely happened. Freddy falls in love with Eliza at first sight and he happens to be willing to marry penurious Eliza despite his desperate financial state.
A play is product of interaction between the characters and surrounding situation. Situation plays a greater role in tragedy, revealing the flaws of characters and leading them “inevitable” destruction. On the other hand, protagonist in the play has greater power over surrounding ambience of the situation, curbing the plot and mood. Comedy playwrights manage to mock social system by employing characters from all classes of society with different identity. And these characters end with constructive relationship that leaves to ultimate lighthearted ending.
I really like your response :)
Deletegood analysis...now think what is the didactive value of having stereotypes as well as some characters who refuse to fall into the mould.( Hint Shaw as iconoclast) ...:)
DeletePygmalion is a social satire. The aim of social satires is to criticize the flaws in a particular society in a light hearted manner. Unlike a tragedy, in Pygmalion, as the play progresses, the characters make discoveries and undergo metamorphosis, yet the results are not lethal. In spite of the complications, the relationships are constructive. Thus Pygmalion has the characteristics of high comedy.
ReplyDeleteA major characteristic of a comedy is to achieve catharsis through laughter. Catharsis in a social satire occurs when the flaws of the social conventions are exaggerated to such an extent that their foolishness becomes blatantly obvious and the foolishness purges out. Bernard Shaw exaggerates the mannerisms of stereotypical characters representing different classes of the society in order to highlight the nuances of the social conventions.
Higgins represents the learned and the educated class of people. The sense of self-importance that people of this class had is exaggerated and is very pronounced in Higgins’ disdain for almost everyone. The scientific attitude of “studying” things and people with emotional detachment is also exaggerated thus making Higgins seem very heartless at times, especially in his interaction with Eliza. Lost in the their self importance, it was possible that the learned class were sometimes a little unaware of their own faults, however with exaggeration of this stereotype, Higgins seems almost unable to see his faults. He is completely ignorant of them.
Doolittle represents the lowest class of the society. The lack of morality of this class is exaggerated through his character and with it the “irresponsible” and carefree attitude towards life. Through this exaggeration Shaw suggests that the lowest class live a happy life because they do what they want and are not limited by societal expectations.
Mrs. Higgins represents the stereotypical woman of the upper middle class while Pickering represents the stereotypical man. Clara, Freddy, Mrs. Eyensfordhill and Mrs. Pearce each stereotypically represent a particular class or segment of the society.
The only non-stereotypical character in the play is Eliza. She belongs to the lower class but yet has the morality of the higher class. She is a woman and has the sensibilities of a woman with the independence, ambition and self-confidence of a typical man of the time.
The interaction of all these exaggerated stereotypical characters and their flaws, with Eliza’s non-stereotypical character, creates the humour in the play through the occurrence of obviously foolish events in the plot, while light-heartedly highlighting the nuances of the social conventions.
penetrating analysis...think of people who bring out the blindness of higgins...what do they represent?
DeleteFrom Sanika:
ReplyDeleteIn a burlesque comedy, humor is produced mainly through tomfoolery. At such, it hardly becomes important to develop characters so that their natures as shown to the audience; what is more important in such comedies is that the tomfoolery is kept alive.
In more high brow comedy (such as the comedy of manners), characterization becomes more important because the purpose of the comedy is not simply to produce humor but rather to produce it through dialogue instead of through physical actions. In such comedies, natures have to be shaped carefully so that they are parallel (contrast or are similar) to one another and so can produce humor. I have studied 2 comedies of manners (Pygmalion and Much Ado about Nothing) and I have read Importance of Being Ernest and an observation I have made is that many characters possess a high level of intellect. This could be a way of justifying the bon mot that forms such a big part of the way humor is produced. Characters also have to be compatible with each other to a certain degree because the nature of a comedy dictates that all must be well in the end and a general sense of lightheartedness must prevail in the play.
When compared to a tragedy, characterization is not very significant in a comedy. In a tragedy, the characters of the tragic hero and the major characters around him (esp.) have to be constructed carefully because the tragic hero has to have one evident tragic flaw (or hamartia) and no other noble quality in him should be able to counteract the effect of that flaw. Also the characters around the tragic hero should lead to circumstances which fan the tragic flaw and lead to fatal consequences (as in evident in ‘Macbeth’ where the tragic hero’s flaws are fanned first by his wife and then the 3 witches). Characterization can be easier in a comedy where stock characters are frequently used and there is not much importance of developing characters because the main focus is not the plot or story line but the dialogues used as the plot progresses.
The purpose of a satire (comedy of manners) is to mock and this can be done best when characters are constructed to be stereotypical. So even though characterization is a comedy is significant, it does not necessarily require as much skill as characterization in a tragedy does. The playwright’s skill in a comedy is more focused on the bon mot. In Much Ado About Nothing (which is a relatively raw comedy of manners), Leonardo, Claudio, and Hero are typical characters of their era. Admittedly, there are characters like Benedick and Beatrice who are made to be different so that they can highlight the stereotypical quality of the rest of the characters, but here the main condition of their characters is only differentiation. Similarly, in Pygmalion, Eliza is a non stereotypical figure and is the heroine of the play. She is different enough to highlight the attributes of the social class in the play (mostly upper-middle genteel), but not different enough to not possess any stock character features (for example, her pronunciation is the epitome of her class in the beginning). In Importance of Being Ernest (which is a through and through comedy of manners) all characters embody their social situation and act according to it and for many readers (including me), this is the funniest of the 3 plays.
The books that we had read in our class till now makes us divide the novels into two categories; Comedy and Tragedy. A comedy is a type of writing which is very light hearted humor and was mostly used in the early times when the playwrights would use a comedy to lighten the atmosphere after a tragedy play. But as we gradually evolved, so did out taste in comedy got deeper and thus people started wanting more comedies.
ReplyDeleteThe Comedy Pygmalion is written by the author Bernard Shaw. Pygmalion is a satire which mocks and criticizes the ways of the society; it mostly makes fun of the upper class people but in a light hearted manner. Unlike tragedies, where the hero falls because of his own flaw and as the novel progresses the bonds or the relationship shared by the Hero in a Tragedy breaks and at the end he is seen to be alone, for example, in Macbeth written by Shakespeare, the hero Macbeth falls because of the things that the witch had said and from being Bellona’s Bridegroom he came to be known as the Butcher of Scotland.
In Pygmalion the characters undergo changes while the play is going on but unlike the tragedy, these changes are not fatal. Higgins in Pygmalion is a typical learned and educated class and has a very high moral and self-importance in him, which is represented in his disliking and lack of interest in respecting anyone or their feelings. Though he is a master of phonetics his attitude towards other people especially Eliza makes him seem more like a heartless person. Another flaw of Higgins is that because of his feeling of self-importance he seems to be totally ignorant about his own faults, which is common in most of the upper class people, Whereas Alfred Doolittle represents the lower class of the society. He lacks the morality of the people in the upper class as he says that he cannot afford it, he wins over the readers because of his straightforwardness and also his crooked sense of humor. They live life to the fullest without feeling responsible.
Mrs. Pearce who is the housekeeper of Mr. Higgins represents the working middle class of the society, even though she is a housekeeper, she has high morals and even talks sense into Higgins at times when he is not being reasonable. Mrs. Higgins is a woman from the upper class while Pickering represents a proper gentleman who shows us how gentleman should behave and he is very kind and gentle which adds to his charm.
The only exception to the concept of society is Eliza Doolittle; she belongs to the lower class but his morals of an upper class woman. She is a woman and behaves like a woman but has the ambition and self-confidence and independence of a man of that time. The way the play goes on and the interactions between the characters like Eliza and Higgins add to the humor of the play, and though the play is all comedy superficially the deeper meanings doesn’t take a lot of attention to notice, the way the play light heartedly mocks the society adds to the charm and the humor of Higgins just highlights the idiocy of the class system because how can a lower class woman be passed as a Duchess, this shows how the class system is baseless, though something like that won’t happen in reality, the way its nuisance is inflated adds to the comedy.
While there are numerous elements that constitute a successful comedy, the unique characterisation that Bernard Shaw so effectively employs in Pygmalion is worth emulating. With the use of this technique, Shaw manages to attach different layers of complexity to the play, and thus creates three important elements of a social satire – light-heartedness, disparity between social classes, and stereotypical roles.
ReplyDeleteIn highbrow comedy, humour is created through the use of witty dialogue and the dynamic nature of the characters involved. Shaw includes all members of social classes in Pygmalion - the lowest (Eliza), the servant class (Mrs. Pearce), the genteel poor (the Eynsford Hills), and the upper class (Pickering and Higgins), and thus gently tampers with the rigid division between class structures. The seemingly unlikely interaction between members of these social classes produces sophisticated humour that appealed to audiences in 19th century Britain. Unlike tragedy which involves an irresolvable conflict caused by conflicting personalities, the characters in a comedy are carefully constructed to be compatible in nature despite their obvious differences. Moreover, in a tragedy such as Macbeth, Macbeth is manipulated by “fate” and is pulled into a tragic demise by his ambition, which serves as his tragic flaw. In this way, his hamartia conquers his virtues. In stark contrast, in Pygmalion, Higgins is overtly described as an “impetuous baby” whose “manner varies…but he is so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments”. Hence, despite Higgin’s flaws, his blatant honesty allows him to be perceived as adorable and even endearing. Furthermore, while Macbeth’s hamartia leads to moral deterioration and eventually severs his ties with his wife and close friends, the relationship between characters in a comedy is constructive. This lends to an element of light-heartedness that is very noticeable in a comedy of manners, such as Pygmalion.
From Vedya:
ReplyDeleteIn a comedy, characterization plays a very important role as the humor in the story is mainly produced through actions such as tomfoolery and sarcasm. To deliver these actions to the audience, it is important to develop the characters in a way that such actions can be delivered. The nature of these characters should be such that they should be able to keep the humor alive thorough tomfoolery or any other actions.
Characterization helps the writer of the comedy to deliver humor in many ways.in the comedy, Pygmalion which is a social satire, which criticizes the flaws of a society but in a light-hearted manner, the writer Bernard shaw used the society and the different classes durimg the Victorian age to deliver this humor. The story of Pygmalion had characters from different classes of the society and it has helped the story to highlight the nuances of the social conventions
In the story, Higgins represents the higher class of the society. He is classified as a high class citizen as he is learned and educated. Higgins’ character gives himself a lot of self-importance like it is expected of all the people of this class. This quality of self importance is exaggerated to emphasize the nature of his character. Higgins is alos shown as a very emotionally detached person, which is also exaggerated which makes him very heartless at times, as we can mainly see this with his coversations with eliza. Higgins was unable to see all his faults because of all the exaggeration of this stereotypical character.
Mrs Higgins also represents the higher class of the society and represents a stereotypical women where as mrpearce represents a stereotypical man of the higher class.
Doolittle represents the lower class of the society. the lower class of the society in the Victorian age were believed to be too underacheveing to have any ‘morals’. So the writer was able to use the character of Doolittle to express the humor through his irresponsibility and his his carefree attitude towards life. This exaggeration on doolittle’s character shows that the low expectations from the lower class allows them to live a happy life.The character of eliza is a very contradicting character, the only non-stereotypical character of the story as, even though she belongs to the lower class, she has the morality of a higher class person.
The flaws in a character are used as a sense of humor in comedies. And unlike any serious play, such as Macbeth, these flaws don’t result in serious consequences and tragedies as there is a sense of light-heartedness in the play. The interaction between such contradicting characters in Pygmalion creates the humor in the play while, only light-heartedly highlighting the social beliefs.
Samhitha and Rashmika
ReplyDeletePygmalion is more of a sardonic plot by Shaw, who expressed his comments and his critical views on the Victorian society in a light hearted way.His unique style of characterization based on pointing out flaws on the social norms of the society and elevating upper middle class, by showing them as educated characters.(HIggins as exagerated version of upper class and Mr.Doolitle as an exaagerated version of lack morals).
Shaw created various characters form all classes of the soceity to achieve the aim of characterization a comedy.
In comedy of manners,characterization becomes a major part of the plot as it creates comedy through satirical dialogues and unique style of highlighting them.(characters)
The main protangonist of the play is Eliza ,a flower girl from the lower class, seems to be more charming ,cheerful and deliciously attractive.Liza undrgoes metaphorphisis of her character as she leans phoenetics form Higgins.The change is in such a way that there is no downfall of herself towrds the end.But the change in comparison with Macbeth tragedy is quite different. Macbeth the main protangonist undergoes a change that leads to his downfall and a lot of connotations in the play referred to war,death and violence. In a comedy nothing such is seen,a simple critcism of the societal norms are seen. Despite of trgedy`s complications in relationships,in a comedy they are more constructive.
Shaw acheived purging of emotions(catharasis) through humour and sattirical exaggeration of societial conventions and stereotypical characters(such as Higgins) while in a tragedy catharasis is achived through a hamartia (dagger scene in Macbeth).
Shaw represents the high brow class as educated and learned class through Higgins and Pickkering in contrast with Alfred Doolittle who reperesensts the lower class lacking morality in his expression.This lower class is out of the socital pressures and are completely not tied up to the norms of the Victorian society.Eliza was the character which was not exagerrated an seen to be creating humour throughtout the course of the play in her funny intercations with HIggins and Pickering ,self-determined and a non-stereotype(even though she was from the lower class) unilke other characters in the play.
Pickering has been seen as a true gentleman as he always adressed Eliza to Miss, as he would to the Dutchess.