In the first act of Pygmalion, I found myself laughing at all of the sly and not so sly comments that were made by Higgins, the note taker. For example, on page 16, he asks a bystander that was giving him issues if he had realized that it was no longer raining. Without any further knowledge, I could tell that the note taker was going to be a feisty one. Just by this comment alone, I could tell that he does not let just anyone talk to him any kind of way. He seems like the kind of person that would recall all of his prior information just to prove the point that he is right. After the rain has stopped and the flower girl is still standing around, he says that he can pass this “creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days” off as a “duchess at an ambassador’s garden party” (18). When I read this part, my immediate thoughts that I had to write down in the margins of my book were that Higgins is a harsh and sarcastic man.
Another thing that I noticed in the first act alone is that the flower girl is a very sneaky one. While reading, she kind of reminded me of the homeless women on the streets of Italy. My senior year in high school, I was fortunate enough to travel to Italy for Spring Break. One of the things my teachers warned us about was to not talk to or make any type of contact with people who approached you on the street begging for money. They are con artists and will appear that they are helpless. This reminded me of the flower girl because while she was attempting to sell her flowers to random patrons, she would tell one person that she had change for a certain amount of money, but then she would change her story when she saw another person with a different amount.
I've never read Pygmalion before, but I can tell it's going to be good.
First of all, awesome that you went to Italy and that was a pretty neat tie in. Also, I think your first impressions of the characters are spot on, I felt this same way. Higgins seems very selfish and he believes Liza is harmless and I'm interested to see how this might get him back in the end. I was also suspicious of Liza in the beginning. She definitely seems like she is hiding something important to her character.
ReplyDeleteYou also have to wonder if Higgins fills the "notetaker" role specifically so he can recall all the intricacies of conversations and happenings around him. He's not someone I would ever want to argue with, since he is likely to throw things that you said offhand 6 years ago back in your face. For me, this role sets him up as a sort of curmudgeon, always criticizing what everyone around him is doing, and never allowing for any sort of human error. I'd like to think that he sees something in the flower girl that he wants to bring out, but I thimble his view of her as being someone he can polish says more about his opinion of himself.
ReplyDeleteSince I read the play in high school, I'll try to avoid any spoilers in our comments! I will say that being aware of how the characters - both significant and seemingly unsignificant - and their relationships evolve makes the first act even more delightful and humorous!
ReplyDeleteWhile Higgins definitely comes across as a jerk in this first act, I think it's really important to notice the circumstances Shaw sets up. First of all, it's raining, so everyone is crowded together. Secondly, Pickering is there! What are the odds that these two men would happen to run into each other that late at night outside of the church? Third, the flower girl reacts hysterically when she feels threatened. If any of these circumstances had been different, I think the "notetaker" might have been written off as just another bystander. For some reason, I'm much more aware of the author's god-like control over this story than I usually am when reading fiction.