It's spring, and what a way to start off the new season with flowers and an image make-over. Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw, is about a flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, in Victorian England whose "kerbstone English will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days" (Shaw, Act I). Luckily, Professor Henry Higgins comes to Eliza's aid as a supportive patron.
. . . [she] utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.
Isn't it great to have a loving patron who will compliment you and be concerned about your welfare. I certainly wish I could have someone as understanding as Professor Higgins to "help me talk good," and could "pass [me] off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party," or "could even get [me] a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English" (Shaw, Act I).
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| Courtesy of Goodreads.com |
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