Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw Mind Map UGC NET English Literature

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Pygmalion: Character Mind Map & Summary

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion: the key characters, the phonetics bet, the famous “Not bloody likely”, the ending debate, a quick summary and the exam facts.

✍️ G. B. Shaw🎭 1913 / 1914🏙️ London😄 Romance / Comedy📜 5 Acts

The Character Mind Map

Tap any name to open the details.

The TeachersEliza’s WorldThe Women

The Heroine

Eliza Doolittle

A poor Cockney flower girl from Covent Garden who goes to Professor Higgins for lessons so she can work in a flower shop. Higgins bets he can pass her off as a duchess in six months. She succeeds brilliantly, but is then treated as a finished experiment. She asserts her independence and walks out on Higgins.

The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.Ending: leaves Higgins (marries Freddy, per Shaw’s sequel)

🗣️ The Teachers

The experiment

Henry HigginsProfessor of phonetics

Role: Brilliant, rude and childish; he treats Eliza as an object. Shaw partly based him on the phonetician Henry Sweet.

Colonel PickeringA gentle expert on Indian dialects

Role: Makes the bet with Higgins and treats Eliza with courtesy, which she says taught her self-respect.

💐 Eliza’s World

Class & money

Alfred DoolittleEliza’s father, a dustman

Role: A comic philosopher of the “undeserving poor“. He gets a fortune from an American millionaire’s will and is unhappily turned middle class.

Freddy Eynsford-HillA poor young gentleman

Role: Falls in love with Eliza at Mrs Higgins’s tea party and writes her love letters.

☕ The Women

Good sense

Mrs HigginsHiggins’s mother

Role: Sensible and kind; she sees the problem of what will happen to Eliza afterwards.

Mrs PearceHiggins’s housekeeper

Role: Looks after Eliza and scolds Higgins for his manners and swearing.

Memory Hook: Three Tests

Eliza’s transformation in three public appearances.

Covent GardenHiggins notes her speech in the street➜ Flower girl

Mrs Higgins’s at-homePerfect accent but “Not bloody likely”➜ Half-made

The ambassador’s partyShe passes as a duchess➜ Triumph

Key Points

What exams usually ask about.

1TitleFrom the myth in Ovid’s Metamorphoses: the sculptor Pygmalion falls in love with his statue, Galatea

2“Not bloody likely”Eliza’s shocking line in Act III, a sensation in 1914

3The endingShaw refused a romantic ending; his prose sequel says Eliza marries Freddy

4Doolittle’s fortuneLeft to him by the American Ezra D. Wannafeller

5MusicalAdapted as My Fair Lady (1956), film 1964

Quick Summary

The plot in five lines.

Act ICovent Garden

Rain under a church portico; Higgins notes Eliza’s speech and meets Pickering.

Act IIHiggins’s Laboratory

Eliza comes for lessons; the bet is made; Doolittle “sells” his daughter for five pounds.

Act IIIMrs Higgins’s At-Home

Eliza’s correct but strange talk ends in “Not bloody likely”; Freddy is charmed.

Act IVAfter the Party

Eliza has triumphed, but Higgins and Pickering ignore her; she throws his slippers at him.

Act VIndependence

At Mrs Higgins’s house Eliza stands up to Higgins and leaves; Doolittle is to marry.

Must-Know Exam Facts

Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.

First Performance

In German in Vienna, 1913; in London at His Majesty’s Theatre in 1914, with Mrs Patrick Campbell as Eliza.

Subtitle

“A Romance in Five Acts“

Preface

Shaw’s “Preface to Pygmalion” is about English spelling and phonetics.

Genre

A play of ideas about class and language, which turns the Cinderella story upside down.

Key Themes

Language and class, identity, women’s independence, and creator and creation.

Printed Booklet

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All the character mind maps in one printed book.

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