Bernard Shaw, "Pygmalion": a summary of the play

Consider the play that was created by Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). A summary of it is presented in this article. The play takes place in London. It was based on the myth of Pygmalion.

The summary starts with the following events. One summer evening there is heavy rain. Passersby, trying to escape from it, run towards the Covent Garden Market, as well as to the portico of the Cathedral of St. Pavel, under which several people had already taken refuge, including an elderly lady with her daughter dressed in evening toilets. They wait for the lady's son, Freddie, to find a taxi and come here for them. All these people, except for a man with a notebook, peer at the streams of rain with impatience.

Freddie gives money to the flower girl

Freddy appears in the distance. He did not find a taxi and runs to the portico. However, on the way, Freddie accidentally runs into a street flower girl, who hurries to hide from the rain, and a basket with violets is knocked out of the girl's hands. The flower girl bursts into curses. The man at the portico writes something hastily to his notebook. The girl laments that her violets are gone, and begs to buy a bouquet of a colonel standing here. He gives her a little thing to get rid of, but does not take flowers. One passer-by draws the girl's attention, an unwashed and untidy dressed flower girl, to the fact that a person with a notebook probably scribbles a denunciation on her. She starts to whine. The passer-by, however, assures that this person is not from the police, and all present are surprised by the fact that he determines with precision the origin of each by pronunciation.

The lady, Freddie's mother, sends her son back to him to find a taxi. Meanwhile, the rain stops, and she goes with her daughter to the bus stop.

Meeting Henry Higgins with Colonel Pickering

Bernard Shaw "Pygmalion" continues the following events. A brief summary of the Higgins meeting with Pickering is presented below.

Colonel is interested in the abilities of a man who holds a notebook in his hands. He is represented by Henry Higgins and says that he is the author of the "Universal Higgins Alphabet." The colonel himself is the creator of a book called "Conversational Sanskrit". His name is Pickering. This man lived for a long time in India, and arrived in London specifically to get acquainted with Higgins. Tom also wanted to get to know the colonel for a long time. These two are going to go to the colonel in the hotel to have supper.

The flower girl receives a "big fortune"

But then the flower girl begins to ask again to buy flowers from her. Higgins to her basket throws a handful of coins and leaves with the colonel. The girl notices that she now owns, by her standards, a great fortune. When Freddie arrives with a taxi she finally finds, she sits down in this car and drives off, slamming the door with a noise.

Eliza comes to Professor Higgins

You read the description of the plot of the work, created by George Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary is just an attempt to highlight the main events of the play.

Higgins shows the colonel at home his phonographic equipment the next morning. Suddenly, his housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, reports to Higgins that a very simple girl wants to talk with the professor. Appears yesterday's flower girl. The girl appears to him as Eliza Doolittle and says that she wants to take the phonetics lessons from the professor, since she can not get a job with her pronunciation. Eliza heard the day before that Higgins gave these lessons. She is sure that he will agree with the joy to work out the money that he threw yesterday, without looking, into her basket.

The bet concluded by Pickering and Higgins

About such amounts he talk, of course, funny. But Pickering offers a bet to Higgins. He tries to prove that he can in a few months, as he claimed the day before, to turn the duchess into a street flower girl. Higgins finds this proposal tempting. In addition, the colonel is ready, if he wins, to pay the cost of Eliza's training. The girl leads Mrs. Pierce to the bathroom in order to wash.

Meeting with Eliza's father

The meeting of Eliza with his father continues his work B. Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary of this episode is as follows. To Higgins, after a while, Eliza's father comes. It's a simple man, a scavenger. However, he impresses with his born eloquence professor. Higgins asks him to let him keep his daughter and for that gives him 5 pounds. When Eliza appears in a Japanese dressing gown, already washed, Doolittle first does not recognize her.

The success of Eliza in Mrs. Higgins

Higgins after a few months brings the girl to her mother's house. The professor wants to find out whether it is already possible to introduce it into a secular society. Mrs. Higgins is visiting Ainsford Hill with her son and daughter. These are the people with whom he stood under the portico of Higgins the day he first saw Eliza. However, they do not recognize the girl. First Eliza talks and behaves like a high-society lady. But then she starts talking about her life and at the same time uses street expressions. Higgins tries to pretend that this is just a new secular jargon, and so alleviates the situation. The girl leaves the audience, while leaving in complete admiration of Freddie.

He begins after this meeting to send Eliza letters on 10 pages. Pickering and Higgins after the departure of guests vying with each other tell Mrs. Higgins how they teach Eliza, take her to exhibitions, to the opera, to dress. She finds that they treat this girl like a doll. Mrs. Higgins agrees with Mrs. Pierce, who believes that they do not think about anything.

Paris wins Higgins

Both experimenters still after a few months are taken to the high-society reception of Eliza. The girl has a dizzying success. Everybody thinks it's the duchess. Paris wins Higgins.

Arriving home, the professor enjoys the fact that the experiment is finally over, from which he is already a little tired. He talks and behaves in his usual gruff manner, not paying the slightest attention to Eliza. The girl looks sad and tired, but still she is dazzlingly beautiful. In Elise begins to accumulate irritation.

Eliza runs away from home

Unable to withstand, the girl runs into the professor with his shoes. She wants to die. The girl does not know how to live, what will happen to her next. After all, she turned into a completely different person. Higgins says that everything will be formed. However, Elise manages to hurt him. She takes the professor out of balance and that, at least a little, avenges herself.

At night the girl runs away from home. In the morning Pickering and Higgins lose their heads, noticing that Eliza is gone. They even involve the police in her search. Higgins without Eliza feels like no arms. He can not find his things, he does not know what matters are assigned to him for the day.

The new life of the scavenger Doolittle (Pygmalion)

The summary of the actions is devoted to the description of the new life not only of Eliza, but also of her father. Tell you about what happened to him.

Mrs. Higgins comes to her son. Then they report to Higgins about the arrival of the girl's father. He has changed a lot and looks like a well-to-do bourgeois. Doolittle throws himself into indignation at Higgins for having had to change his habit of life due to his fault and become a much less free person. It turned out that a few months ago Higgins wrote to one millionaire in America, who founded branches of the League of moral reforms around the world. He reported in a letter that a simple scavenger, Doolittle, is now the most original moralist in England. The American died, and before his death bequeathed this scavenger a share in his trust, provided that he will read in his League of moral reforms up to 6 lectures a year. Doolittle is lamenting that he even has to marry the one with whom he lived for several years without registering the relationship, because now he must look like a respectable bourgeois. According to Mrs. Higgins, the father will finally be able to take care of her daughter properly. However, Higgins does not want to hear about the return of Eliza Doolittle.

Return of Eliza

This play is an allusion (ironic) to the ancient myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. A brief summary of the following events is as follows. Mrs. Higgins says that she knows where the girl is. She agrees to return on condition that Higgins begs her forgiveness. He does not agree to go into any of this. Eliza appears. The girl expresses gratitude to Pickering for the fact that he behaved with her as a noble lady. After all, it was he who helped to change Elise, who had to live in the house of an ill-mannered, untidy and rude Higgins. The professor is amazed. The girl adds that if Higgins continues to put pressure on her, she will go to Higgins's colleague, Professor Nepin and will be with that assistant. Eliza threatens to inform Nepin about all the discoveries made by Higgins. The professor finds that her behavior is now even more worthy and better than when the girl brought him shoes and watched his things. Higgins is confident that they will now be able to live together as "three friendly old bachelors."

We will describe the final events of the Pygmalion. The summary of the play was presented above. The girl goes to the wedding of her father. She, apparently, will still live in Higgins' house, as she managed to become attached to him, and he to her. And they will all continue as before.

Thus ends the work of interest to us, which was created by Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary gives an idea of the main events of this world-famous play. It consists of five acts. In 1913, Bernard Shaw created the Pygmalion. You can also get a brief summary of it by looking at one of the many productions. There is also a musical based on her motives ("My Fair Lady").

The play was based on a story whose main characters are Pygmalion and Galatea (myth). The summary of this story, however, has been substantially redone. In his Galatee, Professor Higgins does not see a man. He does not care what happens to her after the girl turns into a "duchess." However, at first, sympathetic to its creator, Eliza knows her own worth. In the book "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece", you can read the story of Pygmalion and Galatea. The myth, the brief content of which was taken as the basis of the play that interests us, will help to better understand the work of B. Shaw.