Pygmalion Timed Write

Prompt

Many works of literature feature characters who accept or reject a hierarchical structure. This hierarchy may be social, economic, political, or familial, or it may apply to some other kind of structure

From the play Pygmalion, choose a character that responds to a hierarchy in some significant way. Then in a well-written AP paragraph, analyze how that character's response to the hierarchy contributes to an interpretation of the work as a whole.

Response

In the play Pygmalion, Eliza Doolittle's navigation through the ranks of a rigid social hierarchy form the premise of her transformation as well as Bernard's commentary on such structures. Initially, Eliza Doolittle is near the bottom of this hierarchy, portrayed as a flower girl with nothing better to do than "bothering" others for money. This, in combination with visual descriptions of her appearance and auditory details of her accent, set the stage for her opportunity to grow. She then meets Higgins, who represents the upper ranks of this rigid social hierarchy through his physical possessions and his esteemed education background. As Higgins takes Eliza in, Eliza develops skills where she's able to blend in to the upper society - forming this mirage of her being a "duchess". However, when Higgins' experiment is finished, Eliza is thrown aside, which ultimately leads her grappling with her original identity and this superficial image Higgins invokes within herself. Shaw's and the superficial portrayal of Eliza's journey underscores the artificiality of social hierarchies while bringing light to qualities such as individualism and self-definition. Through Eliza, Pygmalion seeks to redefine the definitions of social structures, suggesting that self-worth and identity should not be confined by arbitrary societal hierarchies.