George Benard Shaw - Book Report/Review Example

Insert COMPARISON AND CONTRAST IN THE ENDING OF THE PYGMALION AND MY FAIR LADY Introduction George Benard Shaw had many plays but of all his plays Pygmalion was the most used in terms. George Benard had written it as a story, but it has been made a play and adapted into a musical. It shows how Henry Higgins who was a professor of phonetics changed the life of a defensive, insecure poor flower girl, Eliza Doolittle to a fully confident, strong and independent woman. In 1964, a music film known as My Fair Lady adopted the original play of George Benard, The Pygmalion.

Several comparisons and contrasts have resulted from the music film, My Fair Lady and the play, Pygmalion. This result is because, the movie; My Fair Lady has changed, removed, and enhanced some of the details in the Pygmalion. Comparison In both the play, Pygmalion and the musical, My Fair Lady, share almost the same storyline. Although, My Fair Lady is more of musical as opposed to the Pygmalion, which is a play both have the same message of how a professor of speech, Higgins changed the life of the Eliza Doolittle (Aishwarya Moothan).

Contrast The play Pygmalion and the song, My Fair Lady may seem to be the same, but there are evident differences between the two. One of the noticeable changes is that there is a change of play type from drama to musical. The Pygmalion is a drama and enables the audience to interpret characters feelings through hints in dialogues, line delivery and body language (Mark Bostridge). The Musical song gives the audience constant opportunity to voice their exact feelings. The song also acts as a narrative and makes the happenings and developments in the story visible to the audience (Aishwarya Moothan).

They cause the play to lose its complexity understanding in relation to how audience could develop when there were no songs. In the play, dialogues are relatively pleasant, and characters seem to be happy but there is no scene that gives the audience a period of humor and laughter. This is because in the play only Eliza’s personality is highlighted by the manner she speaks which gives are character complexity but in the song Eliza is shown doing things which are mischievous making her character easy to understand (Mark Bostridge).

In the play the role of Higgins is shown as arrogant and disrespectful by the way he speaks to Eliza, “Eliza, where the hell is my slippers?” as if Eliza was his perpetual slipper-carrier (Aishwarya Moothan). Unlike in the song that is more of love, “ He would run to her” and say softly “ Eliza where the hell are my slippers?” It is a crowd-pleasing dialogue and defies the original story, the Pygmalion. There is also a difference in the ending whereby in, My Fair Lady, despite all that happens to Eliza.

She returns back to Higgins but in the play, the ending is a fight between Higgins and Eliza and Eliza leaves never to return to Higgins. The play ends with a fight unlike what people in those times expected, as a play it should have a happy. The musical meanwhile ends with what the audience likes by showing Eliza returning to Higgins. Works cited Aishwarya Moothan. Literary Analysis Paper and Themes in Literature.2013 Mark Bostridge. Review of Pygmalion at His Majesty Theatre. 1914