Bernard Shaw Major Barbara Pygmalion Term Paper

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Capitalism in Pygmalion and Major Barbara -- Even a socialist Shaw must bend his ideological will to real-world demands

George Bernard Shaw called himself a socialist and both his plays "Pygmalion" and "Major Barbara" criticize middle class aspirations and social pretensions. The author's socialist philosophy can be seen when it expressed with a certain irony, by Henry Higgins in "Pygmalion," where Higgins comments, that Eliza's offer to pay him in shillings is the greatest sum he has been ever offered, he who has taught heiresses how to speak. Higgins says that, viewed in relation to what the young woman makes, such a sum is a virtual fortune.

This sentiment echoes the idea that, in a socialist economy, everyone gives whatever he or she can, and receives back what he or she needs. The poor flower girl will pay her tutor what she can, and receive back the great gift of education. Ultimately, however, Higgins accepts no money, and demands only Eliza's complete and total freedom and consecration to his system of speech -- a price she never expected to pay. Thus, in an economy absent of money, there is also great danger. Eliza must enter the working world to truly achieve her freedom, neither a student nor a duchess who does not use money.

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Moreover, the overall plot of "Pygmalion," could also be viewed, as a defense of capitalism, whereby ability to generate an image and an income, as Eliza learns to do, becomes the determinant of success, rather than the language and identity one is born into. Higgins' economy of irony and socialist valuation falls to the wayside, as Eliza becomes a teacher in emulation of the man who taught her. She earns her income as a result, supporting the aristocratic Freddie, and refusing to become a part of the non-capitalist communal society of Higgins, Pickering, and herself where all of her needs are provided for her without money. Although money might be something to be disdained, it is the objective function by which the real world works, as one cannot live in genteel poverty like Freddie, or as a servant like Eliza, dependant upon a teacher for necessities like clothes and chocolate.

Undershaft of "Major Barbara" even more perfectly symbolizes capitalist economics. So long has the man makes money, he does not….....

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