eliza

Rebecca Kon

Donal Harris

English 4W; MW 9:00-10:50

27 Oct. 2010

Wouldn’t it Be Lovely if this Paper Were to Write Itself: AWorking Title

            Intro sentence. Pygmalion, a play combining themes from Greek mythology with struggles of modern day, focuses on linguist Henry Higgins’ endeavour to turn a flower girl, Liza Doolittle, into a lady by changing her speech patterns and mannerisms. In a play emphasizing the importance of words and spoken language, George Bernard Shaw’s careful diction choices aid in character development. One of the few words used repeatedly throughout the play, “fool”, has many meanings, each of which is significant to the transformation of Eliza into a lady.

              Initially Henry uses fool in reference not to Eliza but rather various other acquaintances. Higgins first uses the word when relating to Pickering a menial conversation he had had with a “damned fool of a fashionable woman” (Shaw) at the ball. After a life of navigating the same social situations, Higgins has grown tired of the uninspired conversation of the upper class. He has come to realize that, despite being spoken with perfect enunciation, their words have no substance. As a result of this dinner party conversation, Higgins swears to never again affiliate with an “artificial duchess” (Shaw). Teaching Eliza how to speak and act like a lady causes Higgins to fully understand the superficiality of the upper class’ superiority. Higgins has created his own false aristocrat, ultimately passing her off as foreign royalty.  Having lost interest in the predictable conversations and interactions, Higgins’ view of high society shifts from one of appreciation to one of contempt.

            Higgins first directs the term fool at Eliza as an attempt to regain his social superiority over her. After returning to the house having stormed out in response to a quarrel with Higgins, Eliza puts on an air of perfectly ladylike charm. He calls her a fool in response to her defiance of him, implying she “lacks judgement or prudence” (dictionary) by using his tricks against him (Shaw).While Eliza’s brilliant showing at the ball served Higgins’ own purposes by proving his worth as an instructor, her performance in front of Pickering and Higgins’ mother undermines his authority. Higgins responds angrily to Eliza’s well-mannered demeanour, which only furthers the impression that she has attained an higher level of class than he himself possesses. Higgins calling Eliza a fool for her show of social adeptness suggests Eliza possesses more of the gentile qualities associated with the aristocracy.  

            Higgins again calls her a fool when it becomes clear to him that she does not have the mindset of an aristocrat. In this instance Eliza has just proven herself at the ball with manners rivalling those of royalty, and yet she still places Higgins’ slippers at his feet. After silently enduring a conversation between Higgins and Pickering in which each congratulates the other on the evening, ignoring Eliza’s role entirely, Eliza throws Higgins’ slippers at him in frustration. This occurrence greatly troubles Higgins, initially because of Eliza’s unladylike lack of composure. As the play progresses, however, Higgins comes to realize, with external assistance, the reasons behind Eliza’s frustration, and his perception of her changes greatly. Eliza, desiring only recognition and appreciation from Higgins for her work and progress, views fetching his slippers as a way of winning his approval. This causes him to yet again question Eliza’s ability to become an aristocrat, though not because of her temper, but because of her subservient mindset. When confronting her later he shouts “you were a fool: I think a woman fetching a man's slippers is a disgusting sight… I think a good deal more of you for throwing them in my face” (Shaw).

 She is a fool for being subservient because it shows that while she can act like a lady in company, she does not have the proper mindset.

           

Pivotal realization: she has been a fool, not in the conventional sense, but rather as a jester living in the noblemans house and amusing him. But as the jester often does in the court, she has learned enough from the nobility to use her knowledge to her advantage.

            This realization convinces Higgins she has become a true lady because she has the independent mindset he first started looking for after becoming disenchanted to the aristocracy that first evening at the ball.

byz

Rebecca Kon

Donal Harris

English 4W M/W 9:00-10:50

11 October 2010

Becoming Byzantium

            Byzantium. A city that ceased to exist, at least in name, millenia ago, yet a city that still survives today. In William Butler Yeats’ poem “Sailing to Byzantium,” the historic city serves as a vehicle for Yeats in pondering his impending mortality. Throughout the poem Yeats reflects on the eternal nature of Byzantium in contrast to his own finite existence, and searches for a way to emulate Byzantium’s longevity.

As an ageing man of sixty, Yeats compares his physical form to that of the artifacts of Byzantium. Located in an ideal location for monopolizing major trade routes of the area, Byzantium grew quickly into an affluent city, displaying its wealth through magnificent art and architecture. Despite it having no Christian significance, Yeats refers to the city as holy, fantasizing about the “gold mosaic of a wall” (18). The beauty and power of Byzantium has been preserved through the centuries in its literal, tangible form. By contrast, Yeats recognizes that “an aged man is but a paltry thing” (9). He finds himself hating the human form with which he is stuck, unable to even recognize it as a part of himself. The human body ages and fails, indifferent to the will of the soul within. Instead, Yeats longs for “such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make” (27). Yeats knows that people, including himself, will eventually die and be forgotten, but he sees the buildings of Byzantium standing still with their gold walls, and wishes that he, too, could exist in the form of something of ageless beauty.

Being incapable of existing forever as a piece of Byzantine art, the narrator expresses the desire to exist posthumously through his art. Byzantium was a relatively short-lived city, giving way to Constantinople which in turn gave way to Istanbul. However, without the prior existence of Byzantium, neither Constantinople nor Istanbul, both [adjective] cities in their own right, could have existed. Byzantium’s influence was so great modern historians refer to the surrounding empire as the Byzantine Empire. Similarly the narrator recognizes that he, too, can become more than “a tattered coat upon a stick” if “soul clap its ands and sing” (10-11). The reference to song is a metaphor for all art. Regardless of the artist’s age, the art will always have the capacity for life. It will always be able to evoke emotion and response from those exposed to it, provided the listeners are willing to hear the song. While unable to take the form of “hammered gold” (cite), the narrator hopes to set upon a golden bough to sing” (cite). To find himself in the same standing as the artists of Byzantium, his art as everlasting. By singing from Byzantium, the art

Yeats, despite receiving far greater recognition in his lifetime than most poets do, greatly fears fading into obscurity after his death. Many contemporary poets of the day, the “young in one another’s arms” (1-2), criticize Yeats’ work, arguing that it is outdated and inapplicable to the modern world. Having devoted his entire life to his work, his work being the one chance Yeats has of making a lasting impact on the world, he is terrified the contemporary poets will make his life obsolete. He hopes that instead he can, like Byzantium have laid the groundwork for more poets to produce poetry in the same vein, and that he too can be remembered as the foundation for something great.

Influence. This is Byzantium’s lasting triumph, and all Yeats can hope for is that it can be his as well.