Abstract：Pygmalion is a masterpiece with a strong comic touch，written by George Bernard Shaw，the great Irish playwright.Through the evidence from two literature elements，this paper will answer why Pygmalion is so successful as a comedy.

Key Words：Pygmalion? Trait of comedy? Characterization? ?Style

Introduction

In Pygmalion，Shaw shows with comic and dramatic features the rags-to-riches process of the flower girl Eliza under the thumb of a talented phonetician named Higgins，revealing the hypocrisy，selfishness and snobbery of the capitalist upper class.The following passages will explore its trait of comedy from two aspects：the dramatic characterization with deliberately selected details and the humorous and ironic style with thought-provoking philosophy，providing analyses and making comparisons with other excellent works（Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness and Oscar Wildes The importance of Being Earnest）.

The Dramatic Characterization with Deliberately Selected Details

Higgins，the hero of Pygmalion，is the most typical comic character who has no self-knowledge，stubborn and blindly confident.However，in Shaws portrayal，Higgins is not at all obnoxious，instead，he seems adorable.

The Dramatic Characterization

As a talented phonetician born in wealthy family from upper class，Higgins is supposed to be a “book-learned gentleman”.For one thing，he can accurately distinguish between accents from different regions and even from different streets in London.For another，his mother was elegant and dignified，and the decoration of her home reveals the accumulation of culture and capital of his family.

Nonetheless，Higgins is surprisingly different from what people can feel from his appearance，identity，and status.He is foul-mouthed and irritable，using inelegant or even dirty words out of place with him，such as “ Damn”.In addition，he is conceited and arrogant，regarding Eliza as merely a “squashed cabbage leaf” and a “thing” that has no dignity and could be disposed of at will.No wonder Eliza calls him a “cruel tyrant”.

Apart from the image contrast of Higgins mentioned above，there is another personality contrast of him that is interesting and cute.That is，a seemingly mature man who thinks he has seen through the world of mortals and plans to die alone is literally an extremely immature child with low EQ.Shaw forms Higgins through real and evocative language and action descriptions：he would speak directly to his mothers guest “We were interrupted.Damn it！”，and thus frighten the guest into half rising and saying “ Are we in the way？”;he would behave himself in public and make remarks out loud on peoples pronunciation，offending them and sparing them no face;he would behave in childish manners venting his anger on innocent stuff after being scolded by mother for being impolite.

Different Choices of Details Between Shaw and Conrad

Admittedly，the dramatic characterization with such unexpected image contrasts arouses my curiosity and love for Higgins.And it is with the sensible and impressive details of daily life piled up one by one that Shaw presents me with a multidimensional and authentic Higgins.More importantly，the choice of these details and scenes contributes to the final image of this character whether it can be comic and favorable.

Using the same technique（dramatic characterization），Conrad creates the lamentable and loathsome Kurtz with a dark heart.An educated white man of English and French decent who wanted to spread civilization to savage Africa，turns out to be a cruel and greedy colonist.

Like Shaws lovely details for Higgins，the true colors of Kurtz are also hidden in the small scenes of Conrads design：Kurtz considers everything to be his property，as people can often hear he claiming “ My intended，my ivory，my station，my river，my-...”;he is terrible，and murderous as a veritable exploiter，because he threatens people to hand over what he wants，such as ivory，or he would kill them，whats worse，he reasonably argues that “there was nothing on earth to prevent him killing whom he jolly well pleased”;he seems cowardly and despairing with his conscience tortured，for only two words，“The horror！ The horror！”，remains after his death.After all veils are lifted，I feel nothing but disgust and pity for Kurtz.

By comparing the characterization of Higgins and Kurtz，therefore，we can see that to create an attractive and interesting comic character，it is not enough to create character contrasts，but to present some particularly toughing details which can evoke positive emotions rather than negative ones.

The Humorous and Ironic Style with Thought-Provoking Philosophy

The Humorous Language and Use of Irony

Shaws language is vivid and humorous，painting ludicrous pictures in mind.When Eliza makes her debut，Shaw describes her appearance this way，“Her hair needs washing rather badly：its mousy color can hardly be natural.” It demonstrates her untidiness vividly by guiding people to quickly associate the dirty and smelly rat with her.Besides，seeing how Higgins is set to behave after being scolded by his mother，I suspect that Shaw is writing about my five-year-old nephew：“He goes to the divan，stumbling into the fender and over the fire-irons on his way;Extricating himself with muttered imprecations.And finishing his disastrous journey by throwing himself so impatiently on the divan that he almost breaks it.”

Another feature of Shaws style in Pygmalion is the use of irony.After Eliza，a flower girl living in the gutter and uttering “such depressing and disgusting sounds”，has been exquisitely dressed and taught to speak with “pedantic correctness of pronunciation and great beauty of tone”，she is considered as a noble princess.The messy appearance，the slang（eg.Garn！ Ah-ow-oo?。゛nd grammatical errors（eg.I aint done nothing wrong）in Elizas speech are reflections of her poor education and low social status.Surprisingly，just put on her nice clothes and teach her to communicate in standard English，then shes transformed into an aristocrat and successfully sheds her past image.Therefore，is it true that the gentlemen and ladies of the upper class have their way by virtue of a beautiful suit of clothes or a good pronunciation of English？ Dont they have anything else？

Thought-Provoking Dialogues

Apart from the humorous depiction of characters and the irony of the privileged，Shaw also uses polemical dialogues to provoke the audiences thoughts and lead us to re-examine the existing problems in society.

In terms of the dialogue between Higgins and Eliza in the first act，it is clear that the dominant power lies with Higgins.He is confident，proud and calm while Eliza is timid，coarse and emotional.However in the last act，the dominant power lies with Eliza.She looks sunny，self-possessed and quiet whereas Higgins behaves savagely，noisily，and boyishly.This dramatic reversal demonstrates that Eliza has developed her own thoughts and she knows clearly what she desires（“more friendly like”），yet Higgins still basks in his old spiritual world.

With unequal conversations rising to equal conversations，Shaw let the audience hear from the bottom of the people that they long to be treated justly and to live in amity with the rest of the classes.Class differences between people cannot be easily changed，but attitudes towards people can.

If Wilde is the Author of Pygmalion

Providing that Wilde，who is pretty good at playing with words，had written Pygmalion，I guess he would prefer to name Eliza as Princess and Higgins as Tyran（tyrant）or something to achieve the comic effect of irony with puns，just like what he has done in The importance of Being Earnest.

Furthermore，Wilde might add some aphorisms to Higginss early and Elizas later language in simple present tense with absolute determiners，such as “all/every/never”，so as to show the contrast between high-sounding and boastful words from Higgins and real sentiments of Eliza and indicate the transfer of knowledge-related power.

Whether it is Oscar Wilde who elaborates at lexical level，or George Bernard Shaw who pays attention to the relationship between language，context and characters，they both succeed in making the audience laugh and receive the message behind the words.

Conclusion

In short，Pygmalion sets a good example that whether through the descriptions of the contrasts of character image or the deviations and changes of the text itself to show the trait of comedy，it is necessary to make the audience reflect on the hidden issues while laughing.If it can only drive people laughing for the sake of laughing，the work will lack depth and weight.

References

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作者簡介：

寧曦（1998—），女，漢族，四川成都，在讀本科，華南理工大學，研究方向：外國語學院商務英語