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A Classicist's Exploration (Pt. 2)

'Pygmalion' and 'My Fair Lady'

By Stephanie MacLeodPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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Pygmalion by Jean-Baptiste Regnault (1786)

I’ve previously investigated the connections between Pygmalion and My Fair Lady during my A levels, and now years later, I’ve come across it again. The comparison has always interested me, and I consider it one of the biggest examples of Classical reception in the current world. The similarities between the two sources are staggering, and the influence is clearly seen, which I shall digress upon in this article.

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the myth of Pygmalion will have come into your life at some point or another. Be that from the Greek myth, the play of the same name or the 1964 film My Fair Lady and all the songs featured in it. "Wouldn’t It Be Lovely’ is a song that many people will recognise, not just because it’s been used in several adverts in recent years. The songs and names of My Fair Lady are still greatly recognised, most people recognise the names of Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins, showing how impactful this version of Classics has been so impactful on society.

One of the main aspects of the film that stand out to me, is the soundtrack. The soundtrack emulates aspects of Greek theatre that are so renowned, the choral odes. Greek dramas would have featured choral songs between the ‘episodes’ of acting, where the songs were the focus, much as the songs in a musical are. Despite the fact this doesn’t connect Pygmalion and MyFair Lady, it still connects the musical to the ancient Greek world, the world in context of Pygmalion.

In the myth of Pygmalion, Pygmalion creates an ivory statue that he falls in love with. Ashamed of his desire, Pygmalion goes to the temple of Aphrodite, and quietly asks for a woman that matches the beauty of his ivory woman to marry. Upon returning home, he kisses his statue and notices the stone is no longer cold and hard, but warm and soft. He kisses it again, for the woman to come alive, having been brought to life by Aphrodite after his prayer in the temple. Pygmalion fell in love with his own creation, much like Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. Henry Higgins forms the cockney, low class flower girl Eliza Doolittle, into a high class, sophisticated lady, and falls in love with his sophisticated creation. Rather than creating Eliza from scratch, as Pygmalion did with his statue, Higgins morphed Doolittle’s current personality to his liking. Both men created an image that appealed them, regardless of how the image started, it ended in the same way, an image to please its creator.

These stories obviously have deep feminist problems in their writing, which must be addressed. The females are moulded to the preferences of the men in their lives, particularly Eliza Doolittle, who even shows retaliation to the changes to her character at first, seemingly hating Higgins for the torment he puts her through when attempting to alter who she is. Doolittle doesn’t seem to be given a choice in the matter and for the most part of the film, is treated like an experiment by Higgins, which is primarily, what she was to him. The love in My Fair Lady is a byproduct of the actual intention, which is to alter the nature and behaviour of Eliza Doolittle. However, Pygmalion creates his statue from lust, and purposefully creates something he’s likely to fall in love with, as he creates his idea of perfection.

There are many more things that can be said about both Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, but that would take hours to read through and would require a solidified interest in the topic. So maybe one day, until then, lots of good sources about Pygmalion and My Fair Lady in the world, but there’s never enough.

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About the Creator

Stephanie MacLeod

Classicist by nature. Flapper at heart.

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