Friday, August 17, 2007
Ovid's Metamorphoses's Pygmalion and George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion....
As my class has started reading the play “Pygmalion”, I tried to surf on the Internet on the definition of Pygmalion. This word is very new to me as I have never heard this word before. So, I just try my luck to search the definition online. Then, I went to the google search and type the word “Pygmalion” and bundles of results show up with the word “Pygmalion” in it. As I was in no hurry, I checked and read most of it and one that had caught my attention was the one about the sculpture and its creator in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, it talks about a man who carved a sculpture and soon fell in love with his own sculpture. To him, everything about the sculpture is so perfect that he treated the sculpture like a real woman. He kisses the sculpture and treated it as his wife. This shows that the creator is in love with his own creation like such in the play “Pygmalion” as Mr Higgins fell in love with Eliza, a flower girl whom he made a lady. He molded her to become a lady, something that he himself had created and later he fell in love with it. But the differences it that, in Ovid’s metamorphoses, the sculpture is lifeless, therefore, it could not reject its creator’s love but in George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, Eliza is very much human and she rejects Mr Higgins’s love to her and marry Freddy, a very common gentleman. In my opinion, the play “Pygmalion” was given its name as it is similar with the story of the sculpture and its creator in Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Both of them fell in love with their own inventions. The differences are that in George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, Eliza was a human and Mr Higgins’s love was not returned while in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the sculpture is lifeless and its creator’s love was not rejected as the sculpture could not speak. From the online search, I gain more information and knowledge about what “Pygmalion” is all about. Besides, I had also obtained a clearer idea of what “Pygmalion” is, which I think this is crucial in helping me to understand the play better. After gaining a closer view about this play, I felt that my interests in reading the play has grown as I wanted to know how would the story be presented in a play. Interesting! What a beautiful and unique story!
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The common subject in these two versions of "Pygmalion" is love. Both protagonists in these two stories have fallen in love with their own "invention". Like what Amelia has said in her post, the only difference is that Eliza is a human being unlike a lifeless sculpture. She has her own feelings and thoughts. She has freedom in making choices for her own future. She can put on her effort in pursuing her dreams. She has the right whether to love or to be loved.
Reading Amelia's post has given me an insight about love. I belief that everyone has a dream to find out an "ideal lover" which matches them the most. Some may list down sets of criteria to find out who is the ideal lover in their life. Rich, good looking, caring, responsible, capable, honest, lovely, humorous... But the irony is that, no human being is perfect in this world. No matter how good a person is, there must be some weaknesses. There is no ideal lover in this world except you "create" one for your own because only you yourself know what suits you the most. Higgins had no interest in woman at all before he has successfully transformed a flower girl into a lady. I actually doubt with Higgins' love for Eliza. (No wonder Eliza doubts too.) He doesn't love Eliza because of who she is but because she is his ideal "invention"! In fact, the person that he loves the most is he himself. "Love" does not equal to "like". One may "like" someone because of his or her good qualities but this may not be "love". "Love" includes sacrifice. If Higgins really loves Eliza, he must be willing to change his attitude. However, Higgins not only not willing to change himself but he ought to change Eliza to suit him. I consider this is a very selfish action. Changing oneself is a kind of sacrifice. If one claims that he loves someone but is not willing to change for this person, this is not a real love!
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