G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion: Woman in Struggle between the Hammer of Poverty and the Anvil of Illiteracy

Abstract

The main interrogation involved in the modern century is ‘the woman question’. George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen are the writers for woman’s rights in the early modern century. Woman is the victim of the man’s ego and the desire for property. However, the woman has broken wraps and obstacles and exceeded to behave unwomanly. Eliza, by all means, was the victim of a bet made by Professor Higgins. She has been changed from a street flower seller to an independent and educated woman, although she was unsatisfied with the case and sought to be treated as human being. Shaw rejected the traditional romantic ending, as the mythical Pygmalion, and made Eliza a strong independent woman who was able to survive by using her own skills and talents. Pygmalion brought the statue into life but Higgins, as Eliza admitted, brought her into hell since she could not undergo such life. The bad effect of poverty is the main causative of the woman’s sufferings and being so far struggling for liberty.