Consider the play created by Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion). A summary of it is presented in this article. The action of this play takes place in London. It was based on the myth of Pygmalion.
Summary begins with the following events. It rains heavily one summer evening. Passers-by, trying to escape from him, run towards the Covent Garden Market, as well as to the portico of the Cathedral of St. Pavel, under whom several people had already taken refuge, including an elderly lady with her daughter, dressed in evening toilets. They are waiting for the lady’s son, Freddie, to find a taxi and come here for them. All these people, except for the person with the notebook, peer impatiently into the streams of rain.
Freddy gives money to a flower girl
Freddy appears away. He did not find a taxi and runs to the portico. However, on the way, Freddy accidentally flies into a street flower girl who is in a hurry to hide from the rain, and kicks out a basket of violets from the girl’s hands. Flower girl breaks out with abuse. A person at the portico is hastily writing something down in a notebook. The girl laments that her violets have disappeared, and begs to buy a bouquet of the colonel standing here. He gives her a trifle to get rid of, but does not take flowers. One passerby draws the attention of a girl, an unwashed and messy-dressed flower girl, to the fact that a person with a notebook is probably scribbling at her. She starts to whimper. A passerby, however, assures that this person is not from the police, and everyone present is surprised that he determines with accuracy the origin of each by pronunciation.
The lady, Freddie's mother, sends her son back to find a taxi. In the meantime, the rain stops and she goes with her daughter to the bus stop.
Henry Higgins meeting with Colonel Pickering
The following events are continued by the Bernard Show "Pygmalion". A summary of the meeting with Higgins and Pickering is presented below.
The colonel is interested in the abilities of the person who is holding a notebook in his hands. He introduces himself to Henry Higgins and says that he is the author of the Universal Higgins Alphabet. The colonel himself is the creator of a book called "Conversational Sanskrit." His last name is Pickering. This man lived for a long time in India, and came to London specifically to meet Higgins. Tom also wanted to meet the colonel for a long time. These two are going to go to the colonel at the hotel for dinner.
Flower girl gets a "big fortune"
But then the flower girl begins to ask again to buy flowers from her. Higgins throws a handful of coins into her basket and leaves with the colonel. The girl notices that she now owns, by her standards, a great fortune. When Freddy arrives with a taxi he finally caught, she gets into this car and drives off, slamming the door with a noise.
Eliza comes to Professor Higgins
You are reading the plot description of the work, which was created by George Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary is just an attempt to highlight the main events of the play.
Higgins next morning shows the colonel his phonographic equipment at home. Suddenly, his housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, reports to Higgins that some very simple girl wants to talk with the professor. Yesterday's flower girl appears. The girl introduces herself to her as Eliza Dolittle and says that she wants to take phonetics lessons from the professor, since she cannot get a job with her pronunciation. Eliza heard the day that Higgins was giving these lessons. She is sure that he will agree with joy to work out the money that he threw yesterday without looking into her basket.
Bet by Pickering and Higgins
Of course, talking to him about such amounts is ridiculous. But Pickering offers a bet to Higgins. He urges him to prove that he can turn a street flower girl into a duchess in a matter of months, as he claimed the day before. Higgins finds this offer tempting. In addition, the colonel is ready, if he wins, to pay the cost of Eliza’s training. Mrs. Pierce takes the girl to the bathroom in order to wash.
Meeting with Eliza's father
By meeting Eliza with her father, B. Shaw (Pygmalion) continues his work. The summary of this episode is as follows. After some time, Eliza's father comes to Higgins. This is a simple scavenger man. However, he amazes the professor with his natural eloquence. Higgins asks him for permission to keep his daughter with him and for this gives him 5 pounds. When Eliza appears in a Japanese bathrobe, already washed, Dolittle will not recognize her at first.
Mrs. Higgins Eliza's Success
Higgins brings the girl to her mother’s house a few months later. The professor wants to find out if it can already be introduced into secular society. Mrs. Higgins is visiting Ainsford Hill with her son and daughter. These are the people with whom he stood under the portico Higgins on the day when he first saw Eliza. However, they will not recognize the girl. First, Eliza speaks and behaves like a high-ranking lady. But then she begins to talk about her life and at the same time uses street expressions. Higgins is trying to pretend that this is just a new secular jargon, and thus smooths out the situation. The girl leaves the crowd, leaving Freddy in complete delight.
He begins after this meeting to send Eliza letters on 10 pages. Pickering and Higgins, after leaving the guests, vied with each other to tell Mrs. Higgins how they teach Eliza, take her to exhibitions, to the opera, and dress her up. She finds that they treat this girl like a doll. Mrs. Higgins agrees with Mrs. Pierce, who believes that they are not thinking about anything.
Bet wins Higgins
Both experimenters, several months later, were taken to Eliza’s reception. The girl has a dizzying success. Everyone thinks this is a duchess. Bet wins Higgins.
Arriving home, the professor enjoys the fact that the experiment is finally over, from which he is already a little tired. He speaks and behaves in his usual rude manner, not paying the slightest attention to Eliza. The girl looks sad and tired, but still she is dazzlingly beautiful. In Eliza, irritation begins to build up.
Eliza runs away from home
Unable to stand, the girl runs into the professor with his shoes. She wants to die. The girl does not know how to live, what will happen to her next. After all, she turned into a completely different person. Higgins says that everything will be fine. However, Eliza manages to hurt him. She takes the professor off balance and this avenges herself a little.
At night, the girl runs away from home. In the morning, Pickering and Higgins lose their heads, noticing that Eliza is missing. They even attract the police to her wanted list. Higgins without Eliza feels like without hands. He cannot find his things, does not know what affairs he has assigned for the day.
The new life of the scavenger Doolittle (Pygmalion)
A brief summary of the actions is devoted to describing the new life of not only Eliza, but also her father. Let's talk about what happened to him.
Mrs. Higgins comes to her son. Then report to Higgins about the arrival of the girl's father. He has changed a lot and looks like a prosperous bourgeois. Doolittle lashes out in indignation at Higgins for having to change his usual way of life through his fault and become a much less free person. It turned out that a few months ago, Higgins wrote to one millionaire in America, who founded worldwide branches of the League of Moral Reforms. He said in a letter that a simple scavenger, Dolittle, is now the most original moralist in England. The American died, and before his death he bequeathed this garbageman a share in his trust, provided that he would give up to 6 lectures a year in his League of Moral Reforms. Doolittle laments that he even has to marry the one with whom he lived for several years without registering a relationship, because now he should look like a respectable bourgeois. According to Mrs. Higgins, the father will finally be able to take care of his daughter properly. However, Higgins does not want to hear about returning Eliza Doolittle.
Eliza's Return
This play is an allusion (ironic) to the ancient myth "Pygmalion and Galatea." A summary of further events is as follows. Mrs. Higgins reports that she knows where the girl is. She agrees to return, provided that Higgins asks for her forgiveness. He does not agree to go for it at all. Eliza appears. The girl expresses gratitude to Pickering for the fact that he behaved with her as a noble lady. After all, it was he who helped to change Eliza, who had to live in the house of an ill-mannered, sloppy and rude Higgins. The professor is amazed. The girl adds that if Higgins continues to put pressure on her, she will go to Higgins' colleague, Professor Nepin, and will be an assistant. Eliza threatens to inform Nepin of all the discoveries made by Higgins. The professor finds that her behavior is now even more worthy and better than when the girl brought him shoes and watched his things. Higgins is confident that they can now live together as "three friendly old bachelors."
Let us describe the final events of the work of Pygmalion. A summary of the play was presented above. The girl goes to her father’s wedding. She, apparently, would still remain in Higgins' house, since she managed to become attached to him, and he to her. And everything will go on as before.
Thus ends the work of interest to us, which was created by Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary provides an idea of the main events of this world famous play. It consists of five acts. In 1913 he created the Bernard Show "Pygmalion". A brief summary of it can also be found by watching one of the many productions. There is a musical based on her motives ("My Fair Lady").
The play was based on a story whose main characters are Pygmalion and Galatea (myth). The summary of this story, however, has been substantially redone. Professor Higgins does not see a person in his Galatea. He does not care about what will happen to her after the girl turns into a "duchess". However, at first, Eliza, who was sympathetic to her creator, knows her worth. In the book of Kuhn, "The Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece," you can read the story of Pygmalion and Galatea. The myth, the summary of which was taken as the basis of the play we are interested in, will help to better understand the work of B. Shaw.