Pygmalion And My Fair Lady

conception devoid of human qualities. Nor may one forget the legends more recent and popular reincarnations. George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and its musical My Fair Lady. There is something very unsettling about myth Pygmalion myth and many of its offshoots. They strike the reader or viewer as defying the logical balance that typically attends Greek mythology and most of all the transgression known as hubris; that is, the human conceit that a mere mortal could undertake a task that is the proper domain of the gods. Pygmalion does just that: he attempts to create divine beauty, which he then hopes to bring to life by force of his will. But instead of being struck down-if not hubris then for his pathetic infatuation with a statue …show more content…
The other great legend of this type is that of the golem, which is said to have been brought to life in 1582 by the Maharal Rabbi Judah Lowe of Prague. There are many versions of the legend, but the motivation for bringing the golem to life was to protect the jews against violent anti-semitism. The golem was fashioned out of clay by the rabbi, who, with the help of his two assistants carried out a cabbalistic ritual that brought the entity to life by breathing a form a God's name into it. In some versions, the golem was killing too many non-jews and had to be deactivated; in others, it grew drunk with its mounting power and became a threat to the residents of the ghetto itself. The rabbi again performed a ritual, the eyes of the golem closed, the soul departed from its body and it returned to a lump of clay, which to this day lies in the uppermost part of the synagogue of Prague. In the story of the golem, human meddling into the artificial creation of life benefited some by protecting them for a while but it had calamitous consequences for others and ultimately became a threat for all. The legend of the golem, like that of Pygmalion, has also spawned distinguished progeny, the most famous of which is Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus(1818). In the drama taken for study Eliza outsmarts her mentor Higgins and becomes …show more content…
She is perhaps eighteen, perhaps twenty, hardly older. She wears a little sailor hat of black straw that has long been exposed to the dust and soot of London and has seldom if ever been brushed. Her hair needs washing rather badly: its mousy color can hardly be natural. She wears a shoddy black coat that reaches nearly to her knees and is shaped told her waist. She has a brown skirt with a coarse apron. Her boots are much the worse for wear. She is no doubt as clean as she is an afford to be; but compared to the other ladies she is very dirty. Her features are no worse than theirs; but their condition leaves something to be desired; and she needs the services of a dentist"(8) in Pygmalion. It is this unimpressive character who rises to an eminent position later and it is made possible because of her mentor Prof. Higgins. The "nurture" pulls her out her