Importance Of Education In The Play Pygmalion

In George Barnard Shaw’s comedy play, Pygmalion, the author recounts a story about a low class girl that sells flowers on the streets, Eliza Doolittle, who gets transformed into a more proper lady who could be able to appear and behave as a high class woman. Though Eliza is lower, as to her socioeconomic status, she has many dreams and aspirations that she wishes to fulfill. Professor Henry Higgins, an academic instructor of phonetics, is a backwards man who does not conform to society’s standards and is inconsiderate in his behaviors and to others. Colonel Pickering is the complete opposite of Professor Higgins and it seems as if they complete one another; he treats other with respect and thoughtfulness. Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering place a bet on whether they will be able to revolutionize Eliza and turn her into a more useful person in society. By using the descriptions and actions of each character, the author established the central theme of the story as the importance of education and appearance on social class in this time period. …show more content…
Education is the pathway to obtaining power in the play’s setting. Without being well educated, Eliza would have been stuck as a flower girl for the rest of her life, with no chances or opportunities to be able to escape her low socioeconomic status and her unfortunate fate. From Eliza’s change from a lowly flower girl to an educated woman, the audience can see the change in attitudes of how people treat her and how she sees herself; as a flower girl, she is treated with disrespect and prejudicial comments, while as a proper lady, she is filled with more praises from others and self-confidence, with numerous acceptable men wishing to become her husband. In the end, Eliza learns to treat herself with self-respect and identifies herself as an independent woman who does not need to care what others think of