Pygmalion the Movie!

Today we watched the movie Pygmalion that was adapted from the play Pygmalion written by George Bernard Shaw. At first, I thought we were going to watch a colour movie so I was a bit disappointed when it’s actually a black and white movie. But then I realized, actually watching a black and white movie was not that bad at all. In fact, I should be grateful and appreciate that I had the opportunity to watch the first movie version of the play. I understand that George Bernard Shaw was also the director of the movie directing together with Leslie Howard the actor/director who also plays the main character, Prof. Henry Higgins in the movie. I found that the movie followed closely to the play. Well, there’s no surprise there because I read somewhere that Shaw was someone who is quite particular on maintaining the originality of his work especially if it’s going to be adapted into movies. If I’m not mistaken he would only give permission for his play to be adapted into movies or performed in theatre if the movie/theatre follows closely to the original work. Anyway, even though the movie was exactly like how the play was written, the only thing that was not similar in the play was the choice of actors and characters. I feel that the actor who plays Prof. Higgins is too young for the character and the thing with the actress who plays Eliza Dolittle whom I feel is too old to play the character. While the actors and actresses who played the rest of characters, Colonel Pickering, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins, Mr. Doolittle is well-chosen. I like the ending of movie compared to the play. The ending suggest that Eliza will come back to Prof. Higgins and who knows they probably end up falling in love with each other.

Pygmalion's Ending-That's it!!!

Finally, I have finished reading the play, Pygmalion, last Saturday (18th August 2007). On one hand, I was happy because I finally got to know what happened in the end but on the other hand I was quite disappointed with the ending of the play. I really didn’t expect that coming. My heart itches wanting the play to be ended in a proper way, by finishing it through the dialogues. I expected that in the end, Eliza and Prof. Higgins will finally be together but as we know, that didn’t happen in the play. It makes me feel frustrated but at the same time it also brings notice to me of Shaw’s unique style of writing. When I read back the ending of the play, I was impressed by the way Shaw had written the epilogue of the play. Instead of completing it in the customary way (that is through dialogues) he gave a narration of what happen in the end. At first I feel like the play was left hanging but actually Shaw didn’t left it hanging. He did gave us some idea of what happened later in the story, only we have to imagine ourselves how it would be looked like. I was also impressed by Shaw’s refusal to follow the audience/reader expectation in the way of how the play should be ended. Having given the impression that Eliza and Prof. Higgins might actually had some mutual attraction (seen during the arguing scenes and also the understated complimentary Eliza and Higgins gave to each other), readers starts to think that they might end up being together. I guess that’s exactly what Shaw wanted to do, to end the play in an unforeseen and unexpected way. But, in overall, I love the play. It's funny, it's sweet and its definitely got 'style'. And most importantly, I really enjoyed reading it while I'm having my 'cuppa-tay'!

"Fate" as One of Antigone's theme

During our last lesson on Antigone last Wednesday(08/08/07), we were discussing about the theme of the play. I remember Dr.Edwin had asked us how can we relate "fate" to the theme of Antigone. He waited but nobody gave any answer then he moved on discussing about "Pygmalion". Actually, I had an answer but was not confident enough to speak it out as I thought it was not a good answer. Anyway, I feel that I need to tell it and hopefully will get some opinion about my answer from those who read this blog. The theme that I can think of, that can relate to "fate" in this play is, "Fate is unevitable" or "Fate is unchangable". In this play, "fate" refers to the prophecy that was told to Creon by Tiresias. Tiresias warns Creon about the downfall of him and Thebes if he ignores the prophecy and that was exactly what Creon did. He proceed to do whatever he did in the play, Later, he realized that Tiresias was right, he was wrong and tried to fix things but it was too late because "fate" had already started taking its course and nothing can stop it. No matter what the characters do to change or to avoid fate from happening was useless. There, that's it. I wished that I can do better than this but this is the best I can do to explain my answer. I just hope that when people read this, they will get my point. Even if they do not understand the elaboration, at least they understand what "Fate is unevitable/unchangable" meant. So if you have something to say about this topic, feel free to write your comment. I really would like to know what do you think about my point or about "fate" as Antigone's theme itself. Thank you.

Welcome "Pygmalion"!

Today, we start to read and discuss a new play by George Bernard Shaw titled “Pygmalion”. I managed to read Act 1 a few days prior to our class today and I had the impression that this is an interesting play. The idea of ‘transforming a low-class flower girl into a duchess of the high-society’ by an impatient, insensitive, inconsiderate, to sum it up, by a pain–in-the-neck professor really appeals to me. I was excited to know what will happen in the end. Reading the play (Act 1) was fun because of the humour in the dialogues is really funny. I was also impressed by the way Shaw was able to write such informative and detailed conversation between the characters especially Prof. Higgins’ character and his (Higgins) knowledge of phonetics. Reading this play has also enlightened me many new information about language studies. I had no idea that one can actually make a living by becoming a phonetician. Their ability is really amazing; being able to tell people where they’re from by just listening to the way they speaks. Then I realized that this is only a play. Do these things really exist in real world? I guess I’m going to do a little research about this on the net. Anyway, real or not real, I still think that phonetician can be “cool” people! I’m looking forward to read the rest of the play and can’t wait to get back to it!