Pygmalion

Neprovereni izvori tvrde da je Šo zaveštao milionsku sumu za onoga koji bude reformisao englesko pismo po ugledu na Vukovu reformu. Ne ulazeći u istinitost ove vesti, poznato je njegovo interesovanje za fonetiku, muziku i pitanja jezika. Međutim, u „Pigmalionu” ne postoji nikakav inventivan, avangardni sloj zvučanja (ako se izuzme Elizino arlaukanje prevedeno kao „Aaaaaahauuuuh!”), već je prikazan rezultat jezičkog delovanja, jedna vrsta instant PR kursa (vođena od strane profesora fonetike), koji vodi do uspinjanja na društvenoj lestvici. Šo je veoma pristupačno i plastično pokazao moć (transformacije) lične prezentacije, koja, istina, ima i duplo dno: „istinska i stvarna razlika između jedne dame i jedne ulične cvećarke nije u tome kako se ona ponaša nego kako se ophode pre njoj.”
I kada bih režirao ovaj komad, čitao bih ga ne u klasnom ili sentimentalnom, nego u marketinškom ključu.

Nema nikakve veze sa delom, ali dodaću da je Šo bio i antivakcinaš, vegetarijnac, eugeničar, izuzetno dugovek čovek (94 godine). Vinaver ga je izuzetno cenio i napisao je dva odlična teksta o njegovom delu (u jednom ga poredi sa Ibzenom, u drugom se žali kako nisu prevedeni njegovi smehotresni predgovori): „Naši kritičari, zavedeni neprisiljenošću, tehničkim bleskom, majstorijom, prividnom površnošću Bernarda Šoa dozvolili su sebi neoprostive i smešne ispade prema ovom najsmelijem, najokatijem kritičaru i razviđaču društva, prema ovom logičaru najsnažnijega zamaha, koji tera uvek samo iz zdravoga korena, iz prave, dokučene dubine, iz podzemnog nerazmrsivog spleta svih naših savremenih problema.” (Vinaver, „Duša, zver, svest”, 310)

Ne može se bolje od Vinavera.
Čak i kad nije u pravu.

“Independence? That's middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.”

Such a masterful writing! Elegantly sarcastic humour with an underlying theme of social value and a profound reflection on human personality. And George Bernard Shaw was a master humorist and a brilliant prose writer. I just loved every line of this play.

Only to be a comedic play on the surface, it went to comment on the middle class social value, men-women power dynamics and most of all on human behaviour. A not very well brought up women is groomed intellectually and physically to become someone else she never was–as she becomes the masterpiece made by a men. Can she ever go back to that old self and social values? If not, then how can she survive artificial social value knowing that it is not hers? She is lost. But Bernard Shaw didn’t end his reflections here. He dived even deeper into the soul.. And let us readers be conscious about the fact that his play doesn’t offer happy endings or what we expects in romantics...rather we the face bitter realities as we do in our life as well. At that moment, the play stops being play,instead becomes a mirror of our own selves,where we gaze into our own abyss. In a moment, we become those characters ourselves. Even now this play remains as relevant as it was at that time,just like something in humans which never change.

المسرحية رائعة .. بها كوميديا من نوع خاص احببته

أولا عن اسم المسرحية : "بيجماليون" وهو بطل اسطورة يونانية قديمة

كان (بجماليون) نحّات عظيم يكره النساء، لذلك أخذ على نفسه عهدا بألا يتزوج او يفكر في النساء وقرر ان يهب حياته لفنه الذي ابدع فيه، فصنع تمثال من العاج يمثل امرأة جميلة، ولكن بجماليون اصابه أمر لم يكن يخطر بباله فقد احب تمثاله حبا شديدا واصبح يقضي معه ساعات الليل الطويلة يقبله ويدغدغ يديه ووجهه



كان يفعل كل ذلك وهو يتخيل انه امامه امرأة حقيقية وليس تمثالا ، ثم حاول بجماليون لفترة من الزمن ان يقلد الاطفال الصغار فيفعل معها ما يفعلونه مع دُماهم: يلاطفها ويلاعبها ويكسوها بالملابس الفاخرة ، يأتيها بالهدايا الثمينة كالعطور والورود والعصافير

فى يوم العيد، ذهب (بجماليون) إلى المعبد ودعا (فينوس) وهى إلهة الحب أن تحيي التمثال، وبعد طول وقوف ورجاء رأى بجماليون الشعلة تضطرم في الهواء فوق المعبد ثلاث مرات وكان هذا دليلا على رضا فينوس واستجابتها لتوسلاته ورجائه فاستراحت نفس بجماليون وشعر بالتفاؤل وبدأ الامل يتسرب الى قلبه مرة اخرى .



فلما عاد دبت الحياة فى التمثال وكانت امراة غاية فى الجمال فسماها (جالاتيا) وتزوجها



ثانيا عن أحداث المسرحية : فتدور حول البروفيسور فى علم الصوتيات (هنرى هيجنز) الذى يقابل بائعة ورد جاهلة (إليزا) وتذهب إليه لتطلب منه تعليمها النطق السليم لتتمكن من إدارة محل للزهور بدلا من كونها بائعة متجولة



راهن (هنرى) أحد زملاؤه (بيكرينج) على تحويلها إلى سيدة مثقفة وراقية خلال 6 أشهر وتقديمها فى حفل حيث لا يعرف أحد أصلها وتم له ذلك فعلا بفضل مساعدة (إليزا) لكن (هنرى) كان يُرجع الفضل إلى قدراته ومهاراته



يجب الإشارة إلى أن (هنرى) أيضا كـ(بجماليون) كان يكره النساء لذا بقى أعزب رغم بلوغه الأربعين



كانت المشكلة بعدها فى أن الفتاة لم تستطع العودة إلى عالمها الأصلى كبائعة للزهور بعد التغير الذى حدث لها، ولم يكن يهتم أستاذها بذلك فقد نجحت تجربته وكسب الرهان ولا يهمه ما سيحدث لها بعد ذلك

كانت (إليزا) تحب معاملة (بيكرينج) لها فقد كان يحترمها ويلقبها بالأنسة على عكس (هنرى)



تركت (إليزا) المنزل ولجأت لوالدة البروفيسور (هنرى) الذى سرعان ما أحس بغيابها فقد كانت ترتب مواعيده وتساعده فى اختيار ملابسه بل وتحضر له الخف

ذهب (هنرى) إلى والدته وهناك وجد تلميذته، لكن (شو) ترك النهاية مفتوحة أمام القارئ، فهل تعود (إليزا) مرة أخرى؟ وهل يتزوجها (هنرى)؟



يقول (برنارد شو) عن بطلة مسرحيته "إليزا لم تكن تصلح لعلاقات الحب التقليدية،لأن جميع النساء يحبون من يتحكم فيهم، وإن لم يكن يضربهم ويخوفهم أيضا"
اعتقد أن المقولة صحيحة إلا أنها لا تنطبق على جميع النساء


قرأت المسرحية بلغتها الأصلية وكانت ممتعة جدا، على الرغم من أنى أكره القراءة بالإنجليزية

ثالثا الجوائز : فازت المسرحية بجائزتى نوبل (في الأدب) والأوسكار (لأحسن سيناريو)
رفض (برنارد شو) جائزة نوبل حين قدمت له فى البداية وقال: " إن هذا طوق نجاة يلقى به إلى رجل وصل فعلا إلى بر الأمان، ولم يعد عليه من خطر"

رابعا :
تحولت المسرحية إلى العديد من الأفلام والمسرحيات (مع وجود بعض الاختلافات) أبرزها الفيلم الغنائى "My Fair Lady (1964)" لـ أودرى هيبورن و ريكس هاريسون
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058385/

أما فى مصر فكانت المسرحية الكوميدية "سيدتى الجميلة" لفؤاد المهندس وشويكار التي امتعتني واضحكتني في طفولتي (ولا زالت)

Pygmalion had really great messages, especially for the time, about social classes and female empowerment. Eliza really did kick some ass (metaphorically... although there was some shoe throwing too) for the early 20th century. I really liked Eliza and her journey as well as her ending. Higgins was, of course (as was the point I think), annoying by the end. Overall, the messages and especially the main female character were my favourite points about the play.

n   Pygmalion was an ancient Greek legend, who was a sculptor and a king. He fell in love with his ivory statue of his own ideal woman. He prayed. In response to his prayer, the Goddess gave life to the statue and then the king married it. n

This much of information was sufficient for me to know why the title of this book was chosen by G.B. Shaw, Pygmalion. I very much liked the character of Mr. Higgins in the play. He is a professor and scientist of phonetics and very confident about his knowledge and acumen.

While reading the book I realized that everyone is like Pygmalion. Everyone likes and adores whatever is created by him or her. Three years old daughter of my neighbor first makes a bridge from the cards and then claps and laughs seeing it, and during this spree when someone breaks it or it is shattered by the wind, she weeps. She perhaps loves her creation. Though momentary, she expresses the feelings of love and pain with a unique sort of fervor to those childish maneuvers and efforts. I too was probably like Pygmalion when I was a kid, but unlike this small daughter of my neighbor, I did not feel pain when one day my creation was destroyed!

My creation was a cat made up of snow. When one day there occurred, an event of very heavy snowfall, all houses and trees were covered with the white sheet of snow and remained covered for a few days. I made a sculpture of a cat out of that snow, just outside the window of my room. It was not a replica of a cat, In fact it looked like a small cow, a bit bulky in size and a bit distorted but still it was a cat for me and I had placed a few whiskers of string on its front bulging shape, which according to me was the mouth of my cat, and I inserted two small round glass shooters, a few inches above those whiskers to make them look like eyes of my cat. My this awkward-looking cat remained there just outside the window of my room for two days possibly. There was not at all sunshine for two days. The temperature was below zero and the snow did not melt. I kept watching my cat again and again and adored its ludicrous shape during those two days.

Then the third day Sun shone with all its brilliance and in the very morning time itself, my cat melted away and disappeared. But I did not feel bad as I knew by that time if the snow would be there again, I would recreate my cat again. However, in that season, there was no snowfall again. And in the next season, I was one year older and the Pygmalion within me was now matured enough to make other kinds of creations!
I am talking about all this rubbish because these two events just flashed over my mind when I was reading this play. The character of Prof Higgins was very much like me when I was a kid …. Overconfident and heartless!

I read this book for the first time and this was a wonderful experience. Then I watched the 1938 movie of Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle and this movie extraordinarily complemented my experience of reading the book.
What a fine movie and wonderful acting by its cast!
The only difference between the play and the movie was its ending. Shaw kept his play realistic but there is a different ending in the movie, there might have been commercial reasons behind this change!

Coming back to the book, there are 5 acts in this play. The beginning of this play is so sweet. Thunders and then rain. People rushing into the shelters…. closing a dripping umbrella… in the street. A street flower girl calling the name of a young man and a mother and daughter asking the street flower girl….

n   “Now tell me how you know that young gentleman’s name?”n

Prof. Higgins, a scientist of phonetics, takes a challenge that he will be able to transform the cockney speaking Covent Garden flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a woman as poised and well-spoken as a duchess. He meets his challenge wonderfully.

“There are such fools that they think style comes by nature to people in their position, and so they never learn. There is always something professional about doing a thing superlatively well.”

Higgins is so obsessed with his work and knowledge that he hardly appreciates anything else, whether they are emotions or other trivial felicities of our surroundings. When Liza feels something for him and he denies her. She feels letdown.

Liza: what did you do it for if you didn’t care for me?

Higgins: Why, because it was my job.

Liza: you never thought of the trouble it would make for me.

Higgins: Would the world ever have been made if its maker had been afraid of making trouble. There is only one way of escaping trouble, and that’s killing things. Cowards, you notice, are always shrieking to have troublesome people killed.


Probably many people are already familiar with the story and they have seen many movies based on the play, but for me, this was the first time. Even in my school days, I missed this book, so a highly satisfying five star read for me.

This enriched me on many levels. I am quenched!

An amazing play with absolutely brilliant characters. And while it plays well as a humorous entertainment, GBS managed to make it do double duty as a satire on class. Cantankerous Professor Henry Higgins gives not a damn for the class system, and treats a Duchess like a flower girl. Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl Higgins trains to sound like a lady, strives to better her station, but valued herself just as much when she was the cockney girl as when she learned to be a lady. Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, is an eccentric dust man, happy to be among the “unworthy poor,” and with a righteous dread of all things middle class. The interactions of these characters is delightfully witty and carries a true social punch.

”What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything.”
Alfred Doolittle

”Really and truly, apart from the things that anyone can pick up, dressing, and the proper way of speaking, and so on, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated.”
Eliza Doolittle

”The great secret is not having bad manners, or good manners, or any particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls, in short, behaving as if you were in heaven where there are no third class carriages and one soul is as good as another.”
Henry Higgins

My vision of Eliza Doolittle will always be Audrey Hepburn from the 1964 movie My Fair Lady. But eight years earlier (1956) Julie Andrews nailed her portrayal of Eliza in the Broadway production of the musical. Of course both of these award winning productions were based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. In the first London stage production Eliza was performed by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Shaw having written it with her in mind because of their unrequited love affair. I enjoyed reading the play; the characters so remarkably unique, and Shaw takes a slap at the British class conscious society, and especially it's impact on women.

Pygmalion adoring his statue, a 1717 depiction of Ovid's narrative by Jean Raoux.

Life is not always unicorns and rainbows so some sprinkle of humour to brighten things up is always nice. Moreover, a story of social issues with a main character who is both true to herself as well as willing to overcome her flaws and improve is truly inspiring! As for the rest of the characters, I don't see any major causes for complaints either.

It's simply a well-rounded story.

The title of this play 'n  Pygmalionn' is based on the legendary Greek mythological figure of Cyprus who was a king and a sculptor. According to Wikipedia, he is most familiar from Ovid's narrative poem Metamorphoses, in which Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved. Which is, in a way, an inspiration for the story of this play.

One needs to read it to explore more of what it's got to offer.

How the plays and movies based on this story, both My Fair Lady and Pygmalion, are loved by many people show its quality. Not to mention the awards received by some of them. For someone who is into musicals as well as classic movies, I also learned a lot from the making of the 1964 'My Fair Lady' movie as well as its drama behind the 1965 Oscar nominations for Best Actress category.

So the story from this book opens more doors to learn too!

For a reader to enjoy all that? It was a pretty enjoyable reading journey indeed!






Picture credit: Wikipedia