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It hangs in Eliza's room and is mentioned specifically in Shaw's stage directions - it can't be accidental. Does it have anything to do with feminism/the suffragette movement?

I'm asking for a friend - I've not read it, so I'm not that useful! Thanks.

2006-08-01 12:35:35 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities Theater & Acting

3 answers

Pygmalion is a "barbed attack on the British class system and a statement of Shaw's feminist views. In Shaw's hands, the phoneticist Henry Higgins is the Pygmalion figure who believes he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower girl, into a duchess at ease in polite society. The one thing he overlooks is that his 'creation' has a mind of her own."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0141439505/026-2401918-2331611?v=product-description&n=266239&%
5Fencoding=UTF8&n=266239&s=books

I think the birdcage is a symbol of Eliza being trapped by society. Previoulsy, she was trapped by her poverty and class - now this has been swapped for a 'gilded' cage, and she is trapped by a man in society, which does relate to Shaw's views on socitey and feminism.
Hope this helps:>)

2006-08-01 12:39:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5 1

Not suffragettes, specifically, no....But if your friend has even casually read the play, surely they can figure out the connection between a lovely bird in a cage, unable to fly freely, and Eliza the flower girl unable to rise above her place in life.....Not exactly subtle.

2006-08-01 12:46:40 · answer #2 · answered by zeebaneighba 6 · 0 0

It's the same reason there's a birdcage in Breakfast at Tyffany's.

2006-08-01 12:47:26 · answer #3 · answered by Report Abuse 3 · 0 0

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