Strong Females in Three Works

Pygmalion:

The female protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is Eliza Doolittle, and she begins her character development from a position of such awkward crudeness, sassiness and social weakness that she has a long, long way to go before she becomes a strong female. This makes her rise into feminism and womanhood and strength all the more dramatic. From rags to riches in a modest sense describes her ascension. She begins the story as a flower girl with terrible speech patterns is bumped into and her flowers fall into the mud.

The interest shown in Eliza at the outset of the play is simply because Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics, wishes to teach her proper spoken English. Eliza is a rebellious young woman, who shows her antisocial side by refusing to pay the taxi fare in the first act. That fact notwithstanding, Eliza shows...
[ View Full Essay]