Dear Blogger,
This weekend for school I finished reading PYGMALION by Bernard Shaw. For those of you wondering why I have used a quote from MY FAIR LADY as my title, well...it's the same thing. MY FAIR LADY is PYGMALION in musical form.
I find myself yet again struggling to critique PYGMALION as it is a very well known and highly appraised play. There are some things I may be able to say, though. For the audience watching the play, the experience would have been much different than actually reading the script. I don't know how they did it onstage when it was originally performed, but there are actually huge gaps of time in the script where Shaw has just written in what has been happening. They might have narrated this to the audience, which I hope they did because otherwise the audience missed huge pieces of the storyline. Honestly, I was reading it and wondering why on earth Shaw didn't just write those bits into the play rather than describing it to you; the pieces he didn't include seemed to have been included in MY FAIR LADY, by the way. (Like "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain" was never in the original BECAUSE in the original, Shaw simply describes one lesson that Eliza Doolittle has been having and then jumps ahead five months. He literally goes straight from Higgins agreeing to tutor Eliza to the night that Eliza emerges a "duchess".)
Anyways, there was my rant. As for a description, the play PYGMALION is a rendition of the original story of Pigmalion, about a sculptor who creates his ideal woman out of marble, makes out with her a lot, prays to the goddess Venus for his love to come to him in the likeness of the statue and then the statue comes to life. In Bernard Shaw's PYGMALION, it is much the same as MY FAIR LADY; Henry Higgins is a speach therapist working with Colonel Pickering and they bet each other that they can transform Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower-seller who dreams of opening a flower shop but doesn't speak nicely enough to do it, into a "duchess" and pass her off as such. In the end, they succeed. That's pretty much all the play shows you, as well as a fight at the end between Eliza and Higgins. The reader can guess that Higgins has feelings for Eliza, though her feelings aren't quite clear (you could speculate that she likes both Higgins and Pickering, as well as Freddy whom she marries). In the end, nothing happens between them unlike in MY FAIR LADY.
Ultimately, it was quite fun to read the spelled-out cockney and the storyline was fairly entertaining even if there were huge lapses in time. It was definitely worth the read, and I finished it in two hours. Maybe you should pick it up?
Hopefully I'll be reading something more interesting for you soon.
-Victoria
Source for cover image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=OKs3KWnJa30MNM:&imgrefurl=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030637/&docid=WWEB4HKPbUlGRM&imgurl=http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BODI4MDE4MzYzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNDExMTgxMQ%2540%2540._V1._SY317_CR6,0,214,317_.jpg&w=214&h=317&ei=oiBzUO-QM_SH0QHcwIGAAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=414&vpy=152&dur=4680&hovh=253&hovw=171&tx=100&ty=110&sig=101342462150338071778&page=1&tbnh=131&tbnw=110&start=0&ndsp=27&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0,i:140
Dear Blogger,
So I ask again: how does one review a classic?
I ask this because obviously, a classic is good. It has passed through the hands of thousands of readers over time and has gained a Reputation, capital R. It leaves little room for critique. Also, I would feel weird critiquing the work of someone who is dead.
However, I CAN talk about what I thought of the book, and different themes I thought it had...
So I had to read FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley for the second time for school. I was both looking forward to it and dreading it. I was looking forward to it because I had read it once already; I knew what it was about and therefore would not have to spend too much time picking through the details. I was dreading it because from what I could remember, there was a lot of DESCRIPTION, and I was right in that remembrance. If you are looking to read this for fun and aren't one for long, drawn out details (and I mean three straight pages talking about how depressed Dr. Frankenstein is, then save yourself and don't read it).
For those who don't know, FRANKENSTEIN is NOT the name of the monster. Good lord, it frustrates me when people make that assumption. In fact, throughout the entire book, the monster is simply referred to as that, or "the creature", or "the wretch". He, apparently, is undeserving of a name. FRANKENSTEIN, rather, refers to Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who created the monster. You know, "IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIIIIVVVEEEEE!!!" That's him.
So when I read this book, for the particular class I am taking (Classical Myths and Literature), I had to relate this book to the ancient tale of Prometheus. The subtitle of FRANKENSTEIN is actually "The Modern Prometheus", and a fun fact for you: Mary Shelley's husband wrote an amazing poem called "Prometheus on his Crag".
So in searching for links between FRANKENSTEIN and Prometheus, I started to feel that Shelley intended for Victor to represent Prometheus: Prometheus had provided man with fire and this final straw against Zeus resulted in eternal punishment; Victor gave life to the monster and thus endured lifelong torment by his own creation. Perhaps there was a man vs. God dichotomy there in the sense that only God (or Zeus) should be the one providing life (or fire) to man and therefore others that attempt it will be punished. Huh.
However, in FRANKENSTEIN, the monster is punished almost as much and for no apparent reason. I had previously made a connection between the monster, inflicting lifelong torment on Victor, and the vulture that eternally pecks out Prometheus's liver. However, I am now not so sure. I wonder if he also represents mankind in the Prometheus story, forever being punished by Zeus out of his rage at Prometheus. Perhaps I could argue both sides.
I would love to hear somebody else's opinion on this. I know this is nothing close to how I would normally blog, but like I said, how can you review a classic? If you have opinions on that or would like to send me a review of a classic, please do. I am honestly so curious. Or just leave a comment saying hi. I know I have viewers out there. :)
Oh, and what do people have to read for school? I'm interested.
-Victoria
Source for cover image: http://www.google.ca/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=-bLj3Z20TPnKIM:&imgrefurl=http://sethlindberg.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html&docid=_gOKkOSLYIjxkM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbfUY3OFPM12SmcvkhzAixmXkhGJ-v_J7Peo_UqnjY8UQIlc0bKHDiG__S1e21r_iuC7LbMjNXisEeQqqIj3eiJX_HnBvib87H5oqVtMVoyF-x_fG9YdJ3WROGQ4m7dgkJS2yx1uOD_6s/s1600/muses_frankensteinCover.jpg&w=329&h=500&ei=1Y5rUP2ICKuB0QGmxYDgAw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=180&vpy=252&dur=660&hovh=277&hovw=182&tx=95&ty=157&sig=101342462150338071778&page=2&tbnh=143&tbnw=105&start=26&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:26,i:198
