According to Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a man who strongly detested women and resolved to live the rest of his life unmarried. He used his skill at sculpting to fabricate his perfect woman, Galatea. He admired his life-like work so much that he fell in love with Galatea. George Bernard Shaw used this ancient Greek myth to write the play Pygmalion in 1916. Anthony Asquith and Leslie Howard directed the 1938 film version of Shaw's play. Lipscomb and Lewis' screenplay adequately depicts the play's central theme that "class distinctions are purely based on social constructs" (Kendrick [ ]). Shaw also contributes greatly to the screenplay, which helps the movie adaptation "capture all of the charm, wit, and sophistication of the stage hit" (Puccio [ ]).

In Shaw's original play Henry Higgins, a phonetics professor, bets Col. Pickering, a linguist, that he can take an ordinary flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, and fool the highest of...