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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Sweet think of the Pitman system?

2. What does Liza want to do after her bath?

3. How does Liza feel about the bedroom she'll be staying in?

4. What does Higgins notice about Liza's father, Doolittle?

5. Why does Shaw's attempt to help Sweet fail?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Freddy do at the beginning of Act 1 that shows poor manners?

2. What does Higgins boast that he can do for the Flower Girl?

3. How are Clara and her mother different?

4. What does Higgins think of the Flower Girl's accent? What humorous hyperbole does he use in speaking to her?

5. Why does Liza's father come to see Higgins?

6. What does the Flower Girl do at the end of Act 1 that shows she has a sense of pride and dignity about her?

7. Why does the Flower Girl become upset at the note-taker? What is she most likely afraid of?

8. Describe Higgins's laboratory. What does it reveal about his character?

9. What bet does Pickering make with Higgins? Why does Higgins accept?

10. What makes some English people despise others? What can we infer would solve this problem?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining the theme of manners in Pygmalion.

Part 1) Evaluate Higgins's statement from Act 5, "The secret is not having good manners or bad manners or any other 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." What does he mean by this? Do you agree with him?

Part 2) Do you think Shaw agrees with him on the subject of manners? For instance, is there something honest about the rude way Higgins behaves, and something hypocritical about the "polite" manners of other people in the play?

Part 3) Which characters in the play behave the same to everyone, and which characters treat people differently depending on the class they belong to? Explain.

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Freddy and Higgins.

Part 1) How are Freddy and Higgins similar and different? Consider all of the following:

--their social class and wealth

--their personalities

--their skills and abilities

--their attitudes toward Liza

Part 2) Why is Higgins not a suitable husband for Liza, while Freddy is? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay about the character of Clara and her transformation in the play.

Part 1) How does Clara change in the course of the play, and why?

Part 2) How does Shaw satirize various foibles of society through Clara (for instance, snobbery and fads among young people)?

Part 3) How are we meant to view Clara? Is she a sympathetic figure, a ridiculous figure, or some mixture of both?

(see the answer keys)

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