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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 is a problem with the English language, according to Shaw?

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

3. How is Henry Higgins described?

4. What is Liza afraid will kill her?

5. What does the Flower Girl call the Gentleman?

Short Essay Questions

1. Describe the Flower Girl.

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

3. What are three methods of phonetic shorthand that Shaw mentions in Pygmalion, and what are they used for?

4. What does Higgins do for the Flower Girl? What prompts him to do so? What does this act suggest about Higgins?

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

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

7. What does Higgins's housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, think about the plan? Who seems to have a more sensible view of the situation, Higgins or Mrs. Pearce?

8. Who are Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, and Henry Sweet, and why are they heroes to Shaw?

9. Why are shorthand methods inadequate for ordinary use?

10. Describe Henry Sweet.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining satire in Pygmalion. Satire is a humorous writing that exposes the foolishness of certain customs, behaviors, and institutions of society. What conventional beliefs and attitudes of the English middle class does Shaw satirize? Examine in particular:

--The speeches of Alfred Doolittle about middle-class morality and marriage.

--The arrogance of Higgins, and what his mother and Mrs. Pearce think of him.

--Neppomuck's foolish pomposities at the Embassy party.

--The characters of the snobbish Clara and her mother Mrs. Eynsford Hill, who clings to her past.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay examining the message about classism in the play.

Part 1) What does the play Pygmalion suggest about the relationships between the classes in England at the time of its writting (1916)?

Part 2) Which social classes are represented in the play, and how are they depicted?

Part 3) What makes Neppomuck, the ambassador, and others believe that Liza must be a princess, and what does that say about the artificiality of class distinctions?

Part 4) Who, according to the play, is a real lady, and who is a real gentleman? What makes a person a lady or a gentleman?

Part 5) What do you think Shaw ultimately wants to say about class divisions in society?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay in which you examine the negative consequences of having money and social status in Pygmalion. Liza's father, Alfred Doolittle, is poor but does not wish to have money. Why? When he comes into money, why does he blame Higgins for delivering him into the hands of middle-class morality? Does he make a good point? What are some of the drawbacks to having money? What are the restrictions of being in a particular social class?

(see the answer keys)

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