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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. How does Higgins make his money?

2. When Liza comes to see Higgins in Act 2, what does she ask him to do?

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

4. Based on what you read in the Preface, with which of the following statements do you think Shaw would agree?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Who are some of the most important people in England, according to Shaw? Why do you think this is so, again, according to Shaw?

2. Describe the Flower Girl.

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

4. Why are shorthand methods inadequate for ordinary use?

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

6. Why does Liza become upset when Mrs. Pearce takes her up for a bath? What does this incident show about Liza?

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

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

9. Who is the Gentleman in the first act, and what do he and the note-taker have in common?

10. 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?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining the attitudes toward love and marriage in the play.

Part 1) How does Shaw satirize, or make fun of, conventional attitudes toward love and marriage, for instance, through Higgins and Doolittle?

Part 2) What, according to Shaw in his Epilogue, is the balance of power men and women seek in marriage? What is an ideal marriage like?

Part 3) Why do some men never marry?

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay about the idea of "small talk" and social hypocrisy in Pygmalion.

Part 1) In Act 3, Higgins talks about how ridiculous small talk is: "You see, we're all savages, more or less. We're supposed to be civilized and cultured--to know all about poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of these names?" Shortly afterward, Liza shocks everyone by speaking of taboo topics and using a curse word in polite conversation. Clara is delighted by this slap in the face of "late Victorian prudery."

Part 2) What specifically does Liza say to shock everyone? Do you think Shaw agrees that her talk is shocking and rude?

Part 3) What might their polite, "civilized and cultured" conversation have been like if Liza had not come?

Part 4) What do you think is Shaw's opinion of polite small talk, and of "late Victorian prudery" that governs what is and is not appropriate in small talk?

Essay Topic 3

Write an essay examining the theme of morality in Pygmalion.

Part 1) "I'm a good girl, I am," Liza repeats in Act 2 when Higgins tempts her with chocolates, clothes, and money. Later, in Act 3, she tells Higgins, "I sold flowers. I didnt sell myself. Now youve made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else." What does she mean by these statements? What do the statements reveal about Liza's morals?

Part 2) Explain the irony in Liza's statement in Act 3. What does it say about the relative morality of low-class flower girls and high-class ladies?

Part 3) What does it say about the morality of upper and lower classes in general?

(see the answer keys)

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