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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. Which system does Shaw use to write his Preface?

2. What bet does Higgins make with Pickering?

3. What surprises Mrs. Pearce?

4. What does Sweet send Shaw?

5. Who is Henry Sweet?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What would, in Shaw's opinion, be a prodigious advancement in the English language? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

4. How are Clara and her mother different?

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

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

7. How does Higgins feel about women?

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

9. Who is the note-taker, and what is he actually doing?

10. Describe Higgins.

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Write a compare and contrast essay about Higgins and Pickering. In the essay, compare the way Higgins treats Liza to the way Pickering treats her, giving specific examples and quotations from the play. Consider, too, the way both men behave toward other characters in the play. Is Higgins right that both men treat Liza the same as they would anyone else? Which man is more of a gentleman? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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