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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 Higgins say he can do for the Flower Girl (Liza)?

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

3. What insulting term does Higgins use to describe Liza in Act 2?

4. What can Higgins guess about people?

5. Who is Tito Pagliardini?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. Why does the English language need to be reformed, according to Shaw?

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

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

5. How are Clara and her mother different?

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

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

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

9. How does Higgins feel about women?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the ending of Pygmalion.

Part 1) Considering the ending of the play, what do you think Shaw's attitude is toward the traditional "happy ending" of most romances?

Part 2) Why, according to Shaw, does his play not end the way most people might expect?

Part 3) Would the play be more satisfying if Liza had married Higgins instead of Freddy? Why, or why not?

Part 4) (optional) If you have seen it, you may consider the slightly different, more "Hollywood" ending in the movie version of the play, My Fair Lady. Compare the ending of the play with the ending of the movie. Which do you prefer, and why?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

Write an essay about the theme of language in Pygmalion. At the end of the play, Alfred Doolittle says that he expects now he's going to have to learn to speak middle-class English instead of the "proper English" he normally uses. What is ironic about his statement? Is there really one "proper" way to speak English, in your opinion? What do you think Shaw's opinion is? If everyone speaks Doolittle's low-class English, would it be just as well as if everyone speaks like duchesses?

(see the answer keys)

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