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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 of the following best describes Higgins's profession?

2. What is Liza afraid will kill her?

3. What is the strange man (Higgins) doing behind the pillar?

4. What is the Flower Girl selling?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. Describe Higgins.

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

6. How does Higgins feel about women?

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

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

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

10. What does Liza likely mean when she says "I'm a good girl, I am"? Why does she say this?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Critics of Shaw often comment that the servants in his plays have better sense than their masters. Write an essay in which you examine the role of Mrs. Pearce in the play, looking in particular at the way she argues with Higgins in Act 2 over what should be done with Liza. Does Mrs. Pearce have better sense than Higgins? Explain, using examples from the play.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay describing the transformation of Liza Doolittle from common flower girl to lady.

Part 1) In what specific ways does she change, and why? Are the changes mostly superficial or deep changes?

Part 2) Consider Liza's statement at the end of the ambassador's party: "nothing can make me the same as these people." Is she now really transformed into a duchess? Why, or why not?

Part 3) When and how does Liza truly come into her own as a woman? What does she realize about herself at that point in the play?

Part 4) Does Liza's process of transformation have to do with the way she speaks, or does it have more to do with the way she views herself? 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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