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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 one of Shaw's purposes in writing this play?

2. Which of the following first interests Higgins about Liza?

3. Where is Act 1 of the play set?

4. Where does Liza tell Freddy she is going at the end of Act 1?

5. What city is the setting of Shaw's play?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

In the Preface to Pygmalion, Shaw says that all great art should be didactic; that is, it should teach something. What does Shaw hope his play will teach people--both about language and about how reforming it might help society? Do you think the play is successful at communicating the intended message? Write an essay about this topic, using quotations from the Preface as well as from the rest of the play.

(see the answer keys)

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