View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which best describes the first scene?

2. Which is true of Pygmalion at the time Shaw wrote his Preface?

3. What does Sweet think of the Pitman system?

4. Which comment does Shaw make about the realism in his play?

5. What does the Gentleman (Pickering) study?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does the English language need to be reformed, according 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. Who are Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, and Henry Sweet, and why are they heroes to Shaw?

4. Describe Higgins's laboratory. What does it reveal about his character?

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

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

7. Describe the Flower Girl.

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

9. How does Higgins feel about women?

10. Why are shorthand methods inadequate for ordinary use?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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?

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 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.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,031 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample