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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 do Pickering and Higgins say makes Liza a "genius"?

2. Whom do Higgins and Pickering go see when they discover Liza is missing?

3. About how much do Liza's clothes cost?

4. What do Higgins and Pickering fear might happen at the end of Act 3 to spoil their bet?

5. How is Mrs. Higgins portrayed?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Liza succeed in hurting Higgins in Act 4?

2. What does Pickering think about the evening? How do his feelings differ from Higgins's? How does he succeed in hurting Liza as well?

3. What happens to Doolittle in Act 5? Explain how Higgins is responsible.

4. Describe Neppomuck. Who is he, and what does Higgins think of him?

5. How do Freddy and Clara feel about Liza after meeting her, and why do they probably feel this way?

6. How does Liza finally come into her own as a woman at the end of Act 5?

7. Why is Doolittle unhappy with his new status? What is ironic about this?

8. What does Higgins conclude about the evening and about their joint project at the beginning of Act 4? What does he say that hurts Liza's feelings?

9. What does Higgins mean when he says that people are really "savages"?

10. What does Liza ultimately think of the party and of her success at the end of Act 3?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about the character of Clara and her transformation in the play.

Part 1) How does Clara change in the course of the play, and why?

Part 2) How does Shaw satirize various foibles of society through Clara (for instance, snobbery and fads among young people)?

Part 3) How are we meant to view Clara? Is she a sympathetic figure, a ridiculous figure, or some mixture of both?

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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