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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. Whom do Higgins and Pickering call on the phone when they find Liza missing?

2. What do Pickering and Higgins say makes Liza a "genius"?

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

4. What does Pickering want Liza to do at the end of Act 5?

5. In the last part of Act 3, Higgins and Pickering take Liza for her final test. Where does this "test" take place?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What does Higgins mean when he says that "my manners are exactly the same as Pickering's"? In what sense is he right? In what sense is he wrong?

4. Why doesn't Higgins want Liza to fetch his slippers for him and perform other like tasks?

5. During the social visit with Mrs. Higgins and the Eynsford Hills, what does Liza say that is shocking?

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

7. Describe Mrs. Higgins and her relationship with her son.

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

9. What does Mrs. Higgins say when she learns the two men have phoned the police at the beginning of Act 5? What does Mrs. Higgins realize about Liza that the two men do not?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay about symbolism in the play.

Part 1) One of Liza's treasured possessions is a birdcage. Consider what a birdcage symbolizes in Liza's life. For instance, what imprisons Liza, and when does she ultimately become free? Examine in particular her conversations with Higgins in Acts 4 and 5.

Part 2) Higgins has a dish of chocolates on the piano. In Act 4, Liza puts her ring into the dish. Why does she do this? What do the chocolates and the ring symbolize for Liza?

Essay Topic 2

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 3

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.

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