LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:1 January 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Sexism or Gender Discrimination in George Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion

Fatemeh Azizmohammadi and Zohreh Tayari
Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Iran

Abstract

This article introduces George Bernard Shaw as a critic, a novelist, and a socialist. He is known as an active person of Fabian society who follows the equality of man and woman in society. In his plays, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man and Pygmalion social realism is presented in its different aspects. Pygmalion depicts many diverse aspects such as the hypocrisy of the upper class in Britain, class differentiation, and gender discrimination. Among all of these topics, Bernard Shaw in Pygmalion expresses the way women are treated in society in terms of social realism. The aim of this paper is to study sexism or gender discrimination in Shaw’s Pygmalion and to find out the results of it in women’s lives.

Key terms: Social Realism, Gender Discrimination, Drama, George Bernard Shaw, Sexism

1. Introduction

In analyzing Pygmalion, one needs to know the play’s background which is the Greek myth, the legend that shows men’s attitudes towards women. Pygmalion, the mythical king of Cyprus had great problems with women. Pygmalion decided to remain single. So, he turned to art and made a sculpture from ivory. The sculpture was so beautiful in a way Pygmalion falls in love with her and names her Galatea. During the festival, he asks the goddess to grant his wish. Aphrodite grants his wish, Galatea comes alive and they get married. The same relationship is seen between Eliza and Higgins in this play.

Like Pygmalion, Higgins makes a beautiful creature out of a flower girl. But the difference between legend and reality is that in the legend, the creator admires his creation, while Higgins never seems to care for the feeling of his creation.

One of the reasons for surveying this subject is to make the readers aware of the conditions and the period in which the play was written. It takes us back to Victorian period, when people lived in a society which was greatly impacted by the industrial revolution. Working class people tried to improve their condition and rescue themselves from their harsh lives. Social realism had created an awareness of the ugly reality of Victorian society and many writers reflected these conditions in their works, such as Shaw’s plays. Shaw was one of the active members of the Fabian society that emphasized the equality of income and of people’s rights.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Fatemeh Azizmohammadi
f-azizmohammadi@iau-arak.ac.ir

Zohreh Tayari
zohrehtayari57@yahoo.com

Department of English Literature
Research and Science
Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University
Arak, Iran
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.