|
At the end of "Pygmalion," George Bernard Shaw's play about the transformation of Eliza Doolittle by Prof. Henry Higgins, we are left wondering whether Eliza will "look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers?"
In an afterword, Shaw answers the question:
"...to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person's thumb are two different things. The weak may not be admired and hero-worshipped; but they are by no means disliked or shunned.... They may fail in emergencies; but life is not one long emergency: it is mostly a string of situations for which no exceptional strength is needed.... Accordingly, it is a truth everywhere in evidence that strong people, masculine or feminine, ... do not marry stronger people.... When a lion meets another with a louder roar "the first lion thinks the last a bore." The man or woman who feels strong enough for two, seeks for every other quality in a partner than strength."
Eliza marries Freddy.
|
There are no comments for this entry.
[Add Comment]