Who wrote Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw Pygmalion

Consider a play created by Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). A summary of it is presented in this article. This play is set in London. It was based on the myth of Pygmalion.

The summary begins with the following events. One summer evening it's raining heavily. Passers-by, trying to escape from him, run towards Covent Garden Market, as well as to the portico of St. Pavel, under which several people had already taken refuge, including an elderly lady with her daughter, dressed in evening dresses. They are waiting for the lady's son, Freddie, to find a taxi and come here for them. All these people, except for the man with the notebook, are peering impatiently into the torrents of rain.

Freddie gives money to the flower girl

Freddie appears in the distance. He has not found a taxi and runs to the portico. However, on the way, Freddy accidentally runs into a street flower girl, who is in a hurry to take shelter from the rain, and knocks a basket of violets out of the girl's hands. The flower girl bursts into abuse. A man standing at the portico is hurriedly writing something in a notebook. The girl laments that her violets are gone, and begs to buy a bunch of colonel standing right there. He gives her a change to get rid of, but he does not take flowers. One passer-by draws the attention of a girl, an unwashed and slovenly dressed flower girl, to the fact that a man with a notebook is probably scribbling a denunciation of her. She starts whimpering. The passer-by, however, assures that this man is not from the police, and surprises everyone present by the fact that he determines with accuracy the origin of each by pronunciation.

The lady, Freddie's mother, sends her son back so that he can find a taxi. Meanwhile, the rain stops and she walks with her daughter to the bus stop.

Meeting Henry Higgins with Colonel Pickering

Pygmalion continues with the following events. A summary of Higgins' meeting with Pickering is presented below.

The Colonel asks who is holding a notebook. He introduces himself as Henry Higgins and says that he is the author of the "Higgins Universal Alphabet". The colonel himself turns out to be the creator of a book called "Conversational Sanskrit". His last name is Pickering. This man lived for a long time in India, and came to London specifically to meet Higgins. Tom also wanted to get to know the colonel for a long time. The two are going to the Colonel's hotel for dinner.

Flower Girl Gets "Great Fortune"

But then the flower girl begins to ask again to buy flowers from her. Higgins tosses a handful of coins into her basket and leaves with the Colonel. The girl notices that she now owns, by her standards, a large fortune. When Freddie arrives with the taxi he finally hailed, she gets into the cab and drives off, slamming the door with a bang.

Eliza visits Professor Higgins

You are reading a description of the plot of the work, which was created by George Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary is only an attempt to highlight the main events of the play.

Higgins demonstrates his phonographic equipment to the colonel the next morning at his home. Suddenly, his housekeeper, Mrs. Pierce, reports to Higgins that some very simple girl wants to talk to the professor. Yesterday's flower girl appears. The girl introduces herself to him as she says that she wants to take phonetics lessons from the professor, since she cannot get a job with her pronunciation. Eliza had heard the day before that Higgins was giving these lessons. She is sure that he will gladly work off the money that he threw yesterday without looking into her basket.

Bet made by Pickering and Higgins

Of course, it is ridiculous for him to talk about such amounts. But Pickering offers a wager to Higgins. He incites him to prove that in a matter of months, as he claimed the day before, he can turn a street flower girl into a duchess. Higgins finds it tempting. In addition, the colonel is ready, if he wins, to pay the cost of Eliza's education. The girl is taken by Mrs. Pierce to the bathroom in order to be washed.

Meeting with Eliza's father

B. Shaw (Pygmalion) continues his work with Eliza's meeting with her father. The summary of this episode is as follows. Eliza's father comes to Higgins some time later. This is a simple man, a scavenger. However, he strikes the professor with his natural eloquence. Higgins asks him for permission to keep his daughter and for this he gives him 5 pounds. When Eliza shows up in a Japanese robe, already washed up, Dolittle doesn't recognize her at first.

Eliza's success with Mrs. Higgins

Higgins brings the girl to his mother's house a few months later. The professor wants to find out if it's safe to introduce her to Mrs. Higgins's home is Einsford Hill with her son and daughter. These are the people with whom Higgins stood under the portico on the day he saw Eliza for the first time. However, they do not recognize the girl. At first, Eliza talks and acts like a high society lady. But then she starts talking about her life and uses street expressions in the process. Higgins tries to pretend that this is just new social jargon, and in this way smooths over the situation. The girl leaves the audience, leaving Freddie in complete delight.

After this meeting, he begins to send letters to Eliza on 10 pages. Pickering and Higgins, after the guests left, vying to tell Mrs. Higgins how they teach Eliza, take her to exhibitions, to the opera, and dress her. She finds that they treat this girl like a doll. Mrs. Higgins agrees with Mrs. Pierce, who thinks that they do not think about anything.

Bet wins Higgins

A few months later, both experimenters take Eliza to a high-society reception. The girl has a dizzying success. Everyone thinks it's the duchess. The bet is won by Higgins.

Arriving home, the professor enjoys the fact that the experiment, from which he is already a little tired, is finally completed. He talks and behaves in his usual rough manner, not paying the slightest attention to Eliza. The girl looks sad and tired, but still she is dazzlingly beautiful. Eliza starts to get irritated.

Eliza runs away from home

Unable to stand it, the girl throws his shoes at the professor. She wants to die. The girl does not know how to live, what will happen to her next. After all, she turned into a completely different person. Higgins says everything will work out. However, Elise manages to hurt him. She unbalances the professor, and by doing so, she avenges herself a little.

At night, the girl runs away from home. In the morning, Pickering and Higgins lose their heads when they notice that Eliza is missing. They even involve the police in her search. Higgins without Eliza feels like without arms. He can't find his things, doesn't know what things he has scheduled for the day.

Doolittle's New Life (Pygmalion)

Mrs. Higgins visits her son. Then they report to Higgins about the arrival of the girl's father. He has changed a lot and looks like a wealthy bourgeois. Dolittle lashes out in resentment at Higgins because he had to change his usual way of life and become a much less free person through his fault. It transpired that a few months earlier Higgins had written to a millionaire in America who had established branches of the Moral Reform League around the world. He said in a letter that a simple scavenger, Doolittle, is now the most original moralist in England. The American died, and before his death, he bequeathed to this scavenger a share in his trust, on condition that he read up to 6 lectures a year in his League of Moral Reforms. Doolittle laments that he even has to marry the one with whom he has lived for several years without registering a relationship, since now he must look like a respectable bourgeois. According to Mrs. Higgins, the father will finally be able to take care of his daughter properly. However, Higgins doesn't want to hear about getting Eliza Doolittle back.

Return of Eliza

This play is an allusion (ironic) to the ancient myth "Pygmalion and Galatea". A summary of what happened next is as follows. Mrs. Higgins says she knows where the girl is. She agrees to return on the condition that Higgins asks for forgiveness from her. He does not agree to any go for it. Eliza appears. The girl expresses her gratitude to Pickering for treating her like a noble lady. After all, it was he who helped Eliza change, who had to live in the house of an ill-mannered, slovenly and rude Higgins. The professor is amazed. The girl adds that if Higgins continues to put pressure on her, she will go to Higgins' colleague, Professor Nepin, and will be his assistant. Eliza threatens to inform Nepean of all Higgins' discoveries. The professor finds that her behavior is now even more worthy and better than when the girl brought him shoes and looked after his things. Higgins is confident that they can now live together as "three friendly old bachelors."

Let us describe the final events of the work "Pygmalion". A summary of the play was presented sent to his father's wedding. She, apparently, will still live in Higgins' house, as she managed to become attached to him, and he to her. And they will continue to do so.

Thus ends the work of interest to us, which was created by Bernard Shaw ("Pygmalion"). The summary gives an idea of ​​the main events of this world-famous play. It consists of five acts. In 1913 Bernard Shaw created Pygmalion. A brief summary of it can also be found by watching one of the many productions. There is also a musical based on her (“My Fair Lady”).

The story was taken as the basis of the play, the main characters of which are Pygmalion and Galatea (myth). The summary of this story, however, has been substantially altered. Professor Higgins does not see a person in his Galatea. He doesn't care what happens to her after the girl turns into a "duchess". However, initially sympathetic to her creator, Eliza knows her own worth. In Kuhn's book "Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece" you can read the story "Pygmalion and Galatea". The myth, the summary of which was taken as the basis of the play we are interested in, will help to better understand the work of B. Shaw.

Bernard Show

Pygmalion

A novel in five acts

Characters

Clara Einsford Hill, daughter.

Mrs Einsford Hill, her mother.

Passerby.

Eliza Doolittle, flower girl.

Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father.

Freddie, son of Mrs Eynsford Hill.

Gentleman.

Man with a notebook.

Sarcastic passer-by.

Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics.

Pickering, colonel.

Mrs Higgins, Professor Higgins' mother.

Mrs Pierce, Higgins' housekeeper.

Several people in the crowd.

Housemaid.

Act one

Covent Garden. Summer evening. Rain like a bucket. From all sides, the desperate roar of car sirens. Passers-by run to the market and to the church of St. Paul, under the portico of which several people had already taken refuge, including old lady with daughter Both are in evening wear. Everyone peers with annoyance into the streams of rain, and only one Human, standing with his back to the others, apparently completely absorbed in some notes that he makes in a notebook. The clock strikes a quarter past eleven.

Daughter (stands between the two middle columns of the portico, closer to the left). I can't take it anymore, I'm all cold. Where did Freddie go? Half an hour has passed and he's still gone.

Mother (to the right of the daughter). Well, not half an hour. But still it would be time for him to fetch a taxi.

passerby (to the right of the elderly lady). Don't expect it, lady: now, after all, everyone from the theaters is coming; he couldn't get a taxi before half past eleven.

Mother. But we need a taxi. We can't stand here until half past eleven. It's just outrageous.

Passerby. Yes, what am I doing here?

Daughter. If Freddie had even a shred of intelligence, he would have taken a taxi from the theater.

Mother. What is his fault, poor boy?

Daughter. Others do get it. Why can't he?

Flying in from Southampton Street Freddie and stands between them, closing the umbrella, from which water flows. This is a young man of about twenty; he is in a tailcoat, his trousers are completely wet at the bottom.

Daughter. So you didn't get a taxi?

Freddie. Nowhere, even die.

Mother. Oh, Freddy, really, really not at all? You must have searched badly.

Daughter. Ugliness. Will you order us to go get a taxi ourselves?

Freddie. I'm telling you, there isn't one anywhere. The rain came so unexpectedly, everyone was taken by surprise, and everyone rushed to the taxi. I walked all the way to Charing Cross, and then the other way, almost to Ledgate Circus, and saw no one.

Mother. Have you been to Trafalgar Square?

Freddie. There are none in Trafalgar Square either.

Daughter. Have you been there?

Freddie. I was at Charing Cross Station. Why would you want me to march in the rain to Hammersmith?

Daughter. You haven't been anywhere!

Mother. True, Freddie, you are somehow very helpless. Go again and don't come back without a taxi.

Freddie. I'll just get soaked to the skin in vain.

Daughter. But what are we to do? Do you think we should stand here all night in the wind, almost naked? It's disgusting, it's selfish, it's...

Freddie. Okay, okay, I'm going. (He opens his umbrella and rushes towards the Strand, but on the way he runs into a street flower girl, in a hurry to take shelter from the rain, and knocks a basket of flowers out of her hands.)

At the same moment, lightning flashes, and a deafening peal of thunder seems to accompany this incident.

Flower girl. Where are you going, Freddy! Take your eyes in hand!

Freddie. Sorry. (Runs away.)

flower girl (picks up flowers and puts them in a basket). And also educated! He trampled all the violets into the mud. (He sits on the plinth of the column to the right of the elderly lady and begins to shake and straighten the flowers.)

She is by no means attractive. She is eighteen or twenty years old, no more. She is wearing a black straw hat, badly damaged in its lifetime by London dust and soot, and hardly familiar with a brush. Her hair is of some mouse color, not found in nature: water and soap are clearly needed here. A reddish black coat, narrow at the waist, barely reaching the knees; visible from underneath brown skirt and a canvas apron. Shoes, apparently, also knew better days. Without a doubt, she is clean in her own way, but next to the ladies she definitely looks like a mess. Her features are not bad, but the condition of her skin leaves much to be desired; in addition, it is noticeable that she needs the services of a dentist.

Mother. Excuse me, how do you know my son's name is Freddie?

Flower girl. Oh, so this is your son? There is nothing to say, you raised him well ... Is this really the case? He scattered all the flowers around the poor girl and ran away, like a nice little one! Now pay up, mother!

Daughter. Mom, I hope you don't do something like that. Still missing!

Mother. Wait, Clara, don't interfere. Do you have change?

Daughter. No. I only have a sixpence.

flower girl (with hope). Don't worry, I'll have change.

Mother (daughter). Give it to me.

The daughter is reluctant to part with the coin.

So. (To the girl.) Here's some flowers for you, my dear.

Flower girl. God bless you, lady.

Daughter. Take change from her. These bunches cost no more than a penny.

Mother. Clara, they don't ask you. (To the girl.) Keep the change.

Flower girl. God bless you.

Mother. Now tell me how do you know the name of this young man?

Flower girl. And I don't know.

Mother. I heard you call him by his first name. Don't try to fool me.

Flower girl. I really need to deceive you. I just said so. Well, Freddie, Charlie - you have to call a person something if you want to be polite. (Sits down beside his basket.)

Daughter. Wasted sixpence! Really, mother, you could save Freddie from this. (Squeamishly retreats behind the column.)

Elderly gentleman - a pleasant type of old army man - runs up the steps and closes the umbrella, from which water flows. He, like Freddie, has completely wet trousers at the bottom. He is in a tailcoat and a light summer coat. She takes a free place at the left column, from which her daughter has just moved away.

The popular English playwright, second only to Shakespeare, Bernard Shaw left the deepest imprint on world culture.

His work was marked by two prestigious awards: the Nobel Prize was awarded to the great novelist for his contribution to literature, and the Oscar for the screenplay based on the play of the same name by Bernard Shaw Pygmalion. Summary of the play in this article.

Pygmalion and Galatea

Literary scholars and critics have made various suggestions as to what motivated Shaw to write this play. Some refer to the famous myth of Ancient Greece and offer to recall the legendary sculptor who created the statue of a beautiful girl. Others believe that Shaw recalled Gilbert's play Pygmalion and Galatea. Still others have gone so far as to accuse Shaw of almost plagiarism, pointing to Smollet's novel as a borrowing source.

In fact, the history of writing Pygmalion began with the great playwright's passion for actress Stella Campbell, which he wrote about in his diary. He often had novels in the form of correspondence with actresses, among whom were Florence Farr and Ellen Terry, but Stella occupied an exceptional place in the life and work of Shaw.

The correspondence continued for several years. But Shaw did not want to change anything in his life. Stella, on the other hand, was faithful to her unlucky husband, who lived on her income. Bernard recognized her as a brilliant actress and tried to help her financially. But she refused financial assistance. Having once seen the performance of Forbes-Robertson and Mrs. Campbell in Hamlet, he decided to create a play for her.

In one of his letters to Ellen Terry, he shared the idea that he would like to write a play where Robertson would be a gentleman and Stella a girl in an apron. While the London diva was thinking about whether to play a dirty flower girl, the premiere of the play took place in Vienna, then it was a resounding success in Berlin. On the English stage, the play "Pygmalion" was staged only in April 1914, with Mrs. Campbell playing the main role.

Characters

London flower girl Eliza, turned into a society lady by the eccentric professor of phonetics Higgins, has become one of the world's favorite theatrical stage heroes. This role has become a favorite female role and glorified many theater actresses, bypassing all world scenes - from the famous London diva to the Russian D. Zerkalova. Which is not surprising.

As will be seen from the summary below, Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw is a cheerful, brilliant comedy, the last act of which contains an element of drama: the flower girl coped well with the role of a society lady and is no longer needed. The main characters of the play are Eliza and Professor Higgins with Colonel Pickering, who made a bet:

• Eliza, the flower girl, is a girl of eighteen or twenty, and cannot be called attractive. She is wearing a hat, badly damaged by dust and soot, which was hardly familiar with the brush. Hair of an unnatural color that needs soap and water. The faded black coat barely covers her knees. Eliza's shoes have known better days. Everything shows that the girl is clean, but next to others she looks like a mess.
• Phonetics Professor Higgins is a man in his forties, strong and healthy. He wears a black frock coat, a starched collar, and a silk tie. He belongs to the people of science, who are interested in everything that can become the subject of research. Everything that attracts his attention, he treats with genuine excitement. If something turns out not according to him, the good-natured grouchiness of the professor is replaced by outbursts of anger. But everyone forgives him, because he is very sincere.
• Colonel Pickering is an exemplary gentleman. It was his courtesy that played an important role in the transformation of Eliza.

Other participants in the play

In the amazing transformation of Eliza, not only the main characters played an important role. Pygmalion No. 1 can be called the girl's father. IN socially the scavenger is, one might say, at the bottom. But Alfred is a bright and unusual personality. The flower girl owes many positive character traits to her father. His impressive behavior is obvious: the ability to explain himself to any person, originality of thinking, feeling dignity.

An interesting personality Alfred adapts to any situation and remains himself. In other words, circumstances may change, but a person will not change: a person will remain a person. However, Shaw would not have been Shaw if he had not put self-respect into the soul of a street girl, and would not have made interesting a man who valued his father's feeling at five pounds. Why are the characters of Henry, the housekeeper, Pickering, Eliza, and the girl's father so powerful, and the drawing-room people so weak? How skillfully the great playwright succeeded in this can be seen from the summary of Pygmalion. Bernard Shaw also made interesting personalities from minor characters:

• Eliza's father Alfred Doolittle is an elderly but strong man. He's wearing scavenger clothes. An energetic person who knows no fear and conscience.
• Professor Higgins' housekeeper is Mrs Pierce.
• Professor Higgins' mother is Mrs. Higgins.
• Mrs Hill's daughter is Clara.
• Mrs Hill's son is Freddie.
• Mrs. Higgins' guest is Eynsford Hill.

In five acts of the play "Pygmalion" Shaw, as a wise and insightful artist, discovered in a street girl those features that made possible her transformation, unexpected but plausible. He says that it is worth changing the conditions of existence, creating a favorable environment, and you will see how a miracle will happen: natural abilities will open up, self-esteem will increase.

Eliza will pass a severe test of social manners and social ritual. Passes for a duchess at a reception at any embassy. Such is the development of the artistic thought of Bernard Shaw. IN summary"Pygmalion" you can meet Eliza and follow her amazing transformation from smut to duchess.

Summer rain

A violent pouring rain gathered several people under the portico of the church. Two ladies chilled in their evening dresses, waiting for the taxi that Freddie went to get. A passer-by, having heard their conversation, said that it was impossible to find a taxi, as people were leaving the theater at that time and, moreover, it was pouring impenetrable rain.

Freddie, the son of an old lady, came and said he couldn't find a taxi. The mother sent him back. Freddy, accompanied by his sister's indignant exclamations and thunder, went back to look, and ran into a flower girl who was hurrying to cover. The street vendor did not reach into her pocket for a word: picking up flowers, she lamented in the dialect of a commoner and angrily answered the questions of the ladies.

Then she caught sight of an elderly gentleman hurrying to take cover from the rain. The flower girl switched to him, persuading him to buy a bouquet. A passer-by noticed the girl that a guy standing nearby, probably a policeman, was writing down everything in a notebook. Those present immediately drew attention to the man standing with a notebook. He explained that he was not a policeman and, nevertheless, told who was born where, down to the street.

The gentleman, who is also a colonel, showed interest in this man. So the acquaintance of the creator of the Higgins alphabet and the author of the book "Conversational Sanskrit" Pickering took place. They were going to meet each other for a long time, so they decided to continue their acquaintance over dinner. Higgins tossed a handful of coins into the flower girl's basket on the way. The girl, who got hold of a huge amount, gets into the taxi that Freddie caught and leaves.

Professor and Colonel's Bet

The next morning Higgins received Colonel Pickering at his house and demonstrated the phonographic apparatus. Mrs. Pierce, the housekeeper, reported that a certain girl had come to him and wanted to talk to him. When she was called in, the professor recognized her as yesterday's flower girl. Eliza explained that she wanted to take phonetics lessons from Higgins, as she could not get a good job with her terrible pronunciation.

The money is small, but the colonel encourages Higgins to prove that he can, as he assured, turn a street vendor into a duchess. They make a bet, and the colonel undertakes to pay all the expenses for training. The housekeeper takes the flower girl to the bathroom to launder.

After some time, the girl's father showed up at Higgins' house. The drink-loving type demands five pounds from the professor and promises not to interfere. Higgins is surprised by the eloquence and persuasiveness of the scavenger, for which he received his compensation. Eliza Doolittle enters the room in an elegant kimono and no one recognizes her.

Entering a secular society

After a few months of training, Higgins decided to check how his student coped with the task assigned to her. As an exam, he takes the girl to his mother's house, who gives the reception. Mrs. Hill is also there with her daughter and son Freddie. They don't recognize the girl as the flower girl they met a few months ago.

Eliza behaves impeccably, but when it comes to her life, she breaks into common language. Higgins saves the day by explaining to those present that this is the new secular jargon. When the guests have left, the colonel and the professor tell Mrs. Higgins how they teach the girl, take her to the theater and opera. In addition, she has an excellent ear for music.

In response to their enthusiastic stories, the professor's mother remarks that the girl should not be treated like a living doll. They, somewhat disappointed, leave Mrs. Higgins' house and continue their studies, taking into account all the mistakes that the elderly lady pointed out to them. Freddie did not remain indifferent to the charming guest, and showered Eliza with romantic messages.

Eliza's Success

Higgins, having devoted a few more months to his student, arranges a decisive exam for her - he takes her to an appointment at the embassy. Eliza is a resounding success. Upon returning home, the colonel congratulates the professor on his success. No one pays attention to Elise anymore.

An annoyed girl expresses to her teacher that she cannot lead her former life. He asks what will happen to her now, where will she go and what should she do now? The professor is unable to understand her soul. The girl throws slippers at the professor in anger, and leaves the Higgins house at night.

twist of fate

The Colonel and the Professor arrive at Mrs. Higgins' house and complain about Eliza's disappearance. The professor admits to his interlocutors that without her, he, as if without hands, does not know what is planned for the day, where his things lie.

The girl's father comes to the house - he looks different - a quite wealthy bourgeois shows Higgins that it was his fault that he had to change his lifestyle. A few months ago the professor wrote to the founder of the Moral Reform League that Alfred Doolittle was perhaps the most original moralist in England. The millionaire left in his will to the scavenger an annual allowance, on the condition that he lecture at the League several times a year.

Mrs. Higgins is relieved that there is now someone to take care of the girl. Eliza arrives and explains alone with the professor. Higgins believes that he is not guilty of anything and demands the girl to return. To which she replies that she will immediately go to his colleague, get a job with him as an assistant and reveal the Higgins method known to her now.

The professor defiantly instructs the girl to make purchases on the way home. To which Eliza replies with contempt: "Buy it yourself." And he goes to the wedding of his father, who, given his current situation, is forced to officially marry the woman with whom he lived for twenty years.

Metamorphoses of "Pygmalion"

The analysis of this comedy shows a brilliant and impressive plot, turning into a realistic drama in the finale. Fascinated by the linguistic experiment, Higgins discovers that he created not only beautiful girl capable of delivering sophisticated speeches. To his amazement, he realizes that before him is a human being with a soul and a heart.

George Bernard Shaw pursued this goal: to show the representatives of the blue blood that they differ from the lower class only in clothes, pronunciation, education and manners. For the rest, decency and spiritual sensitivity, nobility and self-esteem are inherent in ordinary people. The playwright wanted to show that the difference between them could and should be overcome. And he succeeded.

The open end of the play, as left by the author, caused a lot of criticism and indignation from the public. The excellent playwright, in turn, did not want to repeat anyone. George Bernard Shaw showed originality and ingenuity, embodying an artistic concept. In the subtitle, he indicated that it was a fantasy novel, and by this he accurately defined the genre features of the play.

As the author himself later wrote, he called the play a novel because it is a story about a poor girl who, like Cinderella, met a handsome prince and was turned into a beautiful lady by him. And for the indignant public, lost in conjecture - for whom Eliza will marry, he wrote comments in which he did not state, but assumed the future of the girl. Shaw supplemented the play with new scenes for the film script, which premiered in 1938 and was a resounding success.

STEP ONE

London. Covent Garden is a square in London. Summer evening. Shower. Passers-by hide from the rain under the portico of St. Paul's Church. Among them is a lady with her daughter. Both are in evening dresses. Everyone is unhappy. Only one person is writing something intently in his notebook, turning his back to the crowd.

The clock calls a quarter past eleven.

The daughter complains to her mother that she is cold, and her brother Freddie, who ran to get a taxi, has been gone for twenty minutes. Hearing this, a man from the crowd says that there is nothing to look for taxis at this time, because many people are returning from the theaters, and all the cars will be busy. The daughter is dissatisfied with the delay of her brother, and the mother is trying to justify her son, although she herself is already starting to get nervous.

Suddenly Freddie appears in trousers that are soaked below the knees. He did not find a taxi, although he ran all over the streets. An irritated mother again sends her son for the car. The young man opens his umbrella, rushes towards the street, but suddenly runs into a flower girl and knocks a basket of flowers out of her hands. “Well, you, Khredi, look where you stick!” - Angrily shouts the flower girl and picks up scattered flowers.

A girl with flowers can hardly be called attractive. She has dirty, mouse-colored hair, bad teeth, uncleaned clothes, broken shoes...

The mother is shocked that the girl called her son by name and tries to find out how she knows him. The woman even buys crumpled flowers from the girl. And, having received the money, she explains that she called the guy the first name that came to her mind in order to show courtesy.

At this time, an elderly gentleman with the appearance of a regular military man in a wet evening suit hurries under the portico of the church. He comes to the place where the flower girl is sitting. The girl immediately begins to offer the master a bouquet. The gentleman is dissatisfied with the tedium of the flower girl, but he buys a bouquet and leaves for another place.

A man from the crowd began to shame the girl and drew her attention to some type who carefully listened to the conversations and carefully wrote down something. The frightened merchant decided that this man was a policeman, and began to loudly prove that she was a decent girl, and spoke to the master only because she wanted to sell him flowers. Some of the audience tries to calm her down, someone angrily tells her not to scream so loudly, and those who were standing at a distance and did not hear anything began to ask about the cause of the scandal.

The man with the notebook was startled by the noise the flower girl made. He firmly, but without anger, ordered her to be quiet and half-length that he wrote down what she said, and then read what was written down, accurately reproducing her rude, illiterate pronunciation. To prove to the public that he was not a policeman, a man with a notebook told each of those present the place where someone came from, and explained that he had learned this from their dialects.

The rain stopped and the crowd began to disperse. Mother and daughter, without waiting for a taxi, went to the bus stop. Near the church there remained a gentleman with a notebook, a gentleman with a military bearing and a flower girl, who still continued to show her dissatisfaction with the fact that the master wrote down everything that and how she said.

The men began to talk, and the gentleman with the notebook explained that he was engaged in phonetics. This is his hobby, but it gives a good income, because now is the time for viscochní, who, although they “have said goodbye to their miserable quarter, but as soon as they say a word, their pronunciation expresses. And here I am, who can teach them ... ”Moreover, the gentleman with a notebook said that in three months he could even turn a girl from London backyards, whom“ with such a pronunciation to sit ... a century in a ditch, ”could turn duchess. “I could even secure a job for her as a maid or shop assistant. And there, impeccable pronunciation is even more important.” It turned out that the gentleman with a military bearing was also interested in dialects. These two men have long wanted to meet. A chance meeting brought together Higgins, a man with a notebook, and Pickering, a gentleman who came from India on purpose to meet with the compiler of Higgins' Universal Alphabet.

The men agreed to have dinner together. When they passed by the flower girl, and again reminded of myself. The girl tried to sell them flowers and groaned for money. Higgins threw a handful of coins into her basket. The amazed flower girl looks at the money, marveling at the generosity of the scientist, and then gets into the taxi, which Freddie did get, and tells the astonished driver the address: "Beconham Palace!" In a narrow alley behind a shoe polish bench, she hails a taxi and wearily heads off to her quarters.

This is a small dank room in which "instead of broken glass, the window is covered with cardboard." Behind the bed, lava rules, covered with a pile of rags. Back in beggarly living wage includes a chest, a bowl, a jug, a table, a chair, thrown out from some kind of peasant kitchen.

The girl transfers the money she has earned, and then takes off her shawl and skirt, lies down in bed and includes clothes for numerous coverings.

ACT TWO

Eleven in the morning the next day. Higgins Laboratory. In the corner of the room there are two high filing cabinets, next to it on the desk is a phonograph, a laryngoscope, organ pipes with air bags, a set of gas burners, several tuning forks, a model of a human head in life size, which shows the vocal organs in section. Next is a fireplace, next to it is a comfortable chair and a box for coal. On the left is a cabinet with drawers, on the cabinet is a telephone and a telephone directory. Farther away, in the corner, is a concert grand piano, in front of it is not a chair, but a long bench. On the piano is a vase with fruits, sweets and chocolates.

There are prints on the walls.

In the room of Pickering and Higgins. In daylight, it is clear that Higins is “a strong, cheerful, healthy man of about forty. Despite his age and physique, he resembles a restless child, who reacts surprisingly vividly and violently to everything interesting and from whom you can’t take your eyes off it so that regret doesn’t happen. He owes childishly changeable luck: in a moment of good humor, he grumbles good-naturedly, but if he doesn’t like something, he suddenly explodes in an angry hurricane. And it is difficult to get angry with him - he is so direct and straightforward.

Higgins and Pickering are talking about the sounds of speech and the difference between them when Higgins' housekeeper Mrs Pierce enters the room. The confused woman says that a young girl has come who has a terrible pronunciation, but since such strange visitors sometimes come to the scientist, she decided to let her in too.

A familiar flower girl from yesterday enters the room in full dress. “She is wearing a hat with three ostrich feathers in orange, blue and red, the apron is now almost clean and the coarse wool coat has also been cleaned. The pathos of this pitiful figure, with its naive seriousness and feigned stateliness, touches Pickering...”, but Higgins treated the guests indifferently. He recognized the girl and disappointedly said that he was not interested in her pronunciation. And the flower girl pompously declared that she had come by taxi to take lessons in correct pronunciation from the scientist, and was ready to pay for it. She does not want to trade on the street, and in the "store" they do not take a saleswoman, because she does not know how to "speak in the right way."

Pickering, with exquisite courtesy, invited the girl to sit down and asked her name. The girl proudly replied that her name was Eliza Doolittle. She was terribly offended when the men laughingly began to recite the rhyme:

Lisa, Eliza and Elizabeth

Flowers were collected in the garden for a bouquet.

Three good violets were found there.

They took one at a time, but two were not torn off.

The girl offered Higins a shilling for a lesson, because she would teach native language who already knows. The scientist laughingly explained to his friend that Eliza was offering him two-fifths of her daily wage, and if she were a millionaire, it would be about sixty pounds. "Not bad! Damn it, it's huge! No one has ever paid me so much,” Higgins exclaimed. Frightened, Eliza jumped to her feet, tears welling up in her eyes. Higgins gave her a handkerchief, but the puzzled girl does not know what to do with it. She looks helplessly at the men, and then hides the handkerchief away.

Pickering, laughing, reminded Higgins of yesterday's conversation that supposedly a scientist could turn even such a vulgar mess into a duchess in three months. “I bet that you will not succeed in this experiment. However, if you manage to pass her off as a duchess, I recognize that you are the best teacher in the world, and I myself will cover the costs of his education. Higgins was carried away by Pickering's idea and promised: "In six months - and when she has a good ear and a flexible tongue, then in three months - I will bring her out to people and look like anyone!"

He wanted to start training immediately and ordered the housekeeper to wash the girl and burn her clothes. And Mrs. Pierce noted that "you can't just pick up a girl like a stone on the beach." What will happen to her, how will the training end? Where will she go? Who will take care of it, because Eliza does not have a mother, and her father kicked her out of the house? And Higgins does not want to think about the prospect of Eliza returning to the dirt when she already knows another life. He does not believe that the girl has feelings to take into account, and does not pay much attention to Eliza's remark: “You have no conscience, that's what! You don't care about anyone but yourself." She is ready to leave the house, where she is not recognized as a person, but the cunning Higgins cajoles Eliza with sweets, talks about the bright prospects of taking a taxi as much as she likes, and seduces her with rich suitors.

Mrs. Pierce led Eliza upstairs, showed her to her room, and suggested that she take a bath. The girl had no idea that you can sleep in bed, dressed in nightgown that you can take a bath and stay alive and healthy, because all eighteen years of her life Eliza slept without undressing and never fully washed. With great difficulty, Mrs. Pierce succeeded in persuading Eliza to take a bath.

Meanwhile, in the room, under the desperate cries of Eliza, Higins and the colonel are thinking about future fate girls. Pickering was worried about decent Higgins in his relationships with women. The scientist explained that he was a confirmed bachelor. He perceives Elisa as his student and this is sacred to him. He is sure that "one can teach someone only on the condition that the teacher deeply respects the personality of the student." At the lesson, a woman for him is "all the same as a piece of wood." Then he himself becomes like a wooden one.

Pierce enters the room. She is holding Eliza's hat. The housekeeper came to talk not about Eliza, but about the behavior of Higgins himself. She reminded the scientist that he very often uses the swear words “hell”, “to hell”, “what the hell”, with which she put up, but you should not speak in front of a girl. Eliza's presence requires the owner to be tidy, and therefore Higgins should not go out to breakfast in a dressing gown, or at least not use it so often instead of a napkin. Eliza "would have another useful example", if she saw that Higins did not put a pot of oatmeal on a clean tablecloth. The housekeeper leaves the room, and the ashamed scientist turns to his friend: “You know, Pickering, this woman has a completely false impression of me. Look, I am a modest, shy person. .. However, she is deeply convinced that I am a despot, home tyrant and arrogant. Why - I do not understand.

Mrs. Pierce returns to the room with the message that the scavenger Elfrid Doolittle, Eliza's father, has come.

This is an elderly, but still strong man, one of those who are equally alien to both fear and conscience. At this moment, with all his appearance, he demonstrates offended dignity and complete determination.

From the boy who knew where Eliza went, old Elfrid learned the address of the professor and came to Higgins to claim his rights to his daughter. The scientist does not stand on ceremony with an intruder: “She is upstairs. Take it even now... Take it! You don't think I'll pankat with her instead of you?!" Stepping on the stunned garbage man, Higgins continued: “Your daughter had the audacity to come to my house and demand that I give her lessons because she wanted to work in the store ... How dare you come to blackmail me ?! You sent her here on purpose!”

Doolittle, disarmed by such a speech, explains that he does not want to step in the way of his daughter at all. “Here, Mona say, there is a courier in front of her, then am I ... Oh no! You misunderstood me. Listen ... "The scavenger sits importantly on a chair and opens his cards: he sees that the owner - a decent man, but also "a good and beautiful girl - to be sure." And therefore Higins, a man of honor, should give him five pounds for his daughter. Pickering and Higins were amazed at the lack of honor and conscience in Doolittle. And the old garbage man turned so cunningly that understand ordinary people, take into account the morality of the father, who “by the sweat of his brow raised, fed and clothed the child until she grew up and interested two gentlemen at once,” that Higgins offered Doolittle not five, but ten pounds. But he refused ten and explained that such a lot of money would make him rich and greedy, "and then there is no happiness for a person!" And he will drink five pounds: he will enjoy himself, and the woman who lives with him will be happy, and people will earn money, and the professor “will be pleased that the money was not wasted.”

Pickering asked why Dolittle did not want to marry a friend. The scavenger explained that she did not want to get married, because "she is not such a fool as to get into the yoke herself." While she is not a wife, she drives it, demands gifts and money, and gets married - and immediately loses all Privileges.

Doolittle, having received five pounds, is already in a hurry to the door, when suddenly on the threshold he almost bumps into a charming girl in a Japanese dressing gown. The father did not immediately recognize Eliza. The startled men could not believe their eyes. And the girl felt stupid in that dressing gown.

Doolittle left Higgins' house to drink the money as soon as possible, and Eliza began her studies. “She felt like a patient at a doctor’s appointment ... And if it weren’t for the presence of the colonel, Eliza would have fled far away” from her restless and demanding teacher, who makes her endlessly repeat the alphabet, corrects every word she said and promises to take her by the hair and drag her around the room three times if she says “prokhvesor”, “mNyaky” or “don't filly” again.

She would be in such torment for more than one month before she surprised the entire London elite.

ACT THREE

Reception day at the house of Mrs. Higins, the scientist's mother. There are no guests yet. Through the open windows one can see a balcony with flower pots on it. There is no unnecessary furniture, all kinds of trinkets in the room. In the middle of the room is a large sofa with cushions and a bedspread, chosen with great taste. There are some good oil paintings on the walls.

In the corner of the room, Mrs. Higgins sits at an elegant table and writes letters. Now that she is in her sixties, she no longer dresses like she used to, contrary to fashion.

At five o'clock in the afternoon the door suddenly bursts open with a roar - and Higgins enters. “Henry, you promised not to come on my visiting days! You have seen all my friends. As soon as they meet with you, they stop visiting me,” said Mrs. Higgins reproachfully. But the son did not pay attention to the words of the mother. He explained that he had come on business: he wanted to bring to her a simple flower girl, whom he picked up near the bazaar ... he taught her to speak correctly and gave strict instructions on how to behave. She was ordered to touch only two topics: weather and health ... No conversations on general topics. The son assured his mother that it would be quite safe, and told of an establishment with Pickering regarding the transformation of a simple girl into a duchess.

The conversation is interrupted by the maid, who reports that guests have arrived. Higgins quickly jumps up, rushes to the door to run away, but before he can get out, his mother is already recommending him to the guests. On the threshold are the same mother and daughter who hid from the rain near Covent Garden. The mother is a calm, well-mannered woman, and the daughter tries to hide her limited income behind bravado and an eccentric social tone.

The women greet the hostess and try to talk to Higgins, but he roughly turns his back on them and contemplates the river outside the window.

The maid reports that a new guest has arrived - Colonel Pickering. He politely greets those present, sits down between the women.

The next guest was Freddie, whom the hostess introduces to Pickering and her son. Higgins tries to remember where he saw the whole family.

The guests start a conversation about why people at social events do not say what they think. Higgins impatiently explains that the ladies present, for example, know little about poetry, art, Freddie does not understand anything in science, and he himself has no idea about philosophy. Therefore, in the end, all those present are savages to one degree or another, but they pretend that they are cultured and educated people and, according to words, hide their real thoughts.

The maid opens the door and introduces a new guest. This is Eliza Doolittle. She is exquisitely dressed and her beauty makes such an impression that when they see her, everyone gets up. The girl approaches Mrs. Higgins with a well-worn grace. She politely greets the mistress of the house, carefully watching her every sound, adding music to her intonations. Then he greets all the guests, pronouncing each word meticulously correctly, and gracefully sits down on the sofa. Clara sits down next to Eliza, Freddie is fascinated by the girl's every movement. “Higins goes to the sofa, on the way he clings to the grates and stumbles over tongs. Laying through his teeth, he puts everything in order ... An oppressive silence falls. Mrs. Higgins, breaking the silence, speaks about the weather in a tone of worldly ease. Eliza, picking up the conversation, says memorized: “The unusual decrease in atmospheric pressure that has engulfed the western part of the British Isles will gradually move to the eastern regions. According to forecasters, significant meteorological changes are not expected. This tirade makes Freddie laugh. The conversation then turns to illness, and Eliza reveals that her aunt died of influenza. Mrs. Einsdorf Gil sympathetically clicks her tongue, and Eliza, with tragedy in her voice, says that her aunt was swept away to steal her straw hat. They slammed it, because such a big man could not die from a cold. To prove this, the girl brought new arguments: a year earlier, her aunt had fallen ill with diphtheria, and when Eliza's father poured gin down her throat, the patient bit off half a spoon.

Further, Eliza casually shared that for her aunt, “gin was like mother’s milk...” the father “himself overhauled so much of that gin that he knew what was what and why,” that it doesn’t dry out even now, ”and the mother herself when, used to give him money for a drink, "because then he immediately became cheerful and affectionate".

Listening to her, Freddie writhed with uncontrollable laughter, and Eliza asked the young man: “What is it? What are you laughing at?” Freddy and his eccentric sister decided that this was a new secular dialect, and Higins confirmed their guess and recommended Panna Clara to memorize the new words and use them on occasion during visits.

Mrs. Einsdorf Gil and her children are in a hurry to another appointment, and Higins, barely waiting for them to be alone, asked his mother if it was possible to bring people to Eliza? Mrs. Higins explained to her son and the colonel that, despite the correct pronunciation of Eliza, "her origin comes through in her every word." And the teacher himself is to blame for this, because, as he puts it, “it suits the cargo pier in the best possible way. However, for reception - hardly. The scientist does not understand the mother. “I don’t understand a damn thing! I know one thing: for three months, day after day, I struggled to make this girl look like a person. Besides, I benefit from it a lot. She always knows where to look for my things, remembers where and with whom I make appointments ... ” Mrs. Higins wants to know who Eliza is for her son and his friend, what awaits her next? Men assure her that they take the girl very seriously. Every week and even daily, they notice some changes in her, record her every movement, make dozens of notes and photographs, they only talk about her, teach her, dress her, invent a new Eliza. But Mrs. Higgins tells them that they are "like two children playing with a living doll" and do not see the problem that has entered the house on Wimpole Street with Eliza. "The problem is what to do with Eliza afterward."

“It is clear that Eliza is still far from being a duchess. And yet, Higins still has time ahead, and the institution has not yet been lost! The training continued, and exactly six months later, Eliza again goes out into the world. At the embassy reception, she appeared in elegant dress with all the necessary accessories: diamonds, a fan, flowers, a luxurious coat. She gets out of the Rolls-Royce and, accompanied by Higgins and Pickering, goes to the hall. At the reception at Higins, a venerable young gentleman with a magnificent mustache comes up. He reminds the scientist who was his first student. Higgins barely remembered Nepomuk, who speaks thirty-two languages, works as a translator, knows how to determine the origin of a person throughout Europe. Pickering is a little worried that the mustachioed will expose Eliza, but the girl with such charming grace goes into the reception room, the guests crumple up the conversation to look at her.

The intrigued mistress of the house asks Nepomuk to find out everything about Eliza in the most detailed way. After a while, the barbel reported that Doolittle was not an Englishwoman, for "where did you see an Englishwoman who would speak English so correctly?" Nepomuk determined that Eliza comes from a Hungarian royal family and is a princess.

ACT FOUR

Higins' office. The clock on the fireplace strikes midnight. There is no one in the room.

Eliza, in expensive jewelry and a luxurious evening dress, enters the office and turns on the light. It is obvious that she is tired. Higgins soon appears with a house jacket in his hands. Tuxedo, top hat, cloak he casually throws on coffee table, puts on a house jacket and wearily falls into an armchair. Pickering enters in evening dress. The men are talking when suddenly Higgins exclaims, “Where the hell are my slippers?” Eliza looks at him darkly and leaves the room. Then he returns with large pantoflées in his hands, puts them on the mat in front of Higgins. The scientist does not notice this and is terribly surprised when he sees the slippers at his feet: “Ah, there they are!”

Men discuss the reception, rejoice that "Eliza brilliantly coped with the role, and everything is over." They talk about the girl like she's not in the room. Eliza restrains herself with the last of her strength, but when Higins and Pickering leave the office, the girl falls to the floor with a cry of painful anger.

In the corridor, Higgins saw that he had not put on his slippers again, and returned to the room. Enraged, Eliza grabs the slippers and throws them forcefully one after the other just at Higgins. The scientist does not understand the reason for the girl's hysteria, and Eliza is ready to scratch out his eyes for the fact that he has lost all interest in her.

Higgins did manage to calm Eliza a little. He tries to explain to the girl that now everything is over, she is free and can live as she pleases: she can get married or open a flower shop.

Saying this, the scientist chews on a delicious apple and does not notice Eliza's gaze. The girl calmly listened to her teacher, and then in a flat voice asked: “Sir, to whom do my dresses belong? What do I have the right to take with me so that you do not accuse me of stealing?” Then she took off her jewelry: “Please take this with you. So it will be more reliable. I don't want to answer for them. And suddenly something is missing. She calmly took off the ring Higgins had bought for her in Brighton. The bewildered scholar tosses the ring into the fireplace, shoves the jewels into his pockets, and angrily says, "If these delights had not belonged to the jeweler, I would have shoved them down your ungrateful throat!" After that, he majestically leaves the room, but at the end spoils the whole effect by slamming the door with all his might.

Eliza kneels in front of the fireplace, finds the ring, throws it into the fruit bowl, and resolutely enters her room. There she carefully takes off her evening attire, puts on an everyday dress and leaves the house, slamming the door.

Under her windows, Eliza sees Freddie Einsdorf Gil, who is in love with her. The young man confesses to the girl, and she, overwhelmed with feelings, reciprocates. They froze in each other's arms until the summer constable chased them away. Young people rush to their heels, and then freeze in their arms again, and again they are caught by a policeman - this time much younger. Eliza and Freddie hired a taxi and circled the city all night.

ACT FIVE

Living room Mrs Higins. The hostess is sitting at the desk. The maid enters and reports that Mr Higgins and Colonel Pickering have arrived. They call the police looking for Eliza and Mr. Henry is not in the mood.

Mrs. Higins asked the maid to warn Eliza Doolittle about the guests, and she herself met her son and the colonel. Higgins flew into the room and, without even saying hello, blurted out: “Mom, listen, this is the devil knows what! Eliza escaped. The mother tried to explain to her son that there was some reason for the escape and that it was impossible to report the girl to the police as if she were some kind of thief. The conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Eliza's father. “He is imposingly dressed, as if for a wedding, and he himself looks like a groom.” Mr. Doolittle is so taken with the purpose of the visit that he goes straight to Higgins with accusations. He reproaches the scientist that he wrote about him to America, the founder of "fellow moral reforms." Upon learning of Doolittle, the American millionaire Ezra D. Wannafeller, before his death, wrote off "half of the shares of his sirzhuvalnoy kvabrika" to the smіttyar on the condition that he would conduct classes in the "World Moral Reform League" six times a year. And now the old garbage man suffers from the fact that, having become rich, he has only one concern: there was a whole bunch of relatives who come to him with outstretched hands; lawyers demand money; doctors frighten him with numerous diseases, so that only he trusts them to treat himself; At home, everything is done for him by others, so that he only pays money.

It is difficult for him to bear the burden of responsibility that the money has placed on him, but he cannot refuse the inheritance either, because he does not raise his hand in old age to choose begging and a workhouse.

Mrs. Higgins was very glad that Doolittle was rich and now able to provide for the future of his daughter. Henry said that the old man had no right to Eliza, because he took five pounds for her.

Mrs. Higins began to reproach her son that he and the colonel treated the girl badly, despised her. That's why Eliza ran away from home. The mother wanted Henry to be courteous to the girl, while Doolittle should remain silent about his new position for the time being. Henry falls angrily into a chair, and the old one goes out onto the balcony.

Eliza enters the room proudly and sedately. In the hands of the girl is a small working basket, from which she takes out sewing and begins to work, not paying the slightest attention to Higgins.

Eliza is talking to the Colonel. She thanks Pickeringa for having learned from him "how one should behave in polite society." Her true upbringing began when the Colonel first addressed her as "the Doolittle panel." Many little things in Pickering's behavior were an example for a girl, brought her human dignity, but Higgins treated her like a flower girl, and with him she would never have become a lady.

Listening to the conversation about him, Higgins was furious with anger, but Eliza behaved as if he were not in the room. And only the appearance of her father brought her out of balance and again turned the girl from the bottom of London.

Old Doolittle told his daughter that he was getting married and invited everyone present to take part in the ceremony. Pickering and Mrs Higgins left the room, leaving Henry and Eliza alone. A conversation takes place between them, which is similar to a duel between enemies. Eliza claims the right to preserve her own dignity, compares Higgins with a tractor, which, just ahead, not noticing anyone, boasts that the young and attractive Freddie loves her, is ready to marry her even today.

Higins, in turn, said that he was ready to respect not a slave girl who readily brings slippers, but equal partner. He admitted that he was addicted to her face and voice, but he would never turn off his path for her sake. And if she wants some fool to spend one half of his time near her, thrilled with feelings, and the second - decorating her with bruises, then let her immediately climb to the ditch from where he pulled her out.

In desperation at such words, Eliza announced that she would marry Freddie and go to teach. She will teach the bagatiyok what the scientist taught her. Higgins is amazed to the core by what he did with Eliza. real woman who will never allow herself to be laughed at, will not dutifully do the will of her husband. “I like you like that,” the professor exclaims in delight. Now he perceives it at the same time as both a fortress tower and an armadillo. “You, me and Pickering are no longer just two men and one stupid girl. We are now three convinced loners!”

Mrs Higgins returns to the room, dressed for the wedding ceremony. She invites Eliza to go to the church. The girl goes to the door, and Higgins after her gives her several instructions. Eliza, with undisguised contempt, responds to this as if with pre-prepared phrases about the impossibility of fulfilling any of them.

Mrs. Higgins is amazed at the relationship between Henry and Eliza and does not know what to think. The women leave, and Henry laughs after them: “She dreams of marrying Freddie! Haha! With Freddy! Ha ha!"

PYGMALION A play (1913) SUMMARY

The play takes place in London. On a summer evening, the rain pours like a bucket. Passers-by run to Covent Garden Market and to the portico of St. Pavel, where several people have already taken refuge, including an elderly lady with her daughter, both of them in evening dresses and waiting for Freddie, the lady's son, to find a taxi and come for them. All impatiently, except for one person with a notebook, peer into the streams of rain. Freddy appears in the distance, having not found a taxi, and runs to the portico, but on the way he runs into a street flower girl, hurrying to take shelter from the rain, and knocks a basket of violets out of her hands. She bursts into swearing. A man with a notebook hurriedly writes something down. The girl laments that her violets have disappeared, and begs the colonel standing right there to buy a bouquet. The one to get rid of, gives her a change, but does not take the flowers. One of the passers-by draws the attention of a flower girl, a sloppily dressed and unwashed girl, that a man with a notebook is clearly scribbling a denunciation of her. The girl starts whimpering. He, however, assures that he is not from the police, and surprises everyone present by accurately determining the origin of each of them by their pronunciation.

Freddie's mother sends her son back to look for a taxi. Soon, however, the rain stops and she and her daughter go to the bus stop. The Colonel takes an interest in the abilities of the man with the notebook. He introduces himself as Henry Higgins, creator of the Higgins Universal Alphabet. The colonel turns out to be the author of the book Conversational Sanskrit. His last name is Pickering. He lived in India for a long time and came to London specifically to meet Professor Higgins. The professor also always wanted to meet the colonel. They are about to go to dinner at the Colonel's hotel, when the flower girl again begins to ask to buy flowers from her. Higgins tosses a handful of coins into her basket and leaves with the Colonel. The flower girl sees that she now owns, by her standards, a huge amount. When Freddie arrives with the taxi he finally caught, she, instead of his departed mother and sister, gets into the car herself and, slamming the door with a noise, leaves.

The next morning, Higgins demonstrates his phonographic equipment to Colonel Pickering at his home. Suddenly, Higgins' housekeeper, Mrs. Pierce, reports that a certain very simple girl wants to talk to the professor. Enter yesterday's flower girl. She introduces herself as Eliza Doolittle and says that she wants to take phonetics lessons from the professor, because with her pronunciation she cannot get a job. She had heard the day before that Higgins was giving such lessons. Eliza is sure that he will gladly agree to work off the money that yesterday, without looking, he threw into her basket. Of course, it is ridiculous for him to talk about such amounts, but Pickering offers Higgins a bet. He incites him to prove that in a matter of months he can, as he assured the day before, turn a street flower girl into a duchess. Higgins finds the offer tempting, especially since Pickering is willing, if Higgins wins, to pay the entire cost of Eliza's education. Mrs Pierce takes Eliza to the bathroom.

After a while, Eliza's father comes to Higgins. He is a scavenger, a simple man, but impresses the professor with his natural eloquence. Higgins asks Dolittle for permission to keep his daughter and gives him five pounds for this. When Eliza arrives, already washed and wearing a Japanese robe, the father does not even recognize his daughter at first.

A couple of months later, Higgins brings Eliza to his mother's house, just in time for her adopted day. He wants to know if it is already possible to introduce a girl into secular society. Mrs. Higgins is visiting Mrs. Einsford Hill with her daughter and son. These are the same people with whom Higgins stood under the portico of the cathedral on the day he first saw Eliza. However, they do not recognize the girl. Eliza at first both behaves and talks like a lady, and then switches to such street expressions that all those present are only amazed. Higgins pretends this is the new social jargon, thus smoothing things over. Eliza leaves the gathering, leaving them utterly delighted.

After the departure of the guests, Higgins and Pickering vying, enthusiastically tell Mrs. Higgins about how they work with Eliza, how they teach her, take her to the opera, to exhibitions, and dress her. Mrs. Higgins finds that they treat the girl like a living doll. She agrees with Mrs. Pierce, who believes that they "don't think of anything".

A few months later, both experimenters take Eliza to a high-society reception, where she has a dizzying success, everyone takes her for a duchess. Higgins wins the bet. Arriving home, he enjoys the fact that the experiment, from which he has already managed to get tired, is finally over. He behaves and talks in his usual rough manner, not paying the slightest attention to Eliza. The girl looks very tired and sad, while she is dazzlingly beautiful. It is noticeable that irritation accumulates in her. She ends up throwing his shoes at Higgins. She wants to die. She does not know what will happen to her next, how she will live. After all, she became a completely different person. Higgins assures that everything will work out. She, however, manages to hurt him, unbalance him and thereby at least a little revenge for herself.

Eliza runs away from home at night. The next morning, Higgins and Pickering lose their heads when they see that Eliza is gone. They even try to track her down with the help of the police. Higgins feels without Eliza as without arms. He does not know where his things lie, nor what business he has scheduled for the day. Mrs. Higgins arrives. Then they report about the arrival of Eliza's father. Doolittle has changed a lot. Now he looks like a wealthy bourgeois and indignantly lashes out at Higgins because, through his fault, he had to change his lifestyle and now become much less free than he was before. It turns out that a few months ago Higgins wrote to a millionaire in America, who founded branches of the Moral Reform Society all over the world, that Dolittle, a simple scavenger, is now the most original moralist in all of England. He died, and before he died, he bequeathed to Dolittle a share in his trust for three thousand a year income, on the condition that Doolittle would give up to six lectures a year in his league of moral reforms. He laments that today, for example, he even has to officially marry the one with whom he has lived for several years without registering a relationship. And all this because he is now forced to look like a respectable bourgeois. Mrs. Higgins is overjoyed that a father can finally take care of his changed daughter the way she deserves. Higgins, however, does not want to hear about "returning" Dolittle Eliza.

Mrs. Higgins says she knows where Eliza is. The girl agrees to return if Higgins asks her forgiveness. Higgins is in no way agreeing to go for it. Eliza enters. She expresses gratitude to Pickering for his treatment of her as a noble lady. It was he who helped Eliza change, despite the fact that she had to live in the house of a rude, slovenly and ill-mannered Higgins. Higgins is smitten. Eliza adds that if he continues to "push" her, she will go to Professor Nepin, a colleague of Higgins, and become his assistant and inform him of all the discoveries made by Higgins. After a burst of indignation, the professor finds that now her behavior is even better and more worthy than when she looked after his things and brought him slippers. Now, he is sure, they will be able to live together no longer as just two men and one stupid girl, but as "three friendly old bachelors."

Eliza goes to her father's wedding. Apparently, she will still live in Higgins' house, because she managed to become attached to him, as he did to her.

Yu. A. Dmitriev - "PYGMALION" BERNARD SHAW
From the book “Academic Maly Theatre. Chronological essays, performances, roles. 1945 - 1995".

In 1943, it was decided to play a comedy by Bernard Shaw "Pygmalion".

This choice surprised many. Why during the war years it was necessary to stage this, albeit talented, albeit filled with witty paradoxes, but still, as it seemed to many, a salon comedy? That is how it was played in 1924 at the Moscow Comedy Theater (former Korsh). In 1938 Pygmalion went to the Moscow Theater of Satire. And although the role of Higgins was played by the brilliant comedian P.N. Paul, the performance was not very successful.

However, all fears were dispelled literally on the day of the premiere, which took place on December 12, 1943. The performance was a huge success. Looking ahead, let's say: on February 19, 1945, his hundredth performance took place, on January 19, 1949 - the four hundredth, on March 27, 1950 - the five hundredth.

The play was translated by N.K. Konstantinova, the artist was V.I. Kozlinsky, the music was written by Yu.A. Shaporin. One of the reasons for choosing the play was the recommendation of the governing bodies, in the conditions of the war, "cared" for the development of cultural ties between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Moreover, Shaw many times expressed friendly feelings towards the Soviet people.

Zubov said: in the fall of 1943, “we lived hard. Harsh Moscow of the war years. Thoughts about the front, the first victories won with great bloodshed. The choice of a play these days was a serious, responsible matter. And suddenly, at this time, we were advised to create a comedy performance, to put on a play by the Show “Pygmalion”. It was unexpected, only later, in meetings with the audience, we realized that our performance is especially needed by them in these harsh days, that it pleases with its kind and smart thoughts and sincere fun.

The director understood that he was staging a comedy, but he tried to show the serious through funny circumstances - how the human personality grows stronger, grows, and improves. Zubov wrote: “In Pygmalion, as a director, I was interested, of course, not so much in the entertaining plot, but in the sharp satire, the ideological orientation of the play, dressed in a lively witty comedy form.”

A few words about the director. Konstantin Alexandrovich Zubov (1888-1956) joined the troupe of the Maly Theater in 1936. In his youth, he studied in France at a technical school and at the same time at the Faculty of History and Philology of the University of Paris. Then Zubov studied at St. Petersburg University, while also studying at the St. Petersburg Theater School, where his teacher was the great artist V.N. Davydov. Having become a professional dramatic actor, Zubov played in large provincial cities, as well as in Moscow - in the Korsh Theater and in the Revolution Theater. In the Zamoskvoretsky Theater, he was not only an actor, but also an artistic director and staged several interesting performances here.

As an actor, Zubov was famous for his masterful dialogue, his brilliant ability to deliver cues, so that the essence of the character of the one who spoke it immediately became clear. Most of all, he succeeded in the role of smart people, and at the same time ironic, even cynical. His characters always looked a little down on the interlocutors. The well-bred heroes of Zubov involuntarily forced to admire their manners, subtlety of treatment, behind which disrespect for the interlocutor, spiritual callousness often hid.

As a director, Zubov first of all took care to put the actors in the most favorable conditions, he believed that a good performance of the entire ensemble of actors is the highest that a director can and should strive for. At rehearsals, he, himself a magnificent actor, gave the performers a general idea of ​​the image, helped to decide this or that scene, the role in general and in detail, widely using the show. For Zubov, the verbal duel of the actors was main point performance, through this, first of all, the characters and relationships of the characters were revealed. At the same time, the director was not afraid of eccentric episodes and even loved them, but he always achieved the logic of behavior of one or another hero of the play in these cases. So, in "Pygmalion", playing Professor Higgins, he resolutely did not notice a person in a street flower vendor, he saw in her only an object for experiment and drove ... her under the piano. Zubov gave an explanation for this: “Higgins’s words from the last act served as the key to the image: “To create life means to create anxiety.” This suggested temperament, the domineering character of the creator, selfish, who did not take into account anyone. He does not give anyone peace with his ideas, becomes unpleasantly straightforward and even rude.

In D.V.Zerkalova's performance, Eliza Doolittle experienced a metamorphosis and became an outstanding person, capable of fighting for her dignity and for her happiness. And Higgins learned something from Eliza, realized that, besides him, there are other people with their own joys and sorrows. Pygmalion and Galatea seemed to switch places, and Eliza, in turn, forced Higgins to go through a metamorphosis.

And at the same time, in her human qualities, Eliza turned out to be higher than Higgins.

In Shaw's play, everything was going so that Eliza should marry Freddie, a sweet, but rather colorless young man. The author of the play wrote about this in the afterword. But the development of events in the play led to the fact that Eliza would be Higgins' wife. This did not contradict the play, but revealed it more deeply.

Eliza was at the center of the performance. Shaw's mockery of aristocratic chic masquerading as genuine culture lay in the fact that for a short time a street slob became a "duchess". “Zerkalova knew how to show the soul of her heroine, her sincerity, spontaneity, honesty, self-esteem.” At the first appearance of Eliza, when she was selling flowers near the theater entrance, this girl seemed ugly: stooped, with absurdly spread arms, waddling, somehow bouncing, and all the time she wiped her nose, then her chin. Her transitions from deafening laughter to shrill crying cut her hearing.

In the second act, Eliza comes to Higgins to take pronunciation lessons from him. Now she is dressed up: a straw hat is on her head, gloves are on her hands, though they are different. Her tone is independent. She is willing to pay for lessons, but demands respect. Eliza often wipes her mouth with the back of her hand, as older women of the people do. She bears the stamp of early maturity, this is a consequence of living in a cruel environment: always drunk parents, poverty, hunger. Her coming to Higgins is not accidental, he is forced, as a means of struggle for existence, she wants to become a saleswoman in a flower shop. “There is no sneer here, but this is a comedic decision, a struggle for a piece of bread.” Eliza's gestures and words may be rude, but on the whole, throughout the performance, the image remains poetic and charming. Higgins drives her under the piano, and there, crying, blowing her nose into the hem of her dress, she still manages to maintain her dignity.

After washing, in a white coat, Eliza is frightened and confused. And once in the salon of Mrs. Higgins, she looks like a charming young woman, but in her manner, as in her conversation, there is a touch of artificiality. She speaks words too clearly and distinctly, but she knows how to maintain empty small talk.

In the end, Higgins got his way: Eliza in high society struck with her upbringing. Now the experiment is over. The professor is tired and wants to sleep. Eliza no longer interests him, and she realized that she served him only for his experiments. “Pale, wide-eyed Eliza at the forefront, facing the auditorium. An elegant evening dress, furs and diamonds are tinsel that does not belong to her.

No, this is not the "duchess" that Higgins was trying to foster. This is a proud man who protests against the humiliation of his dignity.”

Eliza silently looked at Higgins, and in this dramatic silence, combining restrained anger and noble indignation, the woman whom Higgins could not subdue and who retained her dignity. And, as a result of indignation, shoes fly at him. But very soon Eliza pulls herself together and directly expresses to Higgins what she thinks of him. "Zerkalova performed her task with virtuoso skill, combining depth of content with poignant comedic form."

As for Professor Higgins, Zubov emphasized comical features in him: awkwardness, rudeness, the fact that science ate everything from Higgins, turning him into an egoist. He stopped thinking about those around him, he was ready to sacrifice everyone, including Eliza, to his experiments.

In the first picture, Higgins, leaving the theater, lingered under the portico because of the rain and amazed those around him by guessing who was from where, barely a few phrases were said. “Zubov had here the excitement of a scientist-researcher, who spent a year in his research. He hardly noticed that hostile curiosity that was gathering around him, and in general he hardly noticed who was around him. For him, everyone who gets in his way was just an incident, a small phonetic riddle that is interesting to solve.

Zubov boldly painted this role with comedic colors, not being afraid to endow it with sharp features. He listened to Eliza, and in his remarks there was a mixed feeling of indignation and delight at the barbaric sound. Confident in Eliza's hopeless stupidity, Higgins cut the girl off and switched to the language of orders, himself at the same time standing at attention. And it was the highest form of disregard for another person.

Another performer of the role of professor - M. Tsarev acted basically the same way as Zubov. But his character turned out to be extremely absent-minded, which deprived the image of pedantry. Tsarev gave Higgins a good-natured lyricism, emphasizing the unconsciousness of his egoism.

E. P. Velikhov played the very difficult role of Colonel Pickering excellently. Difficult because the colonel constantly resonated. But the artist managed to create a convincing image. The gentleman he presented turned out to be endowed with typical British composure, tact, and at the same time he was friendly, sociable, witty. The role of Mrs. Higgins, the professor's mother, was played by E.D. Turchaninova. She wore pale fawn lace, a huge but not flashy hat, and she was the epitome of elegance against the backdrop of a luxurious pavilion of air lattices and tulle. In this pavilion, Mrs. Higgins sat on a curved couch, holding a cup of tea in her hand, listening to Eliza's small talk. "She is balanced in English, ironic in Shaw." And she looks sadly at Eliza, she does not like the experiments in human training that her son is conducting. The mise-en-scenes were built in such a way that Mrs. Higgins-Turchaninova was sitting all the time, and yet the actress managed to create a clear and interesting character. A condescending smile towards everything that was going on played on her lips. Having experienced passions herself and knowing how they end, she is not going to give advice to anyone, because she understands very well: rarely does anyone in their youth want to listen to old age. Turchaninova as Mrs. Higgins was a real lady. At the same time, the actress did not change her usual stage behavior at all. But she became an Englishwoman from the inside. And not generally an Englishwoman, but a representative of that class, that age, those views that Shaw prescribed for her. Let us cite here an interesting remark by the writer V.E. Eliza's father, Mr. Doolittle, played by V.A. Vladislavsky, was a garbage man, but he was distinguished by self-confidence and humor. Showing a wealthy scavenger, the actor fell into an overly vaudeville tone.

In the small role of the housekeeper, N.O. Grigorovskaya turned out to be convincing. "This Mrs. Pierce pronounced the word 'sir' with such solemnity and with such an English accent, that Henry Higgins, implacable in matters of phonetics, would probably have recognized it as typical."

Freddy, performed by M.M. Sadovsky, is a light, cheerful man, but too stupid, he looked almost like an operetta character. The work of the artist deserves to be mentioned separately. Convincing in the first act was a London street on a rainy evening. There was nothing in Higgins' office to indicate his scholarly pursuits. This was the room business man, and in this sense she characterized her master.

But in general, Pygmalion, staged by the Maly Theater, turned out to be a truly comedic performance, that is, light, but by no means thoughtless - it affirmed human dignity. The performance acquired a serious meaning, especially at a time when fascism preached misanthropic theories, became not only an outstanding artistic phenomenon, but also an important social event. Hence his very great success, the support he received from the press, the public, the general public, and as a result - a long stage life.