One evening when it was raining heavily, people gathered to hide from rain near a church in London. There were few gentlemen who were talking with each other. Among these people were the poor girl named Liza. Liza was a girl selling flowers and she was a good looking girl with dirty clothes and very odd accent. In the due time there came a man named Colonel Pickering, Liza went to him and asked him if he buys some flowers. Pickering refused buying, but he gave him some money. Along with Pickering was his friend Henry Higgins. He was a professor and knew many languages. When he saw Liza he thought he can transform her into a Lady within few months. He then called Liza father, he was the one who enjoys her money. He agreed and said that I will leave her at your place and you will give me money in return. Both Pickering and Higgins started working on her.
On the first day when Liza came the Pickering told her maid “to burn out all her old and dirty clothes. And get her new ones.”(Pygmalion, Act 2) The new clothes changed her appearance. Once she was so poor she hardly changed her clothes for days , now new and clean clothes has made her look different. According to Huxley’s Satyr “there is nothing in experience which cannot be transformed by the mind into a symbol” It is due to poverty one can only thing of earning money and nothing else comes in their mind.
According to Huxley’s satyr “dirt was once accepted as a divine, but with the passage of time it has been removed with the invention of soaps and detergents” One wants money just enough to feed their families and their selves. In this play also Liza was the sole earner of her family she didn’t have much to spend on herself. Neat and clean clothes, no smelling body, no dirty hairs, and these all were made possible by Higgins and Pickering. The flower girl from the night before comes in relatively neat and clean clothes.( Pygmalion Act 2). Neat and clean clothes are the sign of showing men’s inner. The technology advancement like first poor people wearing wool clothes could not afford maintain it neat and clean but the transition of clothes from wool to cotton, then the manufacturing of detergents.
Liza being poor and unable to clean herself but when once brought into the company of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Higgins, she was brought to remove the dirt (Shaw). It was due to the technology that these inventions have made men to be aware of the word stink and nastiness. According to Huxley “there might be a remedy for stink and nastiness and that are called soap”. Up till thirteen century it was hard to consider such things like soap and when it got invented it changed the dirt to tidiness.
Liza was a girl who only knew nasty things and smelled and would stink, when she was brought for the change as a challenge it totally changed her life. Although Mrs. Pickering was of the view that she should not be changed as it will change her from inside too. The change of technology has almost touched every person and has also helped in achieving good life standards. The clothes on low prices, affordable prices have made it possible even the poor to keep themselves clean. For poor it was not possible to stay clean as wool was not washable but with the invention of cotton it has made possible to be clean and neat.
Similarly from Pygmalion it has become clear that how a poor girl can be transformed and she can even look after her very easily (Shaw, p. 16). She got rid of her dirty clothes, and “A man’s clothes are his most immediately perceptible attribute” by Huxley’s Satyr. She was not only transformed into a duchess but her mindset was also changed and thus she was bound to think that she can be a duchess. As the Huxley’s essays show also that with the invention of soaps, detergents the dirt which was once considered as irremovable was then removed and poor people too can avoid nastiness and stink.
References:
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC, 2007.
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion and Major Barbara. Random House Publishing Group, 1992.Press.
