Critical Response to Pygmalion

“Pygmalion” is a popular play set in the early 20th century and written by George Bernard Shaw. The first London performance was in 1914 and to this day is still a huge success. The title reveals that the play is based on the old story of Pygmalion and Galatea. Pygmalion was an ordinary man who one day decided to sculpt the perfect woman. When he was finished he went to the gods and begged for Galatea to be brought to life, and she was. After a little while Pygmalion got bored of his dream because she was too perfect.
The play is very similar to that story in the way that Eliza Doolittle gives a man total control of her, but in the play there is a twist in the ending because Eliza does not end up with that man but ends up with someone else. This makes the play less predictable. The main themes that Shaw tries to put across are class distinctions, men versus women, the power of education and morality. Shaw is a very strong believer of all classes being equal and he frequently hi...