Your Status: Logged out Log in

How does Shaw introduce his ideas about society and language in the first two acts of Pygmalion?  

Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Tue Aug 26 2003

Page Preview
Preview
Previous 1 of 2 Next

On the left is an image preview of every page of this document, and below are the first 150 words with formatting removed:

How does Shaw introduce his ideas about society and language in the first two acts of Pygmalion? From the first two acts of Pygmalion, Bernard Shaw has already begun to develop society and language using a number of different techniques and aspects. In the first act the audience is introduced to three main social classes all brought together by the weather. We see their stereotyped judgements, their attitudes and prejudices against each other. It is Higgins belief that men trying to climb the social ladder will "give themselves away every time they open their mouths" (Act 1). Shaw also uses accent, revealing society's bias that accent is the key to social status. This is already apparent through the proleptic irony of Liza, and the status of those around her. Humour is used to show how different the characters' situations are. Each class has at least one character that is humorous, but...

Get instant access



  • Instant, unlimited access to our documents in full
  • Swap your work for free access, or pay £4.99
  • To see the full version of this document and 147,187 others
Register Now
OR

Receive email updates for this category



  • Simply tell us your email address and receive a weekly Study Help Email for FREE
  • Receive 3 FREE essay views with each email
  • Get all the latest essays from Coursework.Info & discussion from TheStudentRoom.co.uk