PYGMALION is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek
mythological character. It was first presented on stage to the public in
1913. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train
a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess
at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of
gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is
impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British
class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence.
In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his
sculptures, which then came to life. The general idea of that myth was a
popular subject for Victorian era English playwrights, including one of
Shaw's influences, W. S. Gilbert, who wrote a successful play based on
the story called Pygmalion and Galatea first presented in 1871. Shaw
would also have been familiar with the burlesque version, Galatea, or
Pygmalion Reversed. Shaw's play has been adapted numerous times, most
notably as the musical My Fair Lady and the film of that name. (more o:
www.wisehouse-classics.com)