Pygmalion

Having never really sat down and read a play before, I was a bit concerned when it came to this particular reading assignment. I became even more concerned when I started reading the preface to the play. I prayed the the rest would not be written like that. Thankfully, Shaw is a much better playwright than he is novelist.
The idea of the changing character, the molded clay that was Liza Doolittle, was something that hit rather close to home with me. I'm a very different person now than I was 5 years ago, as most 19 year olds are. Watching Higgins sculpt Liza into the 'perfect' woman reminded me of how I tried so very hard to do the same to myself. I realized, much like Liza, that I had put myself in rather an awkward situation, though mine was nowhere as extreme as Liza's. I ended up in the middle of 2 'social classes' in high school, the 'druggie-musicians' and the 'nerds'. Awkward to say the least. On a much more drastic scale, Liza found herself between the working poor and the aristocrats, with no place to live and no one to go to. She ended up with Freddie, who was kind of in the middle of things.
So, for me, the most important part of this play was watching Liza change...and sadly, we didn't get to see much of the process. We saw the drastic differences in the character from beginning to middle to end, but beyond that we lost a lot. I wish there had been more of the process involved.
Other than Liza, I think my favorite character is Higgins...mainly because he's an asshole and he has a bit of God complex. Exactly the kind of guy I go for...
Anyway, Higgins stuck with me most because of his relationship with his mother. It is reminiscent of my relationship with my mother. Mom tries very hard to be proper, she tried very hard to raise my sister and I to be proper as well, and she tries everyday to make my father more proper (Dad is the sole reason I turned out as 'unproper' as I did). My sister ended up being the more proper of the two of us, though lord knows she still needs a lot of work. I, on the other hand, am the (stereotypical) son my mother never had. I burp out loud at every possible chance (and sometimes compete with Dad), leave dirty things all over the place, eat a ton and don't clean up afterward, and always forget to say please and thank you and push in my chair. My mother's efforts worked on my sister, but not on me. in regards to trying to make us more proper, my mother is a little bit like Henry...but that's not the point of this rant.
The point of this rant, is that Mrs. Higgins and my mom are similar. Mrs. Higgins has to put up with a lot of shit from Henry which she pretends to yell at him for...my mom has to do the same thing with me (only her 'yelling' is a lot more convincing than Mrs. Higgins'.) Henry is a total pig at home, and everywhere, but mostly at home. I'm kind of the same way. Henry sits on the furniture that he's not supposed to sit on, speaks rudely in front of guests, and has no social skills whatsoever...and I'm exactly the same way. So now I've realized that Higgins and I have a lot in common...but also, the way my mother acts toward me when i do these things is comparable to the way Mrs. Higgins acts toward Henry.
I would like to apologize for how confusing that got, but I hope you all got the point(s) of it.

Sarah