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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happened to Liza's parents?

2. Which elements of the English alphabet have no agreed speech value?

3. Who is Robert Bridges and what does he have in common with Higgins?

4. What makes Liza happy at the end of the evening?

5. What happens to the Flower Girl's basket?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Freddy do at the beginning of Act 1 that shows poor manners?

2. What are three methods of phonetic shorthand that Shaw mentions in Pygmalion, and what are they used for?

3. Describe Higgins's laboratory. What does it reveal about his character?

4. Who are Alexander Melville Bell, Alexander J. Ellis, Tito Pagliardini, and Henry Sweet, and why are they heroes to Shaw?

5. Why does Liza become upset when Mrs. Pearce takes her up for a bath? What does this incident show about Liza?

6. What would, in Shaw's opinion, be a prodigious advancement in the English language? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

7. Describe Henry Sweet.

8. What should all great art be, according to Shaw? Do you agree? What does Shaw hope his play will teach?

9. What bet does Pickering make with Higgins? Why does Higgins accept?

10. Why does Liza's father come to see Higgins?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining satire in Pygmalion. Satire is a humorous writing that exposes the foolishness of certain customs, behaviors, and institutions of society. What conventional beliefs and attitudes of the English middle class does Shaw satirize? Examine in particular:

--The speeches of Alfred Doolittle about middle-class morality and marriage.

--The arrogance of Higgins, and what his mother and Mrs. Pearce think of him.

--Neppomuck's foolish pomposities at the Embassy party.

--The characters of the snobbish Clara and her mother Mrs. Eynsford Hill, who clings to her past.

Essay Topic 2

Write an essay examining the attitudes toward love and marriage in the play.

Part 1) How does Shaw satirize, or make fun of, conventional attitudes toward love and marriage, for instance, through Higgins and Doolittle?

Part 2) What, according to Shaw in his Epilogue, is the balance of power men and women seek in marriage? What is an ideal marriage like?

Part 3) Why do some men never marry?

Essay Topic 3

Write a compare and contrast essay about Higgins and Pickering. In the essay, compare the way Higgins treats Liza to the way Pickering treats her, giving specific examples and quotations from the play. Consider, too, the way both men behave toward other characters in the play. Is Higgins right that both men treat Liza the same as they would anyone else? Which man is more of a gentleman? Explain.

(see the answer keys)

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