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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. Who is Neppomuck?

2. What does Liza say she doesn't want to be accused of?

3. What does Higgins throw into the fire?

4. How is Mrs. Higgins portrayed?

5. What new skill does Liza have?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why doesn't Higgins want Liza to fetch his slippers for him and perform other like tasks?

2. What does Higgins mean when he says that people are really "savages"?

3. What does Mrs. Higgins say when she learns the two men have phoned the police at the beginning of Act 5? What does Mrs. Higgins realize about Liza that the two men do not?

4. How does Freddy feel about Liza and what does he want from her? How is he different from Higgins?

5. During the social visit with Mrs. Higgins and the Eynsford Hills, what does Liza say that is shocking?

6. What does Higgins mean when he says that "my manners are exactly the same as Pickering's"? In what sense is he right? In what sense is he wrong?

7. Why is Pickering just as important to Liza's transformation as Higgins, if not more so? What is he able to teach her that Higgins could not?

8. How does Liza succeed in hurting Higgins in Act 4?

9. What does Higgins think Liza should do with her future? Does he really give it any thought?

10. How does Higgins behave during the social visit? Explain. What does this "gentleman's" ungentlemanly behavior suggest about class differences?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Write an essay examining the plot of Pygmalion. Tell what the central conflict of the play is and describe how it is developed throughout the plot. In your essay, describe and analyze all of the following plot elements:

--Inciting incident

--Rising action

--Climax

--Falling action

--Resolution

Essay Topic 2

Compare and contrast the characters of Freddy and Higgins.

Part 1) How are Freddy and Higgins similar and different? Consider all of the following:

--their social class and wealth

--their personalities

--their skills and abilities

--their attitudes toward Liza

Part 2) Why is Higgins not a suitable husband for Liza, while Freddy is? Explain.

Essay Topic 3

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?

(see the answer keys)

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