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Pygmalion Social Fabric

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Pygmalion Social Fabric
Write 15 lines on the social fabric of the play and links to the Pygmalion Myth.
The social fabric of something is the way everything connects and joins together. The social fabric of Pygmalion is one that is connected yet also partly disconnected.
The society of the time was based on the class system. Everyone was easily distinguished from one another by their clothes, the way they act, their social groups and as pointed out in Pygmalion the accent that a person has is an almost instant tell tale of where a person is from and/or lived.
The three classes- upper, middle and lower rarely conversed with each other unless absolutely necessary.
The upper class had more posh accents with attention to grammar and rounded vowels. However, the lower class broaden, strangle and nasalise their vowels. They also tend to use a lot of slang words.
Early on in Pygmalion accent became the centre of attention with Henry Higgins -a phonetic enthusiast- who likes to point out where everyone comes from just by listening to their accents. This is the case with Eliza when we find that she comes from Lisson Grove (a poor area). Higgins then puts forward the idea that he can change anyone’s accent in a matter of months and pass them off as someone of class and privilege.
The ties that Pygmalion has to the original myth are not obvious at first however; having a basic knowledge of the myth it soon becomes clear that the some of the links between the play and the myth are:
Liza- Galatea (the sculpture in the original myth)
Higgins- Pygmalion
Higgins crafts Liza from the gutter into someone who can go anywhere.- Same idea as the myth that Pygmalion can craft something beautiful from nothing
Some differences include:
Having more characters in the play including Colonel Pickering, Freddy and Mrs Higgins
The different era
There were no gods/goddesses
There is a social class
Liza is not an inanimate marble statue
Higgins seems to dislike Liza
Like the social fabric; everything is woven together creating intricate links between Pygmalion and the original myth.

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