Major Characters
![Picture](/uploads/8/4/3/7/84377806/eliza.jpg?250)
Eliza Dolittle
A cockney flower seller. Eliza dreams of a better life and sets out to improve her lot by taking the speech lessons that Henry Higgins boasts about.
A cockney flower seller. Eliza dreams of a better life and sets out to improve her lot by taking the speech lessons that Henry Higgins boasts about.
![Picture](/uploads/8/4/3/7/84377806/higgins.jpg?250)
Professor Henry Higgins
A phonetician and professor of linguistics. Higgins calls himself an expert in “the science of speech.” He boasts that by giving Eliza speech lessons, he could pass her off as a duchess.
A phonetician and professor of linguistics. Higgins calls himself an expert in “the science of speech.” He boasts that by giving Eliza speech lessons, he could pass her off as a duchess.
![Picture](/uploads/8/4/3/7/84377806/download-1.jpeg?250)
Colonel Pickering
He's a genial old chap, an expert in Sanskrit, and an all-around nice guy. He and Higgins hit it off right away, and without his suggestion, the whole bet would have never happened. Eliza credits Pickering's gentlemanly ways for starting her transformation from flower girl to duchess, for truly making her feel like a lady. He is the good cop to Higgins's bad cop.
He's a genial old chap, an expert in Sanskrit, and an all-around nice guy. He and Higgins hit it off right away, and without his suggestion, the whole bet would have never happened. Eliza credits Pickering's gentlemanly ways for starting her transformation from flower girl to duchess, for truly making her feel like a lady. He is the good cop to Higgins's bad cop.
How to analyse...
Characters, to begin with, are fictitious creations and thus the dramatist and the novelist may both be judged with regard to their ability in the art of characterisation. Since a character has no depth before he walks on stage, the dramatist must invest him/her with certain distinguishable attributes in a convincing way. We are prepared to accept the reality of these characters for the duration of the play. All characterisation must be presented through dialogue: characters speak about each other and characters speak about themselves- particularly of course about their central emotions, such as love and hate. The combination of speeches and actions throughout the play, the small jokes, the short angry speeches, the lengthy diatribes, all add up to produce in our minds an understanding of the characters in a drama as people who might actually exist.
When we start our character analysis we should start by surveying all of the characters in the play, making it clear who is the protagonist, antagonist, confidant, fool, wise man etc. After all of the characters can be seen in their pattern and in their relationships, they can be isolated for individual analysis.
Start by figuring out where our characters sit in the character spectrum:
Who is the - protagonist, antagonist, confidant, foil?
Do our characters fit nicely into each category? Why? Why not?
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Our central task in analysing a character is to delineate and describe the characters development within the play. Where do we begin?
To begin we consider our Characters in action- that is, explaining what happens to our character in the course of the play- and then suggesting reasons for that action, their motivation. By doing this we fairly rapidly discover the central truths of our characters. (click the highlighted words for extra information- if you need it!)
Choose one character from Pygmalion to analyse. Start by observing and writing down/ making a list of their various actions, actions that reveal something about them (see characters in action for help).
From here you create links. You must tie a a character action to either a motivation or fundamental character trait. For example:
(Act Two) Mr Higgins offers to pay Mr Doolittle 10 pounds to educate Eliza, 5 more than was asked from him. ---------> There is limited motivation here (he stands to gain nothing, but in fact loose money), therefore his action is done because it is part of Higgins' fundamental character. Higgins' is a man attracted to language and the beauty of it. Mr Higgins' is persuaded and impressed by Mr. Doolittle's use of poetry and convincing rhetoric. Mr Doolittle unknowingly plays to Mr Higgins character by skilfully convincing him he is the "deserving poor".
(Act Two) Eliza goes to Mr Higgins house to procure Mr Higgins' service as an etiquette educator. ------> this is a motivating action. What does Eliza have to gain?
Now that we have developed our character's actions and some of their motivations and character traits, we must look at devices of characterisation. You must find examples of each characterisation device listed below and make a summary about the character for each on your google doc.
The appearance of the character: (descriptions in the prologue or stage directions. Are they meticulous or sloppy? Attractive or unattractive? Old or young? This is our first and immediate understanding of a character)
Asides and soliloquies: Long parts of speech, where the character in effect talks to the audience about themselves.
Dialogue between characters: (not only how a character speaks alone but how he/she interacts with others. If a man speaks one way to his master/equal and another way to his underling we can draw various conclusions.
Language: (not only the kind of words the character uses, but also how the character speaks. The way a character speaks and the expressions he/she uses).
Hidden narration: (observations of characters, made by other characters. Hidden because they are not being directly made by the author).