Setting
In our group for discussion we talked about how the fact the set of circumstances
involved the social issues of the class system creates the entire story the
beginning and that the theme rich vs poor is shown right off the bat with the
way Eliza is treated because of her poor and lower class-like language. We
talked about how the settings and social issues were accurate to the real life
because the author lived in the time period the play had been set in and the
two distinct classes and two distinct places from either sides of the class
system were very accurate to what was really going on in the time period of the
play’s setting. We also looked upon the idea of modernizing the book but agreed
that it simply could not be done without destroying the whole themes and the
messages on the social issues that Bernard Shaw was trying to show in his play.
There was no doubt about it that the author can create a realistic image of the
different scenes in the play because he describes the scenes with about a page
of text and he went into detail about things like the leather of a chair and
where it had been positioned.
Not only would modernizing it destroy the themes, but it would destroy all Bernard Shaw was trying to convey, as well as all that is good and wholesome about Pygmalion. You would loose Eliza's accent barrier, because those aren't prominent nowadays, which would take the whole rich vs. poor theme out and kill Bernard Shaw's message of 'The English can't speak their own language.' Also, sexism isn't nearly as prominent nowadays, so there goes the whole 'I've become a lady, now what do I do with my life?' from Eliza, and therefore takes out the entire ending of the play. IT can't be done. Not without making me want to cry.
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