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AND
INEQUALITY,
SHAW, SUBJECTIVE
OF LANGUAGE
SOCIAL MEANINGS
THE
IN PYGMALION
By LYNDA
MUGGLESTONE
IV. 162 (unless otherwise specified, this edition of Pygmalion will be used throughout).
3 N. Grene, Bernard Shaw: A Critical View (London, 1984), 108.
RES New Series, Vol. XLIV, No. 175 (1993)
OxfordUniversityPress 1993
374
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PYGMALION
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13 Ibid. I. 112.
PYGMALION
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such infelicities by the use of a flat adverb, 'they wont take me unless I
can talk more genteel'.19
Language, and especially pronunciation, as Shaw presents it, may
therefore combine to work not only as a social determiner, but also,
and more dangerously, as a social determinant, preventing the 'equal
rights and opportunities for all' which Shaw gave as his definition of
socialism in 1890.20 Fabianism and phonetics thus achieve parallel
aims in Pygmalion, the solution to such linguistic, and attendant
social, determinism being shown to rest in the possibilities of linguistic, and hence social, transformationas worked by Higgins upon Eliza
by means of her education in the nuances of phonemic propriety.
Shaw's point here, however, is less a recommendation of remedial
phonetics for the problems of a class-based society than a consideration of the nature of equality in itself, and of the superficial issues
which may obscure such knowledge.
Equality, and the nature of social identity, in fact come to provide
dominant motifs within Eliza's conversation; 'My character is the
same to me as any lady's',21 she stresses to Higgins in Act I, and,
though 'wounded and whimpering' in Act II, she continues to assert
the Fabian truth that money alone leads to rank: 'I wont be called a
baggage when Ive offered to pay like any lady';22just as, in the tumult
and confusion of the opening scene, she states, albeit 'with feeble
defiance', 'Ive a right to be here if I like, same as you'.23 Such
comments are used to point the difference between the undeniable
facts of innate equality, and the social, including the linguistic,
fallacies which nevertheless may inhibit its recognition.
Such discrepancies are underlined further by Shaw himself in his
stage directions; though 'comparedto the ladies, she is very dirty', this
first description of Eliza makes the salient point that she is, however,
'as clean as she can afford to be'.24 Cleanliness, like accent, becomes
yet another trapping of social circumstance, an accident of birth and
class. Like accent also, cleanliness, or rather its converse, initially
constitutes a marker of Eliza's social ostracism, and is likewise to be
subject to transition during Eliza's social transformation. The ease
with which it is removed, however, serves to stress the way in which
markers of class may have their significance overstated as determinants, as well as determiners, of individual identity; though Eliza was,
for example, deemed entirely unworthy of discourse by Clara
19 Ibid. II. 121.
20
182.
21
G. B. Shaw, What Socialism Is (Fabian Tract No. 4, 1890). Cited in Holroyd, Shaw, i.
Pygmalion, I. 113.
24 Ibid. I. 107.
23 Ibid. I. 114.
378
MUGGLESTONE
PYGMALION
379
her in', expounds Eliza upon the untimely demise of her aunt,29
thereby uniting the idiom and expression of her social origins with the
new social status suggested by her enunciation. The connotative
values of class contained within the latter clearly dominate in terms of
social meaning, displacing the significance of non-standard tense
relations (and even the major solecism of swearing) and rendering
Eliza no longer a representative of 'kerbstone English' but instead the
epitome of linguistic fashion, and an exemplar of the 'new small talk'
for the impressionable Clara ('It's so quaint, and gives such a smart
emphasis to things that are not in themselves very witty. I find the
new small talk delightful and quite innocent').30
Higgins, as he promised, has in effect created a new social identity
for Eliza, bridging the 'gulf that separates class from class and soul
from soul' by an exercise in phonetics, and expenditure on her dress.
The presentation of the class divide in such terms is thus made to
reflect the many paradoxes and pretences which surrounded, and still
surround, questions of social worth and social acceptability. In this
context it is salient, as well as salutary, to remember that Higgins's
first reactions to Eliza's 'Lisson Grove lingo'31denied her social, and
indeed, individual worth at all: 'A woman who utters such depressing
and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere-no right to live.'32
Eliza's innate equality can thus only be seen, even by Higgins himself,
once she has gained access to symbols of social equality, and the
pattern is precisely the same for her father. As Alfred Doolittle gains a
fortune, so Eliza gains an accent (though losing another) and with
such trappings both become more than capable of playing the social
roles of lady and gentleman.
Equality and inequality in social terms are thereby proven to be
both extrinsic and subjective; this is clearly Shaw's thesis from a
socialist point of view. From a linguistic point of view, his thesis is
perhaps more striking. Long before the advent of sociolinguistics,
Shaw seems to have been aware not only of the marked co-variation of
accent and class, but also of the social side-effects of what R. A.
Hudson has termed the 'subjective inequality of language', or, in other
words, aware that 'linguistic inequality can be seen as a cause (along
with many other factors, of course) of social inequality, as well as a
consequence of it'.33 This fact, of language as both cause and consequence of class divisions and class distinctions, is indeed at the heart
of Shaw's perceptions in Pygmalion, Eliza's 'kerbstone English' being
not only the product of her social deprivation, but also the factor
29 Ibid. III. 151-2.
32
Ibid. I. 114.
380
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381
produced in her a gushing desire to take her for a model, . . . she discovered
that this exquisite apparition had graduated from the gutter in a few months
time. It shook her so violently, that when Mr H. G. Wells ... placed her at
the angle of view from which the life she was leading and the society to which
she clung appeared in its true relation to real human needs and worthy social
structure, he effected a conversion . . . comparable to the most sensational
'Worthy social structure' and 'real human needs' are of course the
substance of Shaw's message. Phonetics becomes the agent of Fabian
ideals in the consummate ease with which it levels class distinctions
and fills in class divides, providing, as a cancelled passage of
still clung to her words, rendering futile such propriety of phrase as she owed to years of association with educated people' (p. 154).
39 Grene, A Critical View, 102.
40 Pygmalion, Epilogue, 199-200.
MUGGLESTONE
382
Pygmalion made clear, the means for 'the regeneration of the human
race through the most difficult science in the world'.41
Clara'sregeneration, together with that of Eliza, thus stands as part
of the myth of re-creation employed in the play. Alongside this,
however, must also be considered the parallel social transformationof
Alfred Doolittle, gaining money rather than modifications of accent in
his role of natural philosopher to the Wannafeller Moral Reform
World League. Like Eliza, his original social location is determined
merely by the superficial rather than the innate; his occupation as
dustman heightens the dirt which had been prominent in the early
social definitions of his daughter, but its greater abundance nevertheless makes it no more difficult to remove. Like Eliza, Alfred
Doolittle was 'as clean as he could afford to be' and the acquisition of
?3,000 a year rapidly effects a transition within such necessary
markersof acceptability, their repercussions readily perceptible in the
parlourmaid's responses when he presents himself at Mrs Higgins's
Chelsea apartment:
Mr Henry: a gentleman wants to see you very particular.
THE PARLOR-MAID.
Hes been sent on from Wimpole Street.
HIGGINS.Oh, bother! I cant see anyone now. Who is it?
A Mr Doolittle, sir.
THE PARLOR-MAID.
PICKERING.
Doolittle! Do you mean the dustman?
THE PARLOR-MAID.
Dustman! Oh no, sir: a gentleman.42
Pygmalion, v. 170-1.
PYGMALION
383
384
MUGGLESTONE
PYGMALION
385
56
Ibid. v. 180.