Pygmalion by George Shaw Shaw "the second greatest English playwright, behind only Shakespeare" Title- Shaw called Pygmalion a potboiler and subtitled it "A Romance." Thus the play's main thematic concern is romantic in the literary use of the term. It is a play that has a highly improbable plot. Professor Henry Higgins transforms a common flower girl into a graceful lady, like the legendary Greek sculptor Pygmalion carved an exquisite female statue out of a …showed first 75 words of 860 total…

…showed last 75 words of 860 total…and religious opinions. -Last important play, The Apple Cart, Shaw exposes democracy and royalty as forms of government Criticism: -Although some critics find Pygmalion's setting to be naturalistic, others tend to disagree. - critics who eagerly attribute this anti-romantic ending to Shaw's perversity or to his supposed oedipal attraction towards his mother would do well to remember that the actual point of the ending is not the issue of Eliza's marriage but her gaining independence.