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Pygmalion | The Ending of Pygmalion: A Structural View

Addressing the controversy surrounding the ending of Pygmalion in this essay, the author concludes that the playwright's original denouement is the only appropriate one. Solomon is an educator and critic who specializes in film theory.

Pygmalion is one of Shaw's most popular plays as well as one of his most straightforward ones. The form has none of the complexity that we find in Heartbreak House or Saint Joan, nor are the ideas in Pygmalion nearly as profound as the ideas in any of Shaw's other major works. Yet the ending of Pygmalion provokes an interesting controversy among critics. Higgins and Eliza do not marry at the end of the written text, while the play as it is usually produced often does reconcile the two main characters. Obviously many directors and many readers feel that...

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