My Fair Lady is an unforgettable theatre experience, transporting audiences back in time to an astonishingly real Edwardian London populated by a host of colourful characters. The themes of this spectacular musical are enduring and quintessentially English, and are as relevant today as they have always been. My Fair Lady is also a celebration of the power of music to tell stories, illuminate characters and beguile the audience.
Musical theatre provides a wonderful opportunity to study the interplay of lyrics, music and narrative in creating in-depth characters in a dramatic piece of work. And what better musical to turn to than My Fair Lady, rooted as it is in both a dramatic masterpiece and a great musical theatre tradition. Lerner and Loewe's creation, based on Bernard Shaw's 1912 play Pygmalion, is as much a classic play as a classic musical. A profusion of musical styles, characters, drama and comedy, My Fair Lady connects with audiences in the 21st century just as powerfully as it did in the mid-20th century.
The enduring character of Eliza Doolittle, Cockney flower girl turned high society debutante, serves as the pivotal role in a musical which seeks to examine class distinctions, society's prejudices, the gender divide, identity and transformation. Classic musical numbers 'Wouldn't It Be Loverly?', 'The Rain In Spain', and 'A Hymn To Him' evoke and bring to life these essential themes and the musical's diverse and absorbing characters.
This wonderful show teamed with this exciting new resource will bring My Fair Lady alive for your students, guiding them towards an understanding of the power of song and music and its ability to highlight and contribute towards the drama of a play. With the use of inspiring and creative materials, it will provide students with opportunities for imaginative and empathetic writing, drama, character analysis and criticism and debate.
In my assignment I chose a deferent way to write about my fair lady, I will do literary analysis.
Literary analysis:
1. Context
My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, one of the favorite plays of all time. In this famous play, Shaw examines the influence of training and education on success and social class. He uses Eliza to show that training and education can help someone rise from humble beginnings to live a happier, more successful, and more confident life.
My Fair Lady was Warner Brothers' most popular musical romantic comedy. It was also their most expensive film up to that time, totaling in at $17 million. Part of the reason for the expense was that Warner Brothers had to pay $5.5 million to purchase the film rights to the already popular Broadway hit. My Fair Lady ended up being one of the top five biggest hits of 1964.
2. Summary and Analysis
Before the first scene of My Fair Lady, viewers sit through an overture where all the credits are shown on a background of beautiful flowers. Beautiful music allows viewers to begin to get the feeling of the film and its characters before the movie even begins. These beautiful, bright-colored spring flowers become the flowers that line the entrance to the Covent Opera House.
My Fair Lady begins as members of the upper echelons of society leave the opera house. As they come out of the building, it begins to rain and the upper class and lower class people mingle. As young Freddy Eynsford-Hill tries to get a cab for his mother, he bumps into Eliza, and causes her to drop her flowers. Eliza begins screaming about how he has ruined her wares.....
3. Characteristic:
Eliza Doolittle is a low-class, uncultured flower girl. To Professor Henry Higgins and other persons of his stature, her speech is painful and her actions uncouth. Viewers cringe and laugh as they listen to Eliza's outrageous and unimaginable Cockney accent that distinguishes her so hideously from the upper classes.
Eliza's emotional well-being is also not at all stable in the beginning of the movie. She has a fear of being observed that reveals her self-consciousness. Additionally, when she feels uncomfortable, she makes hasty outbursts at whoever happens to be around. However, we see her grow and change throughout the course of the movie, until she is a lady both in actions and in her mental and emotional states
Eliza was a poor girl she had a rood personality and she was impolite, Mr. Hegan changed her to gentle woman who has a strong personality and she became more confident in herself. She fell in love with Mr. Hegan but he did not treat her in a good way and she was ambitious and had a goal in her life and it was to have flower shop one day. In the other hand Barbra was ambitious and she dreamed to be successful in her book down with love, but the difference between then was that Barbra accomplished and she made her dream come true, but Eliza she made Mr. Hegan dream come true and not hers which was to have a flower shop. Eliza loved Mr. Hegan but he refused her, catcher block love Barbra but she didn’t show her inner feeling toward him, she kept refusing him.
4. Theme:
Social Class
Throughout the movie, we see social classes taking two forms, either high class or low class. In the time period in which the movie is set, middle class is not an option. Higgins' experiment is primarily focused on the possibility that social class has less to do with money or connections and more to do with proper education, training, and manners.
By using low-class Eliza as his pupil, Higgins (and Pickering) can prove once and for all that anyone can become a lady if only she has the proper information and training. By being trained as a lady and having lived on the streets, Eliza is able to transcend the requirements and standards of both classes, but that sadly leaves her in a "no-man's land" from which she has little ability
5. Symbol:
Phonograph
The phonograph represents a number of things throughout the movie. In the beginning, the phonograph is the tool by which Higgins examines a number of linguistic patterns. After Eliza moves in, Higgins uses the phonograph to train her in her speech and language habits. After Eliza has learned to speak correctly, the phonograph symbolizes her freedom and independence as well as her achievement in changing her long-standing habits. Finally, in the last scene, the phonograph represents Higgins' desire to have Eliza in his life, as he listens to it after he arrives home from arguing with her.
White Dress
As Eliza goes to the races, she wears a beautiful white dress. The white symbolizes her introduction and inauguration into "polite" society. Although the introduction does not proceed perfectly
I really wanted to change my way of writing, I chose my fair lady and analyze it because this story has many thing to study.
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