Psychological Growth of the Protagonist in Pygmalion from Ecological System Theory

Abstract

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics has extended all over the world from 1880s up until now. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion and Saint Joan. With the great capacity of using play to reflect the reality, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his era. Shaw’s Pygmalion is one of the most popular of his plays. It has been staged all over the English speaking world. And even a film based on the play called My Fair Lady has proved to be an immense success, and has made everyone knows about this play. Its popularity has been perennial and universal.Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, one day overhears a flower girl named Eliza Doolittle and mocks the common way she talks. The next day, Eliza shows up and asks Higgins to teach her talk properly. But his friend Colonel Pickering bets him that he can’t make Eliza talk like a lady in six months’ time. During the time that he accepts the challenge and teaches Eliza, Eliza has many psychological growth. Based on the ecological system theory, this paper makes an analysis of the positive influences of the environment on Eliza from different people and society in reference with five dimensions—microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. The influence from Eliza’s original family, especially from her father, the guidance and deeds of Higgins, and some effects from the society as the microsystem provide positive help for the psychological growth of Eliza. And the interactions among the microsystem, which construct the mesosystem, together with the exosystem and macrosystem make Eliza, a flower girl, grows into a Duchess Eliza with pride and self-consciousness.