Postby Aka-chan » Mon Sep 26, 2005 6:39 am
Also, look into the myth of Pygmalion, from which the play borrows its title. Quick summary:
Pygmalion's this famous sculptor, but he's single. He carves a beautiful woman out of stone (I think he named her Galatea...) and completely fell in love with her. Problem: she's STONE. So he prays to Aphrodite and she makes Galatea real and Pygmalion is very happy. The end. Or something like that. You'd probably be better off looking it up. <.< >.>
ANYWAY, to spoil the ending of Pygmalion for the sake of your project, contrary to My Fair Lady, in Pygmalion, Liza goes off and marries Freddy rather than staying with the Professor. I seem to remember Shaw commenting that he did that because, in a way, Liza was Galatea to Higgins' Pygmalion and he could never see Galatea being truly happy with the man who created her. He was still too much like a god to her, and never really an equal. It's doubtful he would have approved of the ending of My Fair Lady. (I believe I read all this in the introduction to a copy of Pygmalion, but I can't tell you which publisher or whatever. Sorry.)
Also, the scene in which she appears refined and then shocks everyone did not originally take place at the races. It takes place in someone's house (the Professor's mother, was it?), and it's because she says the word "bloody" instead.
That should possibly get you started. ^__^ Good luck!
EDIT: My version was a Penguin Classic.