My Fair Lady (1964) is one of Audrey Hepburn's (1929-1993) masterpieces and a classic musical and dance film in the history of cinema. Hepburn's beautiful and elegant silhouette is fascinating, and the legendary story of the flower girl who was reborn is extremely fascinating.
What is less well known to the audience is that the film is based on the play "Pygmalion" (1912) by the Irish dramatist Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), and the first Chinese translator of the play, Mr. Lin Yutang, translated the title of the play as "The Flower Girl", which is mostly used by later generations. Whether it is the Chinese translation of "Flower Seller" or the title of the movie "My Fair Lady", both intentionally or unintentionally guide readers and audiences to turn their attention to Eliza, the heroine of the work who has achieved a change of identity, but George Bernard Shaw's name of his play "Pygmalion" is not unintentional, and it is obviously a reference to the story of Pygmalion carving an ivory girl and falling in love with the statue in ancient Greek mythology.
In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the sculptor of the island (there is also a legend that Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus or the priest of Aphrodite), and the women of the island were punished by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, for blasphemy, and became prostitutes who sold their flesh and reputation, lost their shame, and even turned to stone, so that Pygmalion became disgusted with the women of the world. There is also a legend that Pygmalion was abandoned by his mother and betrayed by his girlfriend, so he held a grudge against the woman. Pygmalion lived celibate for a long time, decided not to marry for the rest of his life, and devoted himself to carving, devoting almost all of his leisure time to carving statues of gods. Later, Pygmalion carved a beautiful girl out of ivory and fell in love with his creation, he talked to the statue, gave the statue many gifts that the girl loved, and even shared a bed with the statue. On the day of Aphrodite's feast, Pygmalion made a wish to Aphrodite to have a woman like his ivory statue, and the goddess fulfilled his wish and gave the statue life, and the statue became a maiden named Galateaa, and Pygmalion married Galateaa and gave birth to a daughter Paphos and a son Menis.
Although there are many differences in the details between the different versions of the Pygmalion myth, if the myth is dissected, it can be found that the Pygmalion myth consists of a triple structure of "carving the statue - falling in love with the statue - the statue gaining life". In terms of gender relations, Pygmalion has gone through a process from rejecting and misogynistic to shaping the image of women in his own mind, and then to falling in love with the woman he has created. In George Bernard Shaw's plays, the linguist Siggins goes through a similar process to Pygmalion in the relationship between the sexes. They both have misogyny – Pygmalion is extremely hostile to real-life women, and Siggins believes that any woman with whom he has an emotional relationship will become jealous, obnoxious, and selfish and bossy. In addition, Siggins has a mother-lover mentality, his mother is an upper-class woman with a high level of cultivation, and few women in the world can meet her standards, so the young women cannot touch Siggins's heart, and Siggins becomes a determined old bachelor. Dissatisfaction with the reality of the situation made the two Pygmalion rejecting the women of the world, which in turn led to their singleness, and such a gap was common in different times and different regions, and it was always difficult for people to find the opposite sex that really matched their hearts, and there seemed to be an insurmountable gap between the two sexes.
When it was difficult to find his ideal partner from the outside world, Pygmalion turned to his expertise and carved a woman out of ivory, fell in love with her, hoping that the statue would become a living person and become his wife; Siggins meets Eliza, a flower seller, and uses her talent in linguistics to portray this unliterate and vulgar flower girl into a woman as elegant and charming as a duchess. Both Pygmalion and Hyggins went through a process of forming a new person, and they did so according to their own ideas and wishes.
Before George Bernard Shaw's plays, Pygmalion's mythological archetypes had also appeared in the pen of Molière (1622-1673), a master of comedy of the neoclassical era. In L'Ecole des femmes (1662), the aristocrat Arnolfer, fearing that his future wife's cheating would damage his reputation, wants to find a wife who is obedient and infinitely loyal to him, so he buys his young daughter Agnès from a poor family and raises her in a convent. Arnolfo adhered to the creed that a woman's lack of talent is virtue, believing that a woman who loves elegance is extremely difficult to control and easy to go astray, and hoped that Agnès in the convent would cut off contact with the world, and asked the convent to teach Agnès to be a human being according to his policy, that is, to train her to be a simple-minded, ignorant and infinitely naïve "idiot". The reason why Arnold had such a plan was because he made this wishful thinking in his heart: "In the future, I will adjust her according to my mind, like a piece of wax in my hand, and I will pinch it into whatever style I like." (The Complete Comedies of Molière II, translated by Li Jianwu, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, November 2022, p. 34)
Outside of Western literature, Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973-1014), a Japanese writer from the Heian period, also portrayed a pair of Pygmalion and Galatea lovers in her The Tale of Genji (c. 1010). Genji lost his mother when he was young, and he was attached to his stepmother, Concubine Kiritsu, who looked like his mother, but due to ethical and moral constraints, Genji had no way to stay with Concubine Kiritsu. After Genji met Zihime who was still a little girl by chance, because Zihime and the concubine of the Tonghu were related by blood, and the two were also somewhat similar in appearance, after separation, Genji never forgot Zihime, and finally welcomed Zihime back to his home after many efforts, Genji acted as a protector and raised Zihime as a father and husband, and cultivated Zihime's hobbies according to his own preferences. Purple Hime was raised as an adult exactly according to Genji's wishes, and later became Genji's favorite wife.
In the novel Incarnation (1986) by Japanese writer Junichi Watanabe (1933-2014), there is also a Pygmalion who sculpts Galateaa, Daizaburo Akiba, who completely transforms Kiriko from the inside out after Kiriko becomes his mistress, turning Kiriko into a modern urban woman. When Akiba first met Kiriko, Kiriko was a country girl who didn't know much about urban civilization and had difficulty gaining a foothold in the city, so as a mature man with a successful career, Akiba had the conditions to shape Kiriko according to his own wishes. Kiriko can be said to be a successful work of Akiba, and it was he who single-handedly shaped the new Kiriko.
Mao Dun's first short story, Creation (1928), is also an interesting text that reflects Pygmalion's psychological archetype. In the novel, Junshi proofreads the women of the world with the pattern of "ideal lady", hoping to find a life partner for himself. The so-called "ideal" standard of Junshi is that a woman's temperament and opinions are the same as her own in all aspects. This narcissism is staggering. It is not difficult to imagine that Junshi's "according to the map" failed, and after searching for no result, he decided to find a piece of jade, which he carved according to his ideals. This piece of jade is his later lover Xianxian, Junshi cultivated and guided Xianxian from all aspects, and "created" her into an ideal woman of his own, and Xianxian also became Junshi's most proud "creation".
In these texts, Pygmalion and his successors—Arnolfer, Siggins, Genji, Akiba, and Kimitomi—all succeed in portraying the ideal woman in their own terms, but their stories have different endings. Pygmalion and Galateaa, who was resurrected from the statue, were naturally united, and Genji received the long-awaited love from the grown Purple Hime. However, in the four works produced in modern society, Galatea has deviated from his own Pygmalion: after Agnès meets the young talent Auras, the heart of youth naturally awakens, and love is involuntarily generated, which makes Arnolfer's painstaking efforts go to waste; Eliza chose to marry Frydi, the son of a declining aristocracy, but did not choose her own "creator", Siggins; Kiriko, who has become a modern urban woman, has been able to support herself and finally leaves the autumn leaves; Xian Xian in "Creation" came from behind, and has a more progressive modern consciousness than Junshi, which makes Junshi realize that the "creation" he is doing is just the destruction of Xian Xian.
In the mythology of Pygmalion, it is the male who "carves" his ideal opposite sex, and the female is initially carved as an ignorant "ivory", completely in a passive position, and can only accept the life and destiny that the gods have given and arranged. This reflects the fact that men are often the guides in gender relations, while women are the second sex, shaped and disciplined by men and patriarchal societies. In the play Pygmalion and several other texts that imply mythological archetypes, it is also men who have the right to carve, while women are portrayed as adults and even as self-shapers according to the psychological expectations of men and society.
The different endings of the four modern texts and the two classical texts reflect the elevation of the status of women in modern society, although women still have no way to escape the fate of the second sex, but women who have the ability to earn a living and can achieve economic independence in society can partially achieve self-emancipation, no longer blindly dependent on men, and thus have the space to choose their own life path. The departure of Eliza and Kiriko is also an awakening of their sense of self and independence. They not only have an independent career or the ability to start an independent career, but more importantly, they have an independent soul, the need and initiative to make choices, and pursue an independent personality, rather than accepting the fate that has been arranged without thinking.
Mao Dun conceived a meaningful ending for "Creation": Xian Xian asked the maid at home to tell Junshi before going out: "She has taken a step first, please catch up with the young master." - The young grandmother also said that if the young master didn't catch up, she wouldn't wait. (Mao Dun, "Creation", Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House, May 1985, p. 40) Xianxian, who was "created" by Junshi, eventually surpassed her own creator, Mao Dun's original intention of creating this novel was to refer to revolution, and Xu Zidong believes that "Creation" reverses the pattern of "love-education-enlightenment" in modern literature, if the relationship between Junshi and Xianxian is placed in the framework of the Pygmalion myth, such an ending is not only a rebellion against male dominance and patriarchy. It is also a subversion of this kind of carved and carved gender relationship - men have fallen behind, and women can also become male guides!
The modern film and television industry has developed to a stage dominated by consumers, and women are the main force of film and television consumer groups, so screenwriters will naturally cater to the preferences of female audiences when creating, creating men who can meet women's psychological expectations - "carving" their ideal partners for female audiences in film and television works. Whether it is a personable "uncle", or a "little wolf dog" or a "little milk dog", they all have a modern feminist consciousness without exception, from life choices to words and deeds, they are all based on the needs and interests of women.
Of course, female viewers can indulge in the illusion of light and shadow for a moment and get some illusory satisfaction. However, women are not waiting to be carved ivory, wax blocks and jade, and modern women who have celebrated the 114th International Women's Day should not indulge in this kind of film and television pacifier and cannot extricate themselves, not to mention that the myth does not tell us whether Pygmalion and Galatea, who get along day and night, live happily......