After Shakespeare, the most well-known playwright in the British theatre world is probably George Bernard Shaw, who is also recognized as a generation of literary heroes, who wrote all his life and won the Nobel Prize in Literature for Joan of Arc. What we want to talk about today is another of his classic plays, but it is more favored and sought after by ordinary people, and has been adapted into musicals and movies many times, and it is also quite influential in the world.
The reason why George Bernard Shaw's script is so classic, the characterization of the play itself and the vividness of the language is an important aspect, in addition, the most interesting thing is that he pays attention to and reveals a psychological phenomenon, which extends into a law, which is probably an unexpected effect of the playwright himself.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > from Metamorphosis to Flower Girl</h1>
George Shaw's classic play Pygmalion is actually called "The Flower Girl", which is translated by Lin Yutang Chinese, and Lin Yutang's early translation practice began with the translation of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion". Probably because the heroine's low origins, the city woman who sells flowers for a living, this name may be more convenient for Chinese to understand the real plot.
In fact, the original title of "The Flower Girl" can better reflect the deep connotation of the story, otherwise we can not understand the origin of Shaw's name "Pygmalion", Shaw's script is actually modeled on the plot of the ancient Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphosis", or his source of inspiration is ancient Greek mythology, which also shows that this creation is actually a inheritance of Western culture.
The ancient Roman poet Ovid's "Metamorphosis" describes such a romantic Greek myth and legend, about 3,000 years ago, there was an island country in the southeast of the Mediterranean, Cyprus, there was a king named Pygmalion, he was also a famous sculptor, but he looked down on the mortal woman full of desire, but madly fell in love with the perfect statue of the girl he had created, Galathea, touching her every day, admiring her, praising her.
Later, Pygmalion's behavior touched the heavens, and the god of love, seeing his sincere feelings, really gave life to the statue, so the statue became a living person, and later really became his wife, and this myth bears witness to the power of expectation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > Pygmalion</h1>
Ancient Greek mythology is the source and cornerstone of European culture, and George Bernard Shaw was also moved by this beautiful and magical story, creating a more profound, realistic and twisty plot. In this realistic version of Pygmalion, just replacing the beautiful statue with a poor flower girl, the background of the story is changed to London, the capital of the United Kingdom.
Although the flower seller Eliza Doolittle is beautiful, she comes from a low-level city class, speaks vulgar vernacular, carries the brand of the people at the bottom, and sells flowers on the street for a living. The "Pygmalion" in this screenplay is a professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, who developed a strong interest after an encounter with the flower girl, so he bet Colonel Pickering, a lover of phonetics, that he could train her to be a famous aristocrat like the Duchess by changing the way the poor flower girl Eliza Doolittle spoke.
So it took Six Months for Higgins to successfully change the way Eliza spoke, and took his "work" to the ambassador's reception, only to be mistaken for a noble princess, successfully fooling the critical eyes of the nobles, and Professor Higgins really re-molded the flower girl into another person.
In this way, the relationship between the two has changed between shaping and changing, and Higgins has gradually regarded Eliza as his appendage, because he believes that without him there would be no Eliza now. The clever Eliza sees through the reasons behind Higgins' bad attitude towards her and her outspokenness, believing that if she follows Higgins, she will always be a low-born flower girl, because that's how he sees her, while Pickering always sees her as a cultured lady. Eliza finally decided that what really made her noble was not the change in words and deeds, but the opinions and attitudes of others towards her. Her heart is also awakening little by little........
George Bernard Shaw wrote in the ending: "Galathea did not really love Pygmalion, and the feelings between the two were too deified to be recognized." Therefore, the ending of "Flower Girl" is more lifelike, reflecting the emotions between people in real life, interacting with each other, rather than paying one party. The ending does not set up a mythical combination of Eliza and Higgins, but arranges for Eliza to choose freddie, the suitor around her, so that it is closer to life and in line with Shaw's understanding of the reality of the conflict of the drama.
As soon as George Bernard Shaw's script was published, it attracted much attention because of some legendary plots and realistic problems that reflected social classes, and spread in the form of musicals and stage plays. George Bernard Shaw's "The Flower Girl" and his adaptation of the musical "The Lady of the Flowers" have very different endings, with the former Eliza seeing the truth and leaving her reformer Higgins to marry her suitor, Freddie. They open a florist together, fulfilling Eliza's original dream of becoming a florist saleswoman, illustrating that class crossing is also unrealistic. The latter, Eliza, meets the traditional psychological expectations of the audience and eventually returns to Higgins.
This classic story was adapted decades later into a film version of The Lady of the, which once again shined in Hollywood. In the 1965 Oscars, he won eight awards in one fell swoop, and the scenery was endless. The ending of "Lady" is the same as that of the musical, which is more in line with Greek mythology, making the emotions of Eliza and Higgins more romantic and catering to the needs of the audience.
The heroine of the film version is played by the world's best actress Audrey Hepburn, which is also a role that Hepburn loves and looks forward to. The flower seller she played, such a legendary woman, was brought to life like a sculpture by the hero's experimental expectations and deliberately shaped characters, giving her a new life, which is also a character's growth legend.
Whether it is the Greek mythology in The Metamorphosis or George Bernard Shaw's The Flower Girl, there will be wonderful feelings between the creator and the caste at the end of the story. George Bernard Shaw may have named his script "Pygmalion" in an example of a metaphor for those who would fall in love with his work, a plot that is undoubtedly touching. After all, the story of the ugly duckling transforming into a white swan is something that everyone loves.
Such a type of story actually brings a beautiful expectation to people in reality, and later people gradually summarize this motivation and behavior into a kind of phenomenon, that is, due to the persistent pursuit, miracles can appear, and beautiful expectations will become a reality, the situation is called the Pygmalion effect.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Pygmalion effect</h1>
If in life, you can also show your influence on the people around you, what magical reactions do you believe will be? In fact, the Pygmalion effect has long penetrated into all aspects of life, and is loved by psychologists and managers. If you understand this truth, everyone may use the psychology of expectations of others to achieve the most ideal result. Let's take a look at some examples:
Like Higgins, a linguistics professor, setting higher expectations for a person can improve his performance. The expectations of department managers can influence employee performance because their expectations can change employees' expectations. When employees perceive that their leaders have higher expectations of themselves, they raise their expectations, which prompts them to work harder and have more confidence in themselves.
When employees' performance begins to improve, their trust in their superiors is further strengthened, creating a virtuous circle. In the process, managers see that employees' performance improves and further affirm and elevate their initial expectations. Gradually, managers will provide these star employees with better guidance and more beneficial feedback, which will be more conducive to employees to continue to improve their performance.
The signals we express expectations can be expressed as hints or as explicit, and the key is to make the other party feel, such as assigning more interesting tasks, reducing supervision or no longer being too careful, manifesting as trust beyond the ordinary, talking more about the "grand future", etc., which are all positive expectations.
Management scientists have experimented with the Pygmalion effect in the Israeli army, and experts have randomly selected a group of soldiers to form a company, but have told military commanders which soldiers perform better and which perform well. The soldiers who were deemed "better performers" didn't really show any signs of being better than others, but after a period of training, they really did better than others in terms of learning tactical deployment, familiarizing themselves with the terrain, or learning more difficult combat techniques such as using weapons.
In the family environment, of course, we can also set some expectations that can change a person's life, such as our belief in marital happiness, the belief that the child can go to a good school, and pass these ideas to each other subtly, the result can often lead to a more stable marriage, the child will also because of the expectations of parents, the inner identity to pursue better test scores, a family into a virtuous circle of orbit.
In our personal lives, we also have all kinds of opportunities to convey our expectations to other people, and the people around us often cooperate to make different performances according to our expectations, just like Eliza Doolittle, a flower seller, said, how we expect a person, that person is often what it is.
Just as Colonel Pickering's attitude toward Eliza Doolittle turned her into a noble lady, expecting and positively prophesying about others is tantamount to exerting a magical influence on others, prompting her to believe that she can be as you expect. Therefore, properly expressing one's own expectations is really like invisible magic that can affect others.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Of course, for oneself, this positive expectation or prophecy will also have a wonderful reaction, such as always believing that you can achieve some ideal. Remember that there is a saying that "if you remember, there will be an echo", does it also explain the Pygmalion effect? As long as we keep looking forward to it and working hard for it, things may be changing in the direction you expect.
The story of The Flower Girl gives a lot of inspiration, how to use the good Pygmalion effect, fundamentally, we can think of the seeds of future success and happiness as an expectation.
By planting the seeds of positive expectations, we are likely to reap the fruit, and if we sow the seeds of negative expectations, we may reap weeds. We should control the expectations we set for ourselves and others, which is a clear direction that we can perform well, consolidate relationships, create opportunities, and ultimately achieve what we want.
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