英语专业毕业论文--论萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中伊莉莎的女性独立

XXXX大学本科毕业论文（设计）任务书

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论文（设计）题目：论萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中伊莉莎的女性独立

学院：外国语学院专业：机器翻译班级： 2009级机器翻译班

学生姓名： XX 学号： XXXXXX 指导教师： XXX 职称：讲师

1、论文（设计）研究目标及主要任务

本论文的研究目标是探讨萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中女性独立对女性幸福的重要影响。

其主要任务是通过阐述女性独立意识对女性幸福生活的重要影响呼吁女性要独立。

2、论文（设计）的主要内容

本论文分为三章，第一章介绍伊莉莎独立意识形成的原因，第二章介绍伊莉莎独立意识的具体表现，最后一章介绍独立意识给伊莉莎人生带来的影响。

3、论文（设计）的基础条件及研究路线

本论文的基础条件是不同的文学家、评论家及作者本人对作品的解读。

研究路线是对萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中女主人公伊莉莎的女性独立意识为其生活带来的影响进行详细分析。

4、主要参考文献

George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion and Major Barbara, 贵州科技出版社，1992.

The Cambridge Companion to Feminism in Philosophy, Cambridge University Press.

萧伯纳.卖花女[M].杨宪益,译.北京:中国对外翻译出版公司,2001。

塔特洛克，希腊罗马神话，中央编译出版社，2012。

陈敏，皮格马利翁效应：用赞美、信任和期待来改变个人和团队的成功法则，北京工业大学出版社，2005。

沃特斯（朱刚、马晓蓉译），女权主义简史，外语教学与研究出版社，2008。

5、计划进度

阶段起止日期

1 确定初步论文题目3月16日前

2 与导师见面，确定大致范围，填开题报告和

任务书，导师签字

3月16日-3月23日

3 提交论文提纲3月23日-3月30日

4 交初稿和文献综述4月20日

5 交终稿和评议书5月8日前

指导教师：年月日

教研室主任：年月日

注：一式三份，学院（系）、指导教师、学生各一份

XXXX大学本科生毕业论文（设计）开题报告书

外国语学院机器翻译专业 XXX 届

学生姓名XX

论文（设

计）题目

论萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中伊莉莎的女性独立

指导教师XXX

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职称

讲师

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研室

商务英语

教研室

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向

英语语言文学

课题论证：通过研究萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中女主人公伊莉莎的独立意识对其生活的影响来探讨女性独立意识对女性幸福的重要影响。

方案设计：第一章介绍伊莉莎独立意识形成的原因，

第二章介绍伊莉莎独立意识的具体表现，

第三章介绍独立意识给伊莉莎人生带来的影响。

进度计划：3月16日前确定初步论文题目

3月23日前写开题报告、任务书

3月30日前提交论文提纲

4月20日前提交初稿和文献综述

5月8日前交终稿和评议书

指导教师意见：

指导教师签名：年月日

教研室意见：

教研室主任签名：年月日

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评定成绩：签章

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XXXX大学本科生毕业论文（设计）评议书

姓名XX 学院外国语

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2009级机器翻

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论文题目论萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中伊莉莎的女性独立完成时间2012/4/20

论文内容摘要

萧伯纳是二十世纪英国最伟大的戏剧家，《皮格马利翁》是他最著名的剧作之一。这部作品深受读者喜爱，后被改拍为电影，萧伯纳也因此成为了唯一一个既获得诺贝尔文学奖又获得奥斯卡奖的剧作家。萧伯纳的作品多反映女权主义，他所塑造的强大的女性形象撞击了人们对男女关系的固有观念, 唤醒了女性，自立、自强、自尊的意识, 推动了西方女权主义的发展。《皮格马利翁》中的女主人公伊莉莎就是其中杰出的代表之一。

《皮格马利翁》讲述的是一个满口伦敦土语的卖花女如何在一位语言学教授的教导和培训下变成一个上流社会的贵妇。这个故事一方面讽刺了当时的上流社会-----一个以纯正的英音为骄傲，因人的口音而判断他人地位的社会，曾被人们所轻视的卖花女经过6个月的训练被人们当做是皇室的公主，这反映当时上流社会中人们的盲目自大与无知；另一方面，这个故事也强调了女性独立意识的重要性，伊莉莎正是因为自己的自尊自强才从一个伦敦街头的卖花女变为了一个上流社会的贵妇。

本论文通过分析伊莉莎因自立自强而获得幸福生活的过程来探讨女性的独立意识是如何改变自身命运的。它包括三个部分：第一章从当时的社会压力及伊莉莎自身家庭的条件两方面来分析伊莉莎具有独立意识的原因；第二章对伊莉莎独立意识的具体行为表现进行了描述；第三章阐述了伊莉莎通过自立自强而创造的幸福生活。

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XXXX大学本科生毕业论文（设计）文献综述

Literature Review

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is an outstanding critical realistic dramatist of the 20th century. In his life, he created lots of well-known plays and works. Pygmalion is one of Shaw's best-known plays. It is a play based on Ovid’s tale of Pygmalion. It tells the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined society lady merely by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a comment on women’s independence, packaged as a romantic comedy. This play gets an enormous success all over the world. This essay will discuss the process of Eliza's changing of image and arising of spirit from the Greek myth archetype. Meanwhile, it will also display the author's effort to explore female self -creation.

In Ovid’s narrative, Pygmalion was a Cypriot sculptor w ho carved a woman out of ivory. According to Ovid, after seeing the Propoetides prostituting themselves (more accurately, they denied the divinity of Aphrodite and she thus 'reduced' them to prostitution), he was not interested in women, but his statue was so fair and realistic that he fell in love with it. In the vertex, Aphrodite's festival day came. For the festival, Pygmalion made offerings to Aphrodite and made a wish. "I sincerely wished the ivory sculpture will be changed to a real woman." However, he couldn't bring himself to express it. When he returned home, Cupid sent by Aphrodite kissed the ivory sculpture on the hand. At that time, it was changed to a beautiful woman. A ring was put on her finger. It was Cupid's ring which made love achieved. Aphrodite granted his wish. Pygmalion married the ivory sculpture changed to a woman under Aphrodite's blessing. In Shaw's play, Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a comment on women's independence, packaged as a romantic comedy.

In the late of 19 century and early of 20 century, Englishmen are very proud of the orthodox English and regard it as the representation of elegance. People even determine somebody’s social identity based on his or her English accent. However, a girl who sales flowers on the street of

London becomes very good at this language with 6 months’ learning. So the self independence is more important than the class awareness. In traditional social concept, only when a girl getting into marriage and having a baby that she becomes a significant and full woman. At the same time, because of women’s low economic status in family, few of them have the power to make decision. So that in the traditional structure of marriage, women are just as a accessory of a family.

As the writer of Pygmalion, Shaw was a famous exponent of Feminism in western world. He sympathized that women were oppressed in that society and encouraged them to walk into the society and strive for independence. Therefore, most of the women protagonists that Bernard Shaw created were strong, brave, smart and independent. Only through hard endeavor and unremitting struggle could they get the right way of living and finally realize the genuine independence both in economy and society, just as Eliza. Eliza courageously strode out of gutter she used to stay in and headed towards her goal of independence. And afterwards, she became the guardian of Higgins as well as his house -only she expressly knew where Higgins’ things had gone or what kind of appointments he had to go. Eliza had become such an indispensable part of Higgins’ life that Higgins would cast about for Eliza all around since she had left. Higgins had grown accustomed to her and relied on her much. Higgins could not live without her, whereas Eliza was independent and could live without anybody. In the end Eliza got thorough independence, realized her self-value and the true value of the transformation from a flower girl to a proper lady.

First-wave feminism was a period of activity during the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In the UK and US, it focused on the promotion of equal contract, marriage, parenting, and property rights for women. By the end of the nineteenth century, activism focused primarily on gaining political power, particularly the right of women’s suffrage, though some feminists were active in campaigning for women’s sexual, reproductive, and economic rights as well. Louise Weiss along with other Parisian suffragettes in 1935. The newspaper headline reads "The Frenchwoman Must V ote." Women’s suffrage was achieved in Britain's Australasian colonies at the close of the 19th century, with the self-governing colonies of New Zealand and South Australia granting women the right to vote in 1893 and 1895 respectively. It was followed by Australia permitting women to stand for parliamentary office and granting women the right to vote. In Britain the Suffrag ettes and the Suffragists campaigned for the women’s vote, and in

1918 the Representation of the People Act was passed granting the vote to women over the age of 30 who owned houses. In 1928 this was extended to all women over twenty-one. In the U.S., notable leaders of this movement included Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B.

This thesis will analyze how Eliza acquires her happy life with her awareness of independence. It consists of three parts. Chapter One analyzes the reasons of Eliza’s independence, in which the pressure from the society and her family serves as the main factor. Chapter Two describes the manifestations of Eliza’s independence. Chapter Three studies the results of Eliza’s independence, which include earning the love of Professor Higgins and the ability to live happily in her own way.

XXXX

本科生毕业论文册

题目：论萧伯纳《皮格马利翁》中伊莉莎的女性独立

作者姓名 XX

指导教师 XXX

所在学院外国语学院

专业（系）机器翻译

班级（届） 2009级

完成日期 2013 年 4 月 20 日

Analysis of Eliza’s Independence in George Bernard Shaw’s

Pygmalion

BY

XXX

XXXX, Tutor

A Thesis Submitted to Department of English

Language and Literature in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of B.A. in English

At XXXXUniversity

April 20th, 2013

Abstract

George Bernard Shaw was the greatest playwright of England in 20th Century. And Pygmalion is the most famous drama of him. This work is deeply loved by the readers, and it was adapted into a movie later. Bernard Shaw becomes the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Oscar because of this. George Bernard Shaw made a lot of images of women, and the strong images he made shaped the traditional concept of the relationship between men and women, and the images rouse women as well. The awareness of independence, self-esteem and self-improvement push forward the development of western feminism. Eliza, the heroine of Pygmalion is one of the outstanding representatives.

The story of Pygmalion tells that how a flower girl does from the streets of London becomes a high class lady within six months’ study in phonetics. The story satirizes the high society of that time. In that society, People determine other’s social identity based on his or her English accent. Yet, a flower girl, who was looked down upon by the high class, is regarded as a royal princess after 6 months’training of phonetics. That reflects the blind arrogance and ignorance of the high class. On the other hand, the story also stresses the importance of women’s awareness of independence. The reason why Eliza transfers from a flower girl into a high class lady is her awareness of independence and self-improvement.

This thesis will analyze how Eliza acquires her happy life with her awareness of independence. It consists of three parts. Chapter one analyzes the reasons of Eliza’s independence, in which the pressure from the society and her family serves as the main factor. Chapter two describes the manifestations of Eliza’s independence. Chapter three studies the results of Eliza’s independence, which include earning the love of Professor Higgins and the ability to live happily in her own way.

Key words women awareness of independence happiness

摘要

萧伯纳是二十世纪英国最伟大的戏剧家，《皮格马利翁》是他最著名的剧作之一。这部作品深受读者喜爱，后被改拍为电影，萧伯纳也因此成为了唯一一个既获得诺贝尔文学奖又获得奥斯卡奖的剧作家。萧伯纳的作品多反映女权主义，他所塑造的强大的女性形象撞击了人们对男女关系的固有观念, 唤醒了女性，自立、自强、自尊的意识, 推动了西方女权主义的发展。《皮格马利翁》中的女主人公伊莉莎就是其中杰出的代表之一。

《皮格马利翁》讲述的是一个满口伦敦土语的卖花女如何在一位语言学教授的教导和培训下变成一个上流社会的贵妇。这个故事一方面讽刺了当时的上流社会-----一个以纯正的英音为骄傲，因人的口音而判断他人地位的社会，曾被人们所轻视的卖花女经过6个月的训练被人们当作是皇室的公主，这反映当时上流社会中人们的盲目自大与无知；另一方面，这个故事也强调了女性独立意识的重要性，伊莉莎正是因为自己的自尊自强才从一个伦敦街头的卖花女变为了一个上流社会的贵妇。

本论文通过分析伊莉莎因自立自强而获得幸福生活的过程来探讨女性的独立意识是如何改变自身命运的。它包括三个部分：第一章从当时的社会压力及伊莉莎自身家庭的条件两方面来分析伊莉莎具有独立意识的原因；第二章对伊莉莎独立意识的具体行为表现进行了描述；第三章阐述了伊莉莎通过自立自强而创造的幸福生活。

关键词女性独立意识幸福

Table of Contents

Introduction (1)

Chapter One. The Reasons for Eliza’s Indepe ndence. (4)

A. Social Background. (5)

B. Personal Background (6)

Chapter Two. The Manifestation of Eliza’s Independence . (8)

A. Before Taking the Class: Unwilling to Mediocrity. (8)

B. After Taking the Class: Never Loss Herself. (10)

Chapter Three. The Result of Eliza’s Independence. (13)

A. Enjoying a Happy Life. (13)

B. Earning Professor Higgins’ Love. (14)

Conclusion (17)

Notes (19)

Bibliography (20)

Introduction

In Greek Mythology, Pygmalion is a king of Cyprus, he is good at carving. But he doesn't interest in any of the girls in his country, he thinks the girls are all foolish and troublesome, so he decides to marry no one. One day, he makes a perfect sculpture of a girl, and considers it as a consummate one, than he falls deeply in love with it. He talks with it and touches it everyday. He prays Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, to change it into a human. Venus is moved by Pygmalion and then agrees with it, she brings the statue to life. Pygmalion then married the girl that changed from the ivory sculpture under Venus' blessing. They have a son later, named Paphos. They also have a daughter, Metharme.

In George Bernard Shaw’s script Pygmalion, there is a same story. In the story, two men named separately Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering are both in deep interested in phonetics, the study of speaking sounds. They make a bet with each other that Professor Higgins can transform a flower girl from the streets of London into a high class lady within six months. This scene takes place in Covent Garden market, where Freddy and his mother, together with his sister have taken shelter from the rain after watching a play. They are joined by a flower girl. Their conversation is overheard by Henry Higgins, whose hobby is to record overheard speech by the people around phonetically, so that he can recreate it exactly. He declares to be able to identify exactly where people come from based on the sound of their speech. Higgins considers that the flower girl Eliza should be ashamed for her terrible accent, because in the late of 19 century and early of 20 century, Englishmen are very proud of the orthodox English and regard it as the representation of elegant. What else’s, Higgins thinks women are foolish and troublesome like Pygmalion thinks, so he always treat women rudely. During Higgins’ training with Eliza, he talks to Eliza impolitely and barely lets her rest. But at last, just at the moment when Eliza finishes her task and is ready to leave, does Professor Higgins realize that he falls deeply in love with Eliza.

The story is very familiar with the mythology of Pygmalion, especially the characters of the hero. That’s probably the reason why Bernard Shaw named it Pygmalion. The play was first performed in 1914. And then in the mid-1930s, film producer Gabriel Pascal acquired the rights to produce film versions of some George Bernard Shaw's plays, Pygmalion is one of them. However, George Bernard Shaw refused to adapt Pygmalion into a musical, because of his bad experience with The Chocolate Soldier;

a Viennese operetta based on his play Arms and the Man. It was not until George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, that Pascal achieved the goal to write the musical adaptation. George Bernard Shaw had ever written a different script for the 1938 film version of Pygmalion, and the musical's script used several scenes of the new one, including the Embassy Ball sequence and the final scene. They preferred the new ending rather than the original one. The play was successful obviously; it can be seen since the first performance in Vienna. Shortly after it was translated into four languages soon later, it keeps being attractive by the people from all countries in the following years. The first movie came to people in 1935 and it was famous and popular worldly as the musical ―My Fair Lady‖ by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in 1956. But no one has ever thought of this success before its premiere. There are many big problems during making it, such as casting a fifty year old actress for the 18 year-old character Eliza, as well as dealing with differences between George Bernard Shaw’s and the director’s methods of putting a play on stage. What’s more, the director also wanted to change the end of George Bernard Shaw’s authentic version into a happy ending. Although the problems are hard to dealing with, the result proves that their effort worth it.

George Bernard Shaw (26/7/1856 –2/11/1950) is an Irish playwright, he was born in Dublin, the capital of Irish. His father has ever worked in court, and than turns to do business. His father got into the habit of drinking because of the failure in business. After that his mother went to London to teach music. Under the effected of his mother, George Bernard Shaw was fond of music and painting since he was a little boy. He wrote more than 60 plays all life long. He was an essayist, novelist and short story writer too. Nearly all his works reflect social problems, but he makes their stark

themes more comfortable through the form of comedy. George Bernard Shaw usually engaged attention to the issues of education, marriage, religion; government, health care, and class privilege. In 1898, George Bernard Shaw got in marriage with Charlotte Payne-Townshend. Their living house now becomes a site called George Bernard Shaw's Corner in Ayot St Lawrence. George Bernard Shaw died there at the age of 94. He is the only person to have achieved both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar in movie (1938). That owes to his contributions both to the literature and his work on the film Pygmalion. But George Bernard Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize at first because he had no interests in public honors, but his wife considered it as a tribute to Ireland, so he accepted it at last. But he refused the money firmly, he hopes it to be used to the finance translation of the fellow playwright August Strindberg’s works from Swedish to English.

From Pygmalion, I can see the importance of independence for a woman. The central idea of this play is that your life can be shaped by the way that you speak. But in my opinion, the distinction between a flower girl and the duchess is not how they behave, but how they be treated by others. From Henrik Johan Ibsen to George Bernard Shaw, the strong images of women they made shaped the traditional concept of the relationship between men and women, and rouse women. The awareness of independence, self-esteem and self-improvement pushes forward the development of western feminism. In fact, George Bernard Shaw’s thought is more clear and steady fast than Ibsen. For example, Eliza, the heroine of Pygmalion is a strong, smart and independent girl. She is unwilling to be ordinary, so she comes to Professor Higgins, asking him to teach her how to speak like a lady. She finally becomes an elegant girl, who wants to be a teacher of phonetics instead of marries a rich man. She never relies on anyone, but depends on herself; she even wants to earn money to support Freddy. Eliza’s independence and self-improvement make her a happy life, the following is the analysis in detail.

Chapter One. The Reasons for Eliza’s Independence.

In the eyes of the traditional social concept at that time, woman is the angel of the family, and marriage is a kind of myth for women. Only after a girl getting into marriage and having a baby that she becomes a significant and full woman. At the same time, because of women’s low economic status in family, few of them have the power to make decision. So in the traditional structure of marriage, women are just like an accessory of a family. But Eliza is an exception; she never relies on anyone, but depends on herself.

The first scene takes place in Covent Garden market, where Freddy and his mother, as well as his sister were trapped there by the rain after watching a play. Then the flower girl appears. On contrast, when Freddy’s mother and sister are waiting to be taken care of, Eliza begins to do her business. Eliza is kicked out by her parents when she was young. The most important thing for her is surviving. So she can’t wait to be taken care of, because no one will do that. However, it seems that the ladies of the high class can’t live without a man. For example, Freddy’s mother keeps asking gentleman when the rain will stop. THE MOTHER[to the gentleman] Oh, sir, is there any sign of its stopping?1she gets used to asking others instead of thinking by her own. On the other hand, the gentlemen of high class maybe used to taking care of ladies as well, this form a bad loop, ladies depends on gentlemen more and more. However, at the same time, Eliza is busy with her business. THE FLOWER GIRL [taking advantage of the military gentleman’s proximity to establish friendly relations with him]. If it’s worse it’s a sign it’s nearly over. So cheer up, Captain; and buy a flower off a poor girl. 2 This forms a sharp contrast between Eliza and the women in the upper class. Eliza earns money by herself and relies on no one, yet Freddy’s mother needs others to tell when the rain will stop and waits her son to call a cab. It’s hard to imagine that how does the ladies live without the care of men.

If we consider that Eliza is forced by the hard life to be independent before taking the class from Professor Higgins, the choice she makes after taking the class proves that her awareness of independence comes from her inner heart. After finishing

the banquet hold by the duchess, Higgins and Pickering are very proud and happy, yet Eliza feels emptiness. She feels herself like a doll. Professor Higgins suggests her to marry Pickering or even the king or prince, because she is beautiful and elegant enough to earn their love. But Eliza insists to be herself. She determines to be a teacher of phonetics like Professor Higgins. The awareness of independence doesn’t allow her to rely on others. At the first time when Eliza ask Higgins to teach her how to speak like a lady, she just aims to become a saleslady at the flower shop instead of attract men. She never cut off the thinking of support herself by her own.

A. Social Background.

In this play and in British society in general, language is closely tied with class. Englishmen are very proud of the orthodox English and regard it as the representation of elegance. From a person's accent, one can distinguish where the person comes from and more what the person's social identity is. Because poor people are usually lack of the awareness of learning accents, they are marked as poor all life long. There are almost members of all social classes in Pygmalion. Eliza represents the lowest class, Mrs. Pearce represents the servant class, Doolittle (after his inheritance) represents the middle class, the Eynsford Hills represents the genteel poor class and Pickering and the Higgins represent the upper class. The fact that Higgins is able to identify where people were born by their accents tells that the issue of language is tied up with class quite closely. British class and identity are tied up with their land and their birthplace, so it becomes difficult to be socially mobile if your accent marks you as coming from a certain location.

As in this society, when Higgins brings Eliza to the Embassy Ball, he comes across Zoltan Karpathy to test his work. Zoltan Karpathy is a linguist , who is ―indispensable to the Queen of Transylvania at these official international parties‖, speaks“32 languages‖ and claims ―No imposter can escape my detection‖. At first, when Karpathy talks to Eliza, Higgins feels a little feared. But ironically, it finally turns out that this brilliant linguist Eliza use concludes that ―Her English is too good‖, ―she was born

Hungarian of royal blood‖, ―She is a princess‖ and ―Royalty is absolutely written on her face‖. Eliza starts the first step toward her new social identity by acquiring the accent of the upper class through Professor Higgins’ class. However with a pure and sample goal--- to get a decent job like saleslady in a flower shop, instead of sell flowers on the street, bearing bad weathers and people’s despise. Eliza doesn’t feel special delighted when she is accepted by the upper class as Professor Higgins was expected. Although the current life is glamorous and attractive, she doesn’t feel happy because she can’t see her future and value, as well as the respect from others. What’s worse, nobody cares about this, nobody considers her feeling. Higgins just wants to prove his ability and win the bet. Everybody thought Eliza would be pretty happy and proud to be looked like a duchess of the high class society. Yet she prefers to be a self-reliance girl.

B. Personal Background.

As we all know, children in poor family are more independent. When a family does not have enough money for daily life, they will have to train their children to work to earn some money for the family. If a family has more money, the parents will be more protective to their children where they don't even dare to let the children to be alone at all and not even mention that will send them to the public road. Sometime for those really rich people, they even prevent their child going out of their house alone, because they worried of kidnapping or something else that is dangerous to the children. However, in this circumstance, how can these children become independent? The parents are too protective that they will do almost everything for the children. However if the parents are poor, they won’t have time to take care of their children, they need more time to work for the money to support the family. Children in this family should take care of themselves, and even their parents. They even have to work at a young age if necessary. These children don’t have the awareness of relying on others. They know they should support themselves all by their bare hand naturally.

Eliza was born in a little town named Lisson Grove; this town is far from the centre of London. Eliza’s mother died when she was young. Her father drinks

everyday and have no job, and he even insists that people shouldn’t work at all, he think jobless men are wise. He even asks Eliza for money to drink. Eliza is very poor and lives in a tiny rough house. Just at the sight of the house one could know its owner is very poor and lives in the lowest class of society. She has to sell flowers in the street everyday no matter what weather it is to support her life. There’s something similar between Eliza and Cinderella. Cinderella is a beautiful and strong girl in a fairy tale known to every girl. Cinderella’s father remarried with a bad lady after her mother died when she was little, and her stepmother and two sisters treat her badly. Eliza’s mother also died, her father was a jobless drunkard and always asked money from her. Both of them had no beautiful dresses or the warm from family, but they owned independent and strong characters. Cinderella had left the prince because she knows that her beautiful dress would change back to rags after midnight. Eliza left the professor because she claimed her self-esteem and independence. Cinderella was a poor girl who lost the love from family before, but after the meeting with the prince she became a princess. Eliza was a flower girl before, and her social status was low, but after improving her pronunciation, her behavior, and her dress, she became an upper-class lady. Almost every little girl has dreamt to be Cinderella, but few realize that the reason why Cinderella becomes a princess is her characters instead of lucky. Eliza has the characters to be a princess, so she makes the dream of Cinderella come true.

Being affected, Eliza completely opposes her father’s way of life. There is a time when Eliza met her father in Professor Higgins’ house, she knew his purpose of coming here immediately: trying to ask money from Professor Higgins. The reason why Eliza knows that is her father did it to her usually before. She despises her father’s job totally, because his job is to take money from others by words if we insist he has a job. Eliza’s father is very good at speech, that’s why he becomes a gentleman later. Yet, at this time, Eliza doesn’t want to live like his father; in fact, she lives all by her own all the time, relying on noone but herself. This personal background may probably be the reason of her awareness of independence.