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Elsbeth Hilpert, Shaw's Pygmalion and Goethe 's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust and George Bemard Shaw's Pygmalion are both very important dramas of the 19th century. Certain similarities in their plots allow a comparison. There are a couple of resemblances between Shaw's romance and Goethe 's tragedy. In both dramas the main character is an elderly man, who is at first only interested in his profession. Faust is absorbed in discussions about physical, philosophical, theological and medical problems, and Professor Higgins is married to his phonetics. These two old bachelors get to know a young girl each and have gentle feelings for the first time in their lives. Higgins meets Eliza when he is sheltering from the rain in front of a church where she is selling flowers. Faust has drunk a rejuvenating love potion he was given by Mephisto, the devil, and Gretchen is the first female creature that crosses his way, so he immediately falls in love with her. The girls are quite young, innocent and naive. In both cases there are big differences in education and social background between the man and the girl. Higgins and Faust are educated and intelligent men from higher middle-class families, where they learnt how to speak properly and how to behave in society. The girls are from poor lower-class families. Eliza has an alcoholic father, an absent mother and several stepmothers. Although she is very young, she has to earn her own living by selling flowers in the streets. She is a common, but respectable girl. So is Gretchen, who has to work all day in her family's pub. Her brother fights in some war and the good girl prays to God every evening and confesses almost everything that she does and that happens to her. Another common ground between the two dramas is the stylistic device of the bet, which leads to the real action. In Pygmalion there is one bet and in Faust there are even two bets that are absolutely necessary for the plot. Pygmalion and Faust both have literary patterns. Faust is based on the old Faust material, that has been a model for many authors, and the so-called Gretchen-tragedy. Faust really lived and eamed his money äs a scientist and questionable doctor, but a contact to Gretchen has not come down. The Gretchen-tragedy is concerned with a young woman who killed her illegitimate child and was sentenced to death. The topic of Pygmalion can be connected to an episode in Ovid's Methamorphoses. This chapter tells about a sculptor, who forms the statue of a woman, falls in love with it and persuades Aphrodite to breathe life into it. Higgins in a way also creates Eliza by changing her personality. He makes the only woman out of her that could possibly fit into his life. Unfortunately, unlike Pygmalion's statue, Eliza decides against a life in her creator's house. All these similarities make a comparison possible.But, of course, Faust and Pygmalion also differ in many ways. The contact between Higgins and Eliza was not achieved because of amorous interests, but because of the bet between Higgins and Pickering, whether the professor could teach Eliza perfect upper-class English within some months or not. So Eliza comes to live at Higgins' house for professional reasons. They do not develop any feelings other than friendly ones for each other during the whole play. Faust, on the other hand, is forced to fall in love with the first woman he sees
after he has drunk a magic love potion, that also makes him look younger. The first woman to cross his way is Gretchen, a naive and beautiful girl. She is flattered that an obviously educated man should court her. Faust can easily seduce her and later on she becomes pregnant. But Faust does not love her character nor is he interested in her personality, which
is exactly the contrary to Higgins who even wants Eliza to stay with him and Pickering after the successful end of the experiment just for the fun of it, but has no sexual interest in Eliza.Another big difference between the two dramas is that there are no supernatural beings involved in the action of Pygmalion, while Goethe lets God and the devil, embodied by the
figure of Mephisto, take part in his play. This is an important distinction as it shows the author's attitude towards life and his intentions in his drama. Pygmalion certainly is meant to demonstrate class differences in the London of the 19th century, but it includes comic characteristics, too. Faust is a serious reflection on the difficulty of taking the right decisions
in life. Faust has to choose between God and a boring, unsatisfactory life on the one side and Mephisto and a fulfilled life on the other. In Pygmalion the bet is between Higgins and Pickering, two humans ofthe same position. In Faust the bets are between figures of different statuses. God has the highest rank, followed by Mephisto and the humans occupy the lowest
Status. At first God and the devil bet if Mephisto would be able to persuade Faust to follow the wrong path. The second bet is between Mephisto and Faust. Mephisto promises to be Faust 's servant during his whole life on earth, while Faust has to guarantee to do the same to Mephisto in the hereafter if the devil achieves to make him completely happy and content for
one moment. Goethe lets his hero lose his bet, Mephisto is able to satisfy Faust. Although Higgins wins his bet. Pickering does not actually lose it. They are both proud and happy about the success of their experiment and grateful that it is over. Naturally, Eliza does not feel so, because now as a lady she cannot return to her old life and therefore has nowhere to go. She
runs away to Freddy, a young man who deeply admires her. In the end, Higgins and Eliza have a terrible row, which is their kind of a heart-to-heart talk, but it remains open if Eliza returns to Higgins and Pickering or at least stays friends with them or if she marries Freddy and earns their living as a teacher of Higgins' methods. In any case she makes her way in life. Poor Gretchen is not so lucky, she has a baby and kills it, because an unmarried woman with a child had gambled away in those days. Someone finds the body of the dead baby and Gretchen is accused of infanticide and sentenced to death. In the night before her execution Faust wants to free her, but she refuses, because she does not want to have anything to do
with Mephisto, whom she has recognized as the devil. Gretchen does not survive her encounter with the main character and dies. So, among most other plays, Pygmalion can be compared to Faust. Most dramas show
some similar traits to this universal tragedy.
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