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English Literature Plus(38041-01)
Third Exam
Dec 23, 2020
Name: Student Number:
I. Explain the following terms briefly(2×4=8).
1. Ovid’s version of “Pygmalion”
2. The Romantic idea of Pygmalion
3. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as a story of Pygmalion
4. Pygmalion as the Educator
II. Explain the meaning of the following passage in the context of the whole poem(or play)(4×3[5-7]+5×1[8]=17)
5.
Pygmalion, his offering given, prayed
Before the altar, half afraid, ‘Vouchsafe,
O Gods, if all things you can grant, my bride
Shall be’-he dared not say my ivory girl-
‘The living likeness of my ivory girl.’
And golden Venus (for her presence graced
Her feast) knew well the purpose of his prayer;
And, as an omen of her favouring power,
Thrice did the flame burn bright and leap up high.
6.
Alas, Pygmalion had so well plotted
The art-perfection of his woman monster
That schools of eager connoisseurs beset
Her famous person with perennial suit;
Whom she (a judgement on the jealous artist)
Admitted rankly to a comprehension
Of themes that crowned her own, not his repute.
7.
So, unaided, she began her next performance with an apparent improvisation which was, in reality, only a variation upon a theme. She sank her teeth into his throat and drained him. He did not have the time to make a sound. When he was empty, he slipped straight out of her embrace down to her feet with a dry rustle, as of a cast armful of dead leaves, and there he sprawled on the floorboards, as empty, useless and bereft of meaning as his own tumbled shawl.
8.
LIZA.
I'll offer myself as an assistant to Professor Nepean.
HIGGINS
[rising in a fury] What! That impostor! that humbug! that toadying ignoramus! Teach him my methods! my discoveries! You take one step in his direction and I'll wring your neck. [He lays hands on her]. Do you hear?
LIZA
[defiantly non-resistant] Wring away. What do I care? I knew you'd strike me some day. [He lets her go, stamping with rage at having forgotten himself, and recoils so hastily that he stumbles back into his seat on the ottoman]. Aha! Now I know how to deal with you. What a fool I was not to think of it before! You can't take away the knowledge you gave me. You said I had a finer ear than you. And I can be civil and kind to people, which is more than you can. Aha! That's done you, Henry Higgins, it has. Now I don't care that [snapping her fingers] for your bullying and your big talk. I'll advertize it in the papers that your duchess is only a flower girl that you taught, and that she'll teach anybody to be a duchess just the same in six months for a thousand guineas. Oh, when I think of myself crawling under your feet and being trampled on and called names, when all the time I had only to lift up my finger to be as good as you, I could just kick myself.
HIGGINS
[wondering at her] You damned impudent slut, you! But it's better than snivelling; better than fetching slippers and finding spectacles, isn't it? [Rising] By George, Eliza, I said I'd make a woman of you; and I have. I like
you like this.
LIZA.
Yes: you turn round and make up to me now that I'm not afraid of you, and can do without you.
HIGGINS.
Of course I do, you little fool. Five minutes ago you were like a millstone round my neck. Now you're a tower of strength: a consort battleship. You and I and Pickering will be three old bachelors together instead of only two men and a silly girl.
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