Pygmalion Archetype

• Concise definitionTransformation story in which an external force seeks to change someone else.

• Archetypal characters1. Creative person (creator)2. Object of creative person’s attention (created)3. Being who grants creative person’s wish

Aspects to look for/recognize

• 3 archetypal characters

• Relationship between creative person & creation

• The transformation process

Ovid & Shaw side-by-side

Original Pygmalion myth by Ovid (~AD 0)

• Creative person: Pygmalion

• Object of creative person’s attention: Ivory Woman

• Being who grants creative person’s wish: Venus

• Transformation: Ivory Woman becomes a real woman

1900’s adaptation by George Bernard Shaw

• Creative person: Higgins• Object of creative person’s

attention: Liza• Being who grants creative

person’s wish: Colonel Pickering

• Transformation: Liza going from poor street flower seller to a lady with proper English

Recreations of Pygmalion

• Books:– Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray– Pinocchio

• Movies:– Pretty Woman – My Fair Lady