CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

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 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Introduction

The basic component of sharing one’s views and thoughts is language.

Language helps people to communicate in a better and explicit way.
Everything in the universe is denoted or given a name by the use of
language. In fact, if language is taken out of the life of human beings either
in the verbal form, non-verbal or sign language, for some time then for that
specific period of time the world of humans would become totally deaf and
mute. Each and every kind of knowledge in the world whether scientific,
non-scientific, technical, non-technical, philosophical, psychological, or
sociological is imparted through language. Without language there could
not exist any knowledge in the universe, even the word ‘knowledge’ would
not have come to existence if the letters that form the word would not
belong to a certain language. Thus, language, when considered with regard
to the human race, is an inseparable, indispensable part of human society.

The great role that language plays in society has led many scholars to probe
deep into the matter. Scholars have considered the scientific and the
philosophical aspects of language and have arrived at different theories of
language. The scholars and philosophers of language have always taken
great delight in studying the multiple facets of language from various points
of views. They probed the meaning of language use, the connotative and
the denotative, the surface and the implied meaning. Once they were in the
field of meaning, they found that they were probing ‘semantics’. Semantics

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provided them with deeper knowledge about language. Semantics as a
branch of linguistics deals with different aspects of sentence and words and
how words are formed and combined to express a certain meaning.

Scholars and philosophers found that semantics did not provide the answer
to questions like ‘how do the hearers get the speakers’ meaning?’ which is
not expressed in clear syntactical structures. They were not able to find the
answer to their questions of implied meaning of a sentence merely with the
help of semantics. So, they began to take the help of context in which the
sentence was uttered, and once the context of the utterance was taken into
consideration to bring out the meaning of utterance, they were in the field
of ‘pragmatics.’ Today, Pragmatics is a vast and developed knowledge with
its different theories and scholars tend to look into literary and non literary
works from pragmatic perspective.

1.2. Aims and Objectives

The aim of the present research work is to analyse the selected plays of
George Bernard Shaw by applying the theory of Indirect Speech Acts. It is
an attempt by the researcher to find out the use of Indirect Speech Acts in
the selected plays of Shaw, so as establish the importance of Indirect
Speech Acts in drama, particularly of Shaw. It also tries to bring out the
significance of Indirect Speech Acts in bringing out more in-depth meaning
of the dialogues used in the play, especially by the use of Indirect Speech
Acts, against the given background and the context of the play. It would
certainly develop a new level of meaning in the play and explain the issues
of the play more succinctly from a newer perspective.

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1.3. Methodology

The researcher has applied various methods and techniques to bring out the
real value of the research; but basically the focus is on the library research
method. The researcher has collected as much data as possible by studying
the various plays of Shaw, especially a reading from the pragmatic point of
view. The availability of ample data, in the form of original texts and
critical works for the research work undertaken, has been the main criteria
for the selection of the plays. The collected data has been analysed by
applying the theory of Indirect Speech Acts in the plays.

The use of Indirect Speech Acts in the plays has been analysed by
highlighting the two types of illocutionary forces that are generally found in
the use of Indirect Speech Acts in any utterance. The analysis of Indirect
Speech Acts in the selected plays has also taken into account the
Conversational Maxims of Grice, and classification of the different types of
Speech Acts. The researcher has also taken into account the factual
background knowledge of the utterances selected as data. The implicit
performatives have been discussed to the fullest extent of its use and impact
on the whole conversation. The analysed utterances are tested for their
being felicitous and infelicitous. The implied meaning of the Indirect
Speech Acts has been analysed and explained thoroughly, and its effect has
been discussed.

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Some examples (from Shaw’s Candida)

Example 1

BURGESS: Heasy, James! heasy! heasy! Dont git hinto a fluster

about nothink. Ive howned I was wrong.
MORELL: Have you? I didn’t hear you.
Act I, Page No. 15

The conversation takes place in the house of Morell between Burgess and
Morell just before the arrival of Candida. When Morell makes him
remember about how he insulted him three years ago, Burgess accepts that
he was wrong at that time. But Morell does not expect to hear such things
from Burgess. The interrogative utterance of Morell (‘Have you?’) is not
just a question to confirm the declaration for Burgess, rather its
illocutionary force puts forward the idea that Morell doubts the nature and
the words of Burgess, it expresses the doubt of Morell regarding the nature
of Burgess.

The utterance of Morell is in the interrogative form but the function is not
that of a question. The illocutionary force of the utterance is that of doubt.

Moreover, the second utterance of Morell (‘I didn’t hear you’) is not
intended to mean that Morell has any problem with his ear or hearing
capacity, rather it is an indirect expression which directs Burgess to repeat
his utterance.

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The form of the utterance is declarative while the function is that of
directive; and the illocutionary force of the utterance is a polite request with
an ironical sense to repeat the words.

Example 2

BURGESS: Ive turned a moddle hemployer. I dont hemploy no

now: theyre all sacked; and the work is done by machinery. Not a
man ’as less than sixpence a hour; and the skilled ands gits the
Trade Union rate. What ave you to say to me now?
MORELL: Is it possible!
Act I, Page No. 15-16

The conversation between Morell and Burgess continues, as Candida has

not yet arrived. Burgess tells Morell that he has turned into a model
employer, and gives fair wages to the workers, and he did not engage
women to work for him.

Morell, son-in law of Burgess, doubts the declaration of Burgess that he has
turned into a model employer. Morell is so full of disbelief against Burgess
that he doubts any declaration of Burgess. And so the exclamation of
Morell (‘Is it possible!’) is an Indirect Speech Act. Here, Morell expresses
the view that it is impossible for Burgess to be a model employer as he does
not pay fair wages to his employees. He looks only for his own profit in
the business.

The form of the utterance is exclamatory but the function is that of a

question. It carries the illocutionary force of doubt.

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Morell’s doubt is confirmed in the subsequent dialogues of Morell and
Burgess, where Burgess accepts that he has raised the wages of the
employees so as to run his business more smoothly by having good
relations with the County Council.

1.4. Scope and Limitations

Research in pragmatics should cover various theories of pragmatics as

given by the language philosophers like Austin, Searle and Grice. Study in
pragmatics should take into consideration the context of the utterance either
it be uttered or printed in the form of a dialogue in a text. There is a great
scope of conducting research in the field of pragmatics as the application of
the theories of pragmatics would unfold many hidden layers of meaning of
any given dialogue to enhance the meaning and understanding of it. The
present study is a research work undertaken by the researcher in order to
bring out the importance and significance of the theory of speech acts,
particularly Indirect Speech Acts.

The researcher has confined himself to the study of the Indirect Speech
Acts in the selected plays of George Bernard Shaw. Shaw is considered as a
writer of plays with social implications whose characters are said to be his
mouthpieces, and his plays are often termed as ‘problem plays’. The study
of Indirect Speech Acts analyses the implications of the hidden meanings of
the utterances used in the selected plays, and also focuses on how the use of
Indirect Speech Acts serve the purpose of Shaw to solve the ‘problem’ of
his plays and whether they contributed to the popularity of his plays.

The present study is limited to the application of the theory of Indirect

Speech Acts to the selected plays of Shaw. By limiting himself to the

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present study, the researcher has kept open the field for further research in
the area, whether it is in the field of pragmatics with Indirect Speech Acts
or with any other pragmatic theory.

1.5. Shaw and His Place in English Literature

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish man, and was born in Dublin in 1856.
He came to London in 1876, with his mother who was a talented musician.
In London, Shaw became the member of the Fabian Society soon after it
was founded in 1884. As a part of the Fabian Society he did much public
speaking and wrote pamphlets on politics and economics. He was also
associated as a journalist with the Pall Mall Gazette (1885). He worked as a
music critic for The Star (1888), as a drama critic for the Saturday Review
(1895-98), and as an art critic and music critic for The World.

Shaw began his literary career with four unsuccessful novels: Immaturity,
The Irrational Knot, Love Among the Artists, and Casher Byron’s
Profession; and then he started his career as a dramatist with Widowers’
Houses (1893) which is an attack on slum landlords.

In his career as a dramatist, Shaw wrote about fifty plays of which the first
ten were not so successful on the stage. He wrote some of the very famous
plays in English literature, like, Widowers’ Houses (pub. 1893), Arms and
the Man (1894), Candida (1895), Mrs Warren’s Profession (pub. 1898),
The Devil’s Disciple (pub. 1901), Man and Superman (pub. 1903), Major
Barbara (pub. 1907), The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906), Pygmalion (1913),
Saint Joan (pub. 1924), and many more.

Shaw’s place in English literature is very great. He is one of the most

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successful men of Irish origin to have written excellent plays in the English
language. Though at the beginning his plays were not so successful, his
reputation later grew so much that most of the English speaking people at
least knew him by name even if they might not have read any of his plays.
The publication of his Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant (1898) helped him to
gain reputation in the English soil. He contributed to English literature not
only through his plays but, also, by campaigning “for the simplification of
spelling and punctuation and the reform of the English alphabet”, {Drabble,
M. (ed.), 1985: 888}. He worked as a critic of music and a critic of theatre.
He has edited the Fabian Essays (1889). He tried to explain the thoughts of
Ibsen to the English readers by writing The Quintessence of Ibsenism
published in 1891.

Shaw’s name in English literature is immortalised with the names of the

awardees of the Nobel Prize for Literature; for, he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1925.

1.6. Shaw’s Motive behind Writing Plays

George Bernard Shaw’s plays are written with a different intention as

compared to his contemporaries and predecessors. Whenever people think
of his plays the first thing that might strike their thought is the motive
behind the writing of the plays. He wrote, in the ‘Epistle Dedicatory to Man
and Superman’, “‘for art’s sake’ alone I would not face the toil of writing a
single sentence” {quoted by Ward, A. C. (notes on Candida): 1955: 96}.

Shaw was not much interested in the presentation of art; rather, art served
as a vehicle to propagate his social thinking, for, he considered himself as a
socialist. According to Bergonzi, B., “Bernard Shaw was not particularly

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interested in art; he was much more concerned with ideas, and he freely
used his plays as a vehicle for his social thinking” {in Rogers, P. (ed.)
(1987:386)}.

He was a social activist and a free thinker, who used his plays to support
women’s rights, the equality of income, and many more social problems.

Most of Shaw’s plays deal with the social problems of early twentieth
century England, like Widower’s houses (1893) which is an attack on slum
landlords, Mrs. Warren’s Profession (1898) which discusses the problem of
prostitution, The Devil’s Disciple (1901) discusses religion, Candida (1895)
presents the ‘New woman’, Arms and the Man (1894) deals with the
problem of war and its fictitious glory, Pygmalion (1913) presents the class
problem of the society and also the importance to respect one’s language.
His plays present “situations which challenged conventional attitudes,
directing a stream of ideas at audiences, provoking while entertaining”.
(Alexander, M. 2000: 300).

Shaw’s characters are the caricatures of the real people who behave
naturally as if they are in the real world and not with the romantic
behaviour of a hero or any character of a story. The doctor Sir Colenso
Ridgeon in The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906) is presented by Shaw as a person
who is not a perfect man as he is not true to his profession as he kills Mr.
Dubedat by falling in love with his wife. Through such a person, Shaw
wanted to present his idea that no one is totally perfect in the world. Again
Captain Bluntschli is presented in Arms and the Man (1899) to behave “as
Shaw maintained a soldier actually does behave, not as the conventions of
Victorian melodrama would have a soldier behave”—Daiches, D, {(1969:
1105) Vol. IV}

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1.7. Shaw and his Problem Plays

The term ‘problem play’ is used to refer to the type of plays that used a
problem of the society which could either be social or moral. It takes the
problems of the society and presents it to make people think in an
intelligible way about the problem depicted in the play. The problem plays
gained much popularity by the later part of the nineteenth century by
becoming a powerful medium of presenting the problems of the society to
the people of the society. The problem plays basically tried to put in the
minds of the people that they should have equality in their social life
irrespective of the social class and sex of the people. The problem plays
treated life in its natural way which is differentiated from the conventional
romantic treatment of life. It became a medium to present the revolutionary
ideas of the dramatists who wanted to sow the seed of intellectual and
practical thinking in the minds of the people in the society for a change
towards the development of the social conditions.

Shaw wrote his plays with the intention of presenting his ideas to the
audience about the social problems that people suffered from. His plays are
thought provoking and urge the audience to think of their problems in a
new way by accepting changes that are to take place in the society. Shaw
questioned people “Why dont you learn to think, instead of bleating and
baahing like a lot of sheep when you come up against anything youre not
accustomed to?”—The Doctor’s Dilemma, (Act III: 138). He wrote his
plays in a satirical tone to satirize the conventional attitude of the society as
David Daiches has rightly put that Shaw’s “object was to satirize, not the
invented characters in the plays, but the audiences”—Daiches (1969: 1104,
Vol. IV)

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Shaw used his plays to attack the prevailing social evils of his age to the
effect that it would bring within the people intellectually thought provoking
ideas to accept a change towards the development in the society. He deals
with the social evil of the profession of prostitution in his play Mrs.
Warren’s Profession (1898), he puts his ideas as an attack on the slum
landlords in Widower’s Houses (1893), his ideas on religion could be seen
in his play The Devil’s Disciple (1901). The plays selected for the purpose
of the study also deals with some or the other social evils with the aim to
improve the social standard of living. Shaw’s Arms and the Man (1894)
presents his ideas of war and marriage in which he breaks the romantic
illusions associated with the two things in the mind of the people. He even
mocks at the fictitious glory of war and also presents a soldier as he would
have been in a real world. His protagonist Captain Bluntschli is the soldier
from the real world who considers food to be more important than
cartridges in war and who is of the view that every soldier considers it his
“duty to live as long as we can” (Arms and the Man, Act I: 7). He makes
Candida the protagonist in Candida (1895) to present his idea of ‘new
woman’ who is independent of the male dominated society and even has
the power to choose man for herself as to with whom she would like to live.
Candida, therefore, is a play projecting an idea that provokes the minds of
the audience of Shaw and urges for the upliftment of women in society.
Again, in The Doctor’s Dilemma (1908) he presents his idea of the
character of whole human race. Shaw depicts the idea through the character
of Sir Colenso Ridgeon that no man in the world is perfect, and even a man
like Ridgeon, who belongs to the medical profession and whose first duty is
to save the life of the patient that comes to him, can kill the patient who
comes to him for the cure of tuberculosis because of his weakness for the
female sex (wife of the patient) as Ridgeon himself accepts that “She
troubles my judgment” (The Doctor’s Dilemma, Act II: 129). In Pygmalion

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(1913), Shaw deals with the problem of class distinction in the society. He
also presents his ironical views on the disrespect for the English language
by its own people, as A. C. Ward quotes from Shaw that the English “have
no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak
it.”—Ward, A.C. (in Introduction to Pygmalion, 1954: 130). Shaw’s idea of
‘new woman’ is again portrayed in the character of Liza as she leaves the
house of Higgins, who is her teacher, with the view of becoming less
dependent on others.

1.8. The Plays Selected for Study

The researcher has selected four plays of George Bernard Shaw for the
purpose of the study of Indirect Speech Acts in the plays. The plays are
selected by the researcher after a wide reading and by considering ample
data available to be analysed in order to pursue research in the use of
Indirect Speech Acts in the selected plays of Shaw in particular and in
drama in general. The four selected plays of George Bernard Shaw for the
present study are: Arms and The Man (1894), Candida (1895), The
Doctor’s Dilemma (1906), and Pygmalion (1913). The present section deals
with the background of the selected plays, the characters in the selected
plays and the story of the selected plays in brief.

1.8.1. Arms and the Man (1894)

Arms and the Man, an anti romantic comedy by Shaw, is a play that is
included in the Plays Pleasant of Shaw. Arms and the Man is a play in
which Shaw deals with two basic themes: war and marriage. At the
beginning, Shaw presents the situation of war, and then he progresses to
speak about the theme of marriage. In this play he presents the view that

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war is cruel. He also presents the romantic view of marriage and then
shatters it as the fictitious hero of Raina, that is Sergius, is not considered
by her to be suitable for marriage to lead a real life and so she leaves him
and finally marries Captain Bluntschli who is introduced in the play as a
fugitive.

Characters in the Play

Major Characters: Raina Petkoff (daughter of Petkoff), Sergius Saranoff

(an officer of Russian soldier who is engaged to Raina), Louka (maid-
servant at the house of Petkoff, whom Sergius marries finally), Captain
Blunstchli (also referred as The Man, he is a Serbian soldier; and marries
Raina at the end of the play).

Minor Characters: Major Petkoff, Catherine (Major Petkoff’s wife), Nicola

(Servant at the house of Petkoff).

The Story of the Play

The play is divided into three acts. In the first act of the play, Catherine and
her daughter, Raina, talk about the battle at Slivnitza which is won by
Sergius. Sergius is the man –the hero- of whom Raina dreams always as she
is engaged to Sergius. When Raina goes to her room to go to bed, a Serbian
soldier climbs up to her bedroom and threatens her to death if she makes
any noise. She sees that the Serbian soldier carries chocolates with him
instead of ammunitions. She describes him as “chocolate cream soldier”.
Raina hides the Serbian soldier to save him from the Russian soldier who
comes to her room in search of him. She also gives him some chocolates to

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eat. By the end of the act the Serbian soldier is found asleep in Raina’s
bedroom by her mother.

In the second act of the play, Major Petkoff returns to his house from war
and he shares his experiences of the war with his wife, Catherine. Catherine
shows him a bell which is used to call servants, and at that moment Sergius
comes in. Sergius and Raina are engaged and they involve in romantic talk,
but as soon as Raina is away from Sergius, he flirts with the maid-servant,
Louka. In the meantime, Captain Bluntschli arrives to return the coat that
he took while leaving the room of Raina. He is in good terms with Major
Petkoff and Sergius as there have been a peace treaty between the Serbs and
the Russians, and so stays back with them.

In the third act, Captain Bluntschli is asked for help by Petkoff, for some
official paperwork to be done in order to send the cavalry regiment to
Philippopolis. As the other work goes on, Louka tells Sergius that Raina
would not marry him, which disturbs Sergius and he challenges Captain
Bluntschli for a fight but he surrenders his view of fighting. And on the
demand of the explanation of situation created, he declares that he wants to
marry Louka. On the other hand, Captain Bluntschli proposes to marry
Raina with the description of his hotels, horses, blankets and other
properties, to which Raina responds positively as she gets her “chocolate
cream soldier” (Act II: 42).

1.8.2. Candida (1895)

Shaw used his plays as a platform to present his ideas through discussions,
which are the basis of his plays in which he presented basically “the
conflict of thought and belief” {Margaret, D. (ed.), 1985: 889}. G. B. Shaw

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made his plays deal with certain “old opinions and customs” to give them a
new insight by the discussions presented in his plays.

Candida is one of the most popular plays of Shaw’s dramatic career. The
full title of the play is Candida: A Mystery in Three Acts. It presents the
concept of New Woman and the power of new woman through the
character of Candida; a woman who finally decides the fate of two men,
one young and romantic and the other, a matured and ‘thorough clergyman’
(Act II: 51). It also deals with the problems of labourers and the low wages
paid to the labourers. It shatters the romantic view of the world in many
ways.

Characters in the Play

Major characters: Reverend James Mavor Morell (a Christian Socialist

clergyman of the Church of England), Candida (wife of Morell), and
Eugene Marchbanks (a young romantic poet who falls in love with
Candida).

Minor characters: Miss Proserpine Garnett (the typist of Morell), Lexy (a

curate of Morell), and Burgess (Father of Candida).

The Story of the Play

Shaw presents the story as a triangular love story, but the situation is such
that a young man falls in love with a woman who is older to him by fifteen
years and who is married. Eugene Marchbanks falls in love with Candida
who is wife of Morell and has children.

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The play is divided into three acts. In the first act, Morell is delayed to go to
receive his wife Candida due to Burgess, and she arrives home on her own.
But she is not alone; she comes with Eugene Marchbanks whose help she
took with the luggage. In his talk to Burgess, Mr. Morell discusses certain
major issues regarding the low wages of the labourers of Burgess, and
certain problems regarding their relation as in-laws. In this act,
Marchbanks, the poet declares his love for the wife of Morell, and tells him
that he would rescue Candida from the slavery of his ideas.

In the second act, Marchbanks and Proserpine have talks on love and the
reasons of having fewer love affairs in the world. Here, Shaw shatters the
romantic view of the young lovers from the viewpoint of a matured man.
Marchbanks, very romantically, declares of taking Candida to a land where
lamps are not needed to be filled in by paraffin oil, and where nothing
rough has to be done by the beautiful hands of Candida, and then Morell
says that it would be just to sit idle and do nothing, and shatters his
romantic view. In this act, Morell is emotionally disturbed by the talks of
Marchbanks, and so in order to show that he is really not afraid of the
young poet, he leaves his wife in the custody of the young poet, all alone at
home.

In the third act, Morell is back from his lecture and finds Marchbanks and
Candida in the home, as he had left them. This act is the most important act
of the play and is famous for the ‘auction scene’. In this act Morell asks
Candida to choose between him and Marchbanks. Here, Candida truly
shows the power of a ‘new-woman’ and stands up for auction to let the two
men, her husband and her lover, put their bid for her. She declares that the
matter is in her hands and she needs to solve it. Morell puts all his
‘strength’, ‘honesty’, ‘authority’, and ‘position’ for her; while Marchbanks

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puts his ‘weakness’, ‘desolation’ and his ‘heart’s need’. The bid is put in
quite interesting terms and Candida gives herself ‘to the weaker of the two’
(Act III: 77), which implies that the wife belongs to her husband for whom
she is “the sum of all loving care” (Act III: 79). The poet goes out in the
dark with a ‘secret’ in his heart.

1.8.3. The Doctor’s Dilemma (1906)

The Doctor’s Dilemma is a tragedy by Shaw that was written in 1906. The
preface of the play has become an important historical document of the
situation of the society at the time Shaw wrote the play. The play presents
the idea that everyone in the world has some or the other fault and no one is
perfect.

Characters in the Play

Major Characters: Sir Colenso Ridgeon (a doctor whom Mrs. Dubedat

believes has the capacity to cure her husband from tuberculosis), Mrs.
Dubedat (also Jennifer, comes to Ridgeon for the cure of her husband from
tuberculosis), Louis Dubedat (husband of Mrs. Dubedat).

Minor Characters: Redpenny (a medical student working under Ridgeon),

Emmy (a serving-woman of Ridgeon), Sir Patrick Cullen (friend of
Ridgeon), Mr. Cutler Walpole (friend of Ridgeon), Sir Ralph Bloomfield
Bonington (friend of Ridgeon), Dr. Blenkinsop (friend of Ridgeon),
Schutzmacher (friend of Ridgeon), The Maid of Hotel (a maid who says
that she is married to Louis Dubedat), The Newspaper Man (a newspaper
man who comes to take the interview of Louis).

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The Story of the Play

The play is divided into five acts. In the first act of the play, Ridgeon is
seen receiving felicitations from different people who come to him to
congratulate on his being honoured with knighthood. Emmy requests
Ridgeon to see a lady (Mrs. Dubedat) who has been waiting to meet him to
consult him for a cure for her husband who is suffering from tuberculosis.
Ridgeon agrees to see her, but he tells her that he could not take another
case as he did not have time and place for another patient. Mrs. Dubedat
shows him the paintings of her husband and she tries to convince that her
husband is worth saving. Ridgeon invites her with her husband to the
doctors’ party.

In second act of the play, Mrs. Dubedat attends the party of the doctors at
Star and Garter, Richmond. She leaves the party in a happy mood as
Ridgeon agrees to treat her husband. Ridgeon and his friends in the party
are informed by the hotel maid that she is wife of Louis Dubedat. Ridgeon
tells Sir Patrick that he is not willing to choose Louis Dubedat for the
treatment as he is interested in his wife (Jennifer) and she troubles his
judgement.

The third act of the play is at the studio of Dubedat where Ridgeon arrives
to have a talk with Louis and his wife; he is followed by Sir Patrick, Sir
Ralph and Walpole. They talk to him about the hotel maid who claimed that
she is his wife. Ridgeon talks to Mrs. Dubedat about the weaknesses of
Louis. While leaving the place, Ridgeon says that Louis would be treated
by Sir Ralph.

The next act is again set in the studio of Louis. In this act a newspaper man

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comes to see Louis and he wants to take his interview. The newspaper man
has been allowed by Walpole on the condition that he should not exhaust
Louis Dubedat by too much of talking. Louis Dubedat becomes so seriously
ill that he dies in the arms of Mrs. Dubedat.

The last act of the play is set in a small Bond Street Picture Galleries where
the paintings of Louis Dubedat are put to exhibition by Jennifer. Ridgeon
comes to the exhibition and he is blamed by Mrs. Dubedat for killing her
husband. Ridgeon accepts that he intentionally killed her husband because
he is in love with her but she rejects the proposal of Ridgeon, to which
Ridgeon says that “I have committed a purely disinterested murder!”(Act
V: 178).

1.8.4. Pygmalion (1913)

George Bernard Shaw got the inspiration of writing a play called

Pygmalion from the ancient Greek legend in which a man called Pygmalion
falls in love with Galatea, a statue made by him but on seeing the love of
Pygmalion for the statue it is given life by the Goddess of love. Shaw wrote
Pygmalion in 1913 which he called a romance. In fact it is a problem play
as it deals with the problem of the class consciousness in the British
society, as rightly put by Albert, E. (1979: 463), Pygmalion is “a witty and
highly entertaining study of class distinction.”

Characters in the Play

Major Characters: Henry Higgins (a professor), Mrs. Higgins (mother of

Henry Higgins), Colonel Pickering (author of Spoken Sanskrit who came
from India to meet Higgins), Liza (also called Eliza, is a girl who sells

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flower on the street and who comes to Higgins for lessons in English), Mr.
Doolittle (father of Eliza).

Minor Characters: Freddy (a boy who falls in love with Liza, whom she
marries at the end of the play), Clara (sister of Freddy), Mrs. Eynsford Hill
(mother of Freddy), Mrs. Pearce (Higgins’s housekeeper), Sarcastic
Bystander (a bystander at the Covent Garden vegetable market), Taximan
(the taxi driver who is called by Freddy in the first act and in whose cab
Liza goes to her home).

The Story of the Play

The play is divided into five acts. The first act of the play begins at 11.15
p.m. with people running to take shelter at the Inigo Jone’s church in
Covent Garden vegetable market. A lady (Mrs. Eynsford Hill) and her
daughter (Clara) are seen waiting for Freddy (son of Mrs. Eynsford Hill)
who has gone to bring a cab as it is raining heavily and they need to go
home. But the mother and the daughter leave the place in bus as Freddy is
too late. Meanwhile, a Note taker (Higgins) comes to the place and starts
taking notes of the pronunciation of the people present and passes
comments about to which place they belong. The people present over there
begin to be afraid of the Note taker thinking him to be a policeman; he also
frightens the flower girl, Liza, who sells flower on the street. When Freddy
comes with a cab he does not find his mother and sister there and he is
informed by Liza that they went home by bus, and she takes the cab to
home.

In the second act of the play, Higgins and Pickering are in the laboratory of
Higgins and they listen to the phonetic sounds. Liza comes to the place of

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Higgins and asks him to give him lessons in English. Higgins agrees to give
her lessons in English so that she could be a flower girl at a florist’s shop.
He accepts the challenge of Pickering to pass the flower girl like a duchess
in six months by giving her the training of the proper and standard use of
English. Mr. Doolittle, father of Liza, arrives at the house of Higgins to
make some money out of his daughter being with Higgins, but Higgins
thinks that he has come to take his daughter away and so he asks him to
take his daughter with him. When Higgins comes to know that Mr.
Doolittle wants money in place of his daughter then he questions his (Mr.
Doolittle) moral sense to which Mr. Doolittle says that he cannot afford
morals. The lessons in English for Liza start towards the end of the second
act.

In the third act of the play, Higgins comes to his mother’s house and for
Mrs. Higgins, it is her at-home day. He has come there with Pickering and
Liza to get the comments of her mother about how and what Liza talks. But
the purpose of Higgins is interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Eynsford Hill,
Clara and Freddy. Freddy sees Liza and he falls in love with her. Later in
the act, Higgins takes Liza to pass like a duchess in a garden party in an
Embassy in London, and no one present at the party could guess that she is
a simple flower girl who sells flowers on the street, and that makes Higgins
win the bet of passing Liza like a duchess as the time period of six months
is not yet over.

The fourth act of the play is set at the house of Higgins. Higgins and
Pickering are ready to go to sleep as they have returned from the ‘garden
party’. But before Higgins could go to sleep there occurs a hot conversation
between him and Liza as she is very much worried about her future. She
thinks that after the training she is not fit to go back to her earlier life of

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selling flowers on the street and she has no money to settle in a florist’s
shop. Liza finally leaves the house of Higgins, but she meets Freddy
Eynsford Hill in the street; he is there to gaze at the room of Liza because
he is in love with her.

The last act of the play takes place is in the drawing of Mrs. Higgins where
Higgins has come to inform his mother that Liza has run away from his
place. Mr. Doolittle also arrives there as by then he has turned into a
respectable man in the society from the position of a dustman. Mrs. Higgins
informs Higgins that Liza is with her and she would allow him to talk to her
only if he promises to behave in a proper manner. Higgins and Pickering
talk to Liza and they ask her to come back to their place, but she goes away
and finally she marries Freddy and opens flower shop with the financial
assistance received from Pickering.

1.9. Justification for Selecting the Plays

The present study has been undertaken by the researcher to bring out the
implications of the theories of pragmatics in the genre of drama,
particularly the theory of Indirect Speech Acts in the selected plays of
George Bernard Shaw. The researcher, for his purpose of study, has
selected four plays of George Bernard Shaw. The researcher has found
ample data to be analysed for the purpose of study. The dialogues found
useful as data for the analysis and application of Indirect Speech Acts to
bring the importance of the role and significance of the use of Indirect
Speech Acts in the selected plays are considered as conversational pieces
by the researcher. The conversational pieces that have better served the
purpose of the researcher to establish the importance of Indirect Speech
Acts in the selected plays of Shaw are taken as data. The researcher looks

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forward that the analysis of the selected conversational pieces would bring
out the overall impact of the use of Indirect Speech Acts in the genre of
drama.

1.10. Conclusion

In the present chapter the researcher has discussed the aims and objectives,
scope and limitations and methodology of the study. The researcher has
also discussed in brief the place and contribution of Shaw in English
literature. The chapter also presents brief story of every selected play for
the purpose of study and the names of the major and the minor characters of
the selected plays have been mentioned. The chapter is provided with a
paragraph stating the justification for selecting the plays for the purpose
study.

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