George Bernard Shaw

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1925

Award: "for his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty."

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Pygmalion
My Fair Lady

George Bernard Shaw believed in empowering women. He wrote the play ‘Pygmalion’ in 1912. The male conceited, bullying, tyrannical control freak phonetician, Prof. Henry Higgins, is inconsiderate and thoughtless with the extraordinarily hard working flower girl student Eliza Doolittle who has come to take elocution lessons. Higgins’ mother is kind and fair to the good girl. Eliza Doolittle emerges as an empowered woman. In the play, she ends up with Freddy Eynsford-Hill. The film ‘My Fair Lady’ is an adaptation of this play. The ending in the film is different.

PYGMALION (1938) - Full Movie – Captioned. Pascal Film Productions. Black and White. Actors Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller. 1:36:03

My Fair Lady (1964) – Film – Warner Brothers Pictures. Colored. Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. Multiple short videos automatically load one after the other in sequence. Thank you for your consideration.

Sequel What Happened Afterwards

I Can Do Well Without You

Lyrics of ‘I can do well without you’ by Alan Jay Lerner in the film ‘My Fair Lady’.
Eliza (singing): To think that you were the Earth and the sky
What a fool I was, what an elevated fool
What a mutton-headed dote was I!
No, my reverberating friend
You are not the beginning and the end
Professor Higgins (speaking):
You impudent hussy, there's not an idea in your head or a word in your mouth that I haven't put there.

Eliza (singing):
There'll be spring every year without you
England still will be here without you
There'll be fruit on the tree
And a shore by the sea
There'll be crumpets and tea without you
There'll be spring every year without you
England still will be here without you
There'll be fruit on the tree
And a shore by the sea
There'll be crumpets and tea without you
Art and music will thrive without you
Somehow Keats will survive without you
And there still will be rain on that plane down in Spain
Even that will remain without you
I can do without you
Without you
You, dear friend, who taught so well
You can go to Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire
They can still rule with land without you
Windsor Castle will stand without you
And without much ado we can all muddle through without you
Professor Higgins:
You brazen hussy,

Eliza (singing):
Without your pulling it the tide comes in
Without your twirling it the Earth can spin
Without your pushing them, the clouds roll by
If they can do without you, ducky, so can I
I shall not feel alone without you
I can stand on my own without you
So go back in your shell
I can do bloody well
Without you

Without...

Professor Higgins (singing) interrupts:
By George, I really did it,
I did it, I did it,
I said I'd make a woman and indeed I did,
I knew that I could do it,
I knew it, I knew it,
I said I'd make a woman and succeed I did!
(speaking)
Eliza you are wonderful

Eliza
Good Bye Professor Higgins. I will not be seeing you again.
She leaves.