"Pigmalion". George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw was an outstanding playwright. He is famous as a brilliant master of paradox. The paradoxical contradictions of idea in his plays have one motive - criticism of morals and mode of life.

"Pygmalion", a play by George Bernard Shaw, was written in 1912. It is the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who makes a bet with his friend, Colonel Pickering, that he can transform a common flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a "proper" lady. Higgins succeeds in teaching her how to speak with a proper upper-class accent. But in the end we understand that not only her speech has changed, her behavior has also changed, she becomes a true lady.

May be you know, that in Shaw's time, upper-class pronounced their words clearly. However, the working class in London spoke with strong Cockney accent and often used incorrect grammar, as well in "Pygmalion". Higgins believes that he can teach anyone to sound like a member of the English upper-class.

As I said earlier, Shaw is master of paradox. The paradox of the play is that a man from upper-class seems to be nobler, wise, polite and reasonable, however, Mr. Higgins is unpleasant man. He is unconventional man who goes in the opposite direction from the rest of society in most manners. He is indifferent to feelings of other people, selfish and rude.
In my opinion, besides Higgins another leading character is Eliza Doolittle. She is a poor girl from the streets who turns out to be a brilliant and beautiful lady. She is smart, independent and feisty. It should be said that a lot  of time Eliza functions as comic relief. After she has been taught grammar and manners, I realized that she is nobler and intelligent girl.

Anyway, the main idea the author is trying to convey is that even fostered, intelligent man from an upper-class can have morals worse than ill-mannered poor girl. I also found  another idea: nobody can play with lives of other persons.
The themes of the play are society divided; the position of a woman in bourgeois society. With "Pygmalion"  we learn that even the smallest changes in appearance can have a great effect on how a person or thing is perceived.

Speaking about my attitude about the play, the plot of the play is origin and interesting. The peculiarities of Eliza's speech and behavior arouse my sympathy. However, I do not like Henry Higgins at all, he has no morality. The book contains much food for thought and teaches us not to ignore feeling another people. I have read it with great interest and I advise everybody to read it.