"Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon."
(Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Act I)
Thursday, January 19, 2006
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3 comments:
Excellent quote! As an English teacher of middle school students, they will find it amusing, while true!
Please note that Shaw was being ironic here; using Higgins to poke fun at the linguistic purists of his day who were against dialectal variation. Lest we forget, Shakespeare used 'vulgar' and regional speech to great effect, the Bible was not an English language text orginally, and Milton was passionately against censorship. Tell *that* to your moronic English teacher if they come out with the above.
Yes, well, I rather think that Shaw was pointing out that the English Language is capable of rising to the heights that Shakespeare, Milton, and the 1611 King James Translation of the Bible elevated it. Irony in this circumstance would not serve the dramatic purpose. And it is Eliza's speech and the speech patters of her class that will keep her in the gutter. Just as Ghetto- speak and Spanglish limit the opportunities of my students.
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