Abstract George Bernard Shaw, a nineteenth-century Irish playwright, is widely recognized the dramatist second only to Shakespeare in British literary history. With his concerns about humanism, realism and verbal wit, Shaw grew into the leading dramatist of his generation, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925.

Generally viewed as one of Shaw’s representative works, Pygmalion has attracted much academic attention since its publication in 1912. The play, which mainly tells a story of how Professor Higgins transformed the flower girl Eliza to be an elegant lady through phonetics training, is the reflection of women’s true living conditions of the Victorian Age.

This paper probes into Eliza’s transformation, exposes the issue of women’s oppression under the control of patriarchal society and traces Eliza’s growth of female consciousness in Pygmalion. The thesis is pided into six main chapters. Chapter One briefly introduces George Bernard Shaw and his play Pygmalion in order to present a general idea of the writer and the whole story. Chapter Two explores the Feminist Theory, the theoretical foundation of this thesis. Chapter Three to Chapter Five analyzes the growth of Elisa from a poor flower girl to a graceful lady and her transformation both in behavior and mentality. Chapter Six comes to a conclusion that Pygmalion reflects women’s realistic living conditions of the Victorian Age. 

Pygmalion reflects Shaw’s feminist idea that women could attain their freedom and equality through their efforts, which is not only of great social significance in the 19th century but in the present day as well.61830

Key Words: Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw, feminism, transformation

摘要乔治·萧·伯纳是十九世纪爱尔兰剧作家，被誉为英国文学史上仅次于莎士比亚的戏剧作家。萧伯纳关心人文主义、现实主义，语言诙谐幽默，逐渐成长为他那个年代的杰出剧作家，于1925年荣获诺贝尔文学奖。

《皮格马利翁》被公认为是萧伯纳最具代表性的作品之一。自1912年出版以来，备受学术界关注。这部剧主要讲述了希金斯教授通过语音学的训练将卖花女伊莉莎转变成为一名淑女的故事，是维多利亚时代女性真实生活状况的写照。

本文探讨了作品中伊莉莎的蜕变，揭示了父权制下女性饱受压迫的问题，追溯了伊莉莎女性意识的不断成长。本篇论文共有六个章节。第一章简略介绍了作者萧伯纳以及研究文本《皮格马利翁》，以便列出作家和整个故事的总体思路。第二章探讨了女性主义理论，这也是本文的理论基础。第三章至第五章，分析了伊莉莎从一个贫穷的卖花女成长成为一名优雅的淑女过程中的行为和心态的蜕变。第六章，总结全文。《皮格马利翁》这一剧本反映了维多利亚时代女性的真实生活环境。

《皮格马利翁》反映了萧伯纳的女性主义思想，即女性可以通过自己的努力获得自由和平等。这个思想不仅仅在19世纪具有影响力，对现如今乃至日后的女性主义发展仍然颇有助益。

关键词：《皮格马利翁》，乔治·伯纳·萧，女性主义，蜕变

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements.i

Abstract…ii

摘要…iii

1 Introduction….….1

2 The Theoretical Foundation of this Thesis—Feminist Theory..4

2.1 Definition  4

2.2 Development..5

2.3 Feminine Consciousness…..6

2.4 Significance.8

3 Eliza Existing as a Flower Girl….8

3.1 Miserable Situation….…8

3.2 Abominable Behavior….…10

3.3 Desirable Dream….10

4 Eliza Trained to be a Fair Lady.13

4.1 Preferable Condition…13