Table of Content

Table of  Content  2

1.  Introduction  3

2.  What is an Exposition?  3

3.  General impression on the first pages  7

4.  The exposition of the different characters  8

4.1  The exposition of Eliza  8

4.1.1  The Exposition of Eliza in Act I  8

4.1.2  The Exposition of Eliza in Act II-V  11

4.2  The exposition of Higgins  12

4.2.1  The Exposition of Higgins in Act I  12

4.2.2  The Exposition of Henry Higgins in Act II-V  14

4.3  The Exposition of Pickering  15

4.3.1  The Exposition of Pickering in Act I  15

4.3.2  The Exposition of Pickering in Act II-V  16

5.  Comparison of the different expositions and how they interact  16

6.  Conclusion  18

Sources   19

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1. Introduction

Every piece of literature needs an opening part and a good introduction. It should not only be an introduction to the place where it happens, but also an introduction to the different characters, the surroundings or the time. But in a play like Pygmalion, not only an introduction is needed, the reader or viewer of a play need additional information on the different characters. They need to know something about their background, what they are doing on or in a certain scene. The audience also needs this background information to understand actions in the course of the play. This stylistic element is called exposition. Even though this might sound easy, it is hard to include all these information in a play, since the author of a play does not have the same possibilities as an author of a novel has. A novelist can include these information into the text. A playwright on the other hand needs to consider how he can transmit background information especially to the viewer of the play without disturbing the actual plot of the play.

The following essay will focus on how the exposition of the different characters is done in George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. The centre of attention will be on the three main characters: Eliza, Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering.

2. What is an Exposition?

In a drama an exposition is the “opening part of a story or a plot in which [the reader is] introduced to the characters and their situation, often by reference to preceding events.” ¹ The exposition can as well give “essential information about the plot and the events which are about to come” ² . Furthermore the exposition in

¹ Chris Baldick. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. (New York: Oxford Up, 1990) 78.

² John Anthony Cuddon. A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. (Cambridge: Blackwell

Reference, 1991) 318.

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a drama can provide the reader or the viewer with “information about what already has happened.” ³ It does not have to give detailed information about past events; it should rather focus on events that are important for the development of the plot. ⁴ Thus, the exposition can additionally be seen as a foreshadowing. It is, in a way, a substitute for a prologue, as William Shakespeare for example gives in some of his plays, for instance in Rome and Juliet. In this drama by Shakespeare the initial situation is explained to the audience by the prologue. The Chorus tells the audience in the Prologue:

In addition the chorus provides the reader or the viewer a foreshadowing on the actions which are about to happen in the play. The prologue goes on:

So, in a way, the prologue in Romeo and Juliet replaces some of the exposition, since certain background information of the story, the quarrel between the two

³ Cuddon 318

⁴ Cf. Elke Platz-Waury. Drama und Theater: Eine Einführung. (Tübingen: Narr, 1994) 104.

⁵ romeo and Juliet

⁶ rj

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families, is given to the audience. The prologue in Romeo and Juliet furthermore gives the audience an introduction to the actions that are about to happen in the play, the love of Romeo and Juliet and their tragic death. In contrast to the prologue of Romeo and Juliet, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw does not have anything similar. It has, in fact, a preface, but the preface does not reveal much about the actual background of one of the characters or gives a foreshadowing on the plot. Instead the preface of Pygmalion focuses more on one of the themes in the play, Phonetics. It gives the reader some scientific background into the field of Phonetics and the persons who, in a way, inspired Shaw to the characters. It also includes some personal opinions on the play. 7

As a result, the exposition usually has to be given at the beginning of the actual play. In a five-act drama like Pygmalion, the exposition generally takes place in Act I, and, as a rule, ends with the so called “inciting moment“ ⁸ , the moment where the rising action starts. But nevertheless there are also exceptions from the rule - many plays give a successive exposition. This means, that in later party of the drama, for example in Act II or III additional background on a certain character or event can be given as well. This can be, for example, the case if a character is surprisingly introduced in a later scene or act. And since the exposition does not necessarily have to take place right at the beginning of the novel, a difference has to be made between the exposition and the “dramatic introduction” and the “point of attack”. The function of the “dramatic introduction” is to draw the viewers or readers attention to the play on the first pages of a play. The “point of attack” is the point of time in which the curtain opens and the reader or viewer is first introduced to the story. Is the “point of attack” very early, a long exposition is not needed, since the reader or viewer of the play gets to know the character through the actions on stage. 9

⁷ Bernard Shaw. Pygamlion. (London: Longman, Green and Co. Ltd., 1960) 1-5.

⁸ Platz-Waury 102.

⁹ Whole paragraph: Cf. Platz-Waury 101-105.

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But even if there is a successive exposition in the play and the exposition is “divided up into a number of smaller units” ¹⁰ and “integrated into the plot as it develops” ¹¹ , “even this type is generally characterized by a stronger concentration of expository information in the initial phases of the text and a gradual decline of it” ¹² . Also important for the exposition is, how much the reader or viewer has to know about the character or an event. If a lot of knowledge about the past is needed, “the expository information dominates the context and the dramatic present remains subordinate to it.” ¹³ Nevertheless, if the “reference to the present predominates, the expository information is motivated by the current dramatic situation and remains functionally subordinate to it.” ¹⁴ Information on a certain character or event is only revealed to the reader or the viewer, if it is necessary for the specific dramatic situation. 15

A further distinction in the exposition has to be made between the monological and the dialogical exposition. Yet also in the monological discourse a distinction has to be made between “a figure from either outside or inside the action” ¹⁶ . The best-known form of a speaker outside the action is the expository prologue, as mentioned above in the passage on the prologue of Romeo and Juliet. Usually these prologues are “not subsumed into the expository narrative, but rather often [combined] with exordial functions such as welcoming the audience and getting into an appropriate mood.” ¹⁷ A figure inside the action can present information to the audience through a monologue for example. 18

In the dialogical exposition, as the name proposes, expository information are given to the audience through dialogue. This happens if two characters or more

¹⁰ Manfred Pfister. The Theory and Analysis of Drama. (New York: Cambridge UP, 1993.) 88.

¹¹ Pfister 88.

¹² Pfister 88.

¹³ Pfister 88.

¹⁴ Pfister 89.

¹⁵ Cf. Pfister 89,90.

¹⁶ Pfister 90.

¹⁷ Pfister 90,91.

¹⁸ Cf. Pfister 90,91.

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