Depiction of strong female characters in Riders of the Sea, Pygmalion, and Trifles

Strong Females in Three Works

Pygmalion:

The female protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is Eliza Doolittle, and she begins her character development from a position of such awkward crudeness, sassiness and social weakness that she has a long, long way to go before she becomes a strong female. This makes her rise into feminism and womanhood and strength all the more dramatic. From rags to riches in a modest sense describes her ascension. She begins the story as a flower girl with terrible speech patterns is bumped into and her flowers fall into the mud.

The interest shown in Eliza at the outset of the play is simply because Henry Higgins, professor of phonetics, wishes to teach her proper spoken English. Eliza is a rebellious young woman, who shows her antisocial side by refusing to pay the taxi fare in the first act. That fact notwithstanding, Eliza shows great interest in becoming more adept at speaking. Well, what Eliza envisions is being able to make more sophisticated conversation with customers at her flower shop, which is a humble yet impressive goal for an uneducated, poor-mannered, but potentially attractive and socially well-adjusted young girl.

Once Eliza has been taught to speak in more appropriate ways, the next problem that Eliza has to overcome to become a strong, able, respected woman in society is to work on the substance of what she is going to say.

The play's directions clearly show her transition from an unkempt flower girl to a lovely young woman with style. At the opening of Act I, she wears a "little sailor hat of black straw that has long been exposed to the dust and soot of London" (Shaw, p. 116). Her "mousy" colored hair is "badly" in need of washing; her coat is "shoddy" and her boots are "much worse for wear" (p. 116). Her teeth are bad and "compared to the ladies she is very dirty" (p. 116). By Act III Eliza is "exquisitely dressed" and makes an impression of "such remarkable distinction and beauty" when she walks into Mrs. Higgins' room that they are stand up and are "quite fluttered" (p. 164).

Meantime by Act IV Eliza is seen in an "opera cloak" wearing a "brilliant evening dress and diamonds, with fan, flowers, and all accessories" (p. 175). That having been said, her expression is "almost tragic" and because she has learned of Higgins' bet she throws his slippers at him. In Act V Eliza is far more skilled at conversation and can hold her own well.

Asked if she will "relapse" into the crude dirty girls she was, Eliza replies, "Never again…I don't believe I could utter one of the old sounds if I tried" (p. 198). Towards the end of Act V (p. 205), Eliza simply says she only wants "to be natural" and that she wants "a little kindness. I know I'm a common ignorant girl," she says to Higgins, "but I'm not dirt under your feet."

Riders to the Sea:

The sea is certainly the main theme in this play; the sea provides things that the people on the Aran island need, but it also takes away things, including lives. The woman that shows strength and resilience in this play is Maura. There are images and characters in the play that show the ability of a people to overcome great odds, and to be strong and spirited even in the face of poverty and violent natural world occurrences.

Maurya, the old woman in the play, has been saying prayers the whole night through as the play opens. She is praying that her son Michael returns safely to the island. A bit later she tells her son Bartley not to take the rope in the house (to use as a halter for his horse) because should a body wash up the rope will be needed to lower the coffin into its grave. Maura shows her leadership as a respected elder when (p. 25) she bucks Bartley's insistence; "Isn't it a hard and cruel man won't hear a word from an old woman, and she holding him from the sea?" At this point in the story, Maurya is an old woman struggling to do whatever she can to keep her family alive. She is so concerned that she sends negative words as her son Bartley leaves to cross over to the mainland in stormy seas. "God spare us and we'll not see him again…when the black night is falling I'll have no son left me in the world" (p. 28).

Her daughter Cathleen says to Maurya, "Isn't sorrow enough is on every one in this house without your sending him out with an unlucky word behind him…"? When Maurya returns from seeing Bartley off, she says she has seen Michael. In a painful pitiful low voice she recalls having six sons, "though it was a hard birth I had with every one them…" and at this point she mentions, tragically, the names of all the sons that she gave birth to and now are gone.

And when she is told that Michael is dead, and soon after Bartley is carried on a plank, his pony having knocked over by the ghost of Michael. She knows all her sons have died. With all this tragedy surrounding her and breaking her heart, Maurya has the presence of mind to say, "Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the white boards, and deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living forever, and we must be satisfied" (p. 32). This is a strong woman, strong at the beginning of the play, and stronger still at the end, notwithstanding the terribly sad ending. In truth, her battles are now over, her fears have all been realized and there is nothing left for a strong woman to do but sprinkle holy water over her dead son.

Trifles:

In this story it seems all three women -- the protagonist, Minnie Wright, and her friends Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters -- are stronger then the men in the story. The women understand what the men that are investigating this murder don't understand: the motive. They knew that Minnie had been bullied by her husband and. They used their imaginations to imagine what really took place in this lonely farmhouse. On pages 21-22 of the story, the women are talking and their dialogue tells an important part of the story. Mrs. Peters says, "They say he was a good man" and Mrs. Hale doesn't disagree, saying yes he didn't drink and paid his bills. "But he was a hard man…Just to pass the time of day with him (shivers) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone."