Female Faust in Pygmalion Shaw's Embrace of Goethe

Abstract

Of the various motifs that have influenced Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, the myth of Pygmalion, the fairytale Cinderella, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are frequently mentioned, while Goethe's Faust also crops up sporadically. This study seeks to verify that the correlation between Pygmalion and Faust is not simply compositional and confirm that Shaw not only was influenced by various favorite operas (which use Part 1 of Faust as a major plot) but also had Faust in mind (including Part 2) in the overall structure, as evidenced in this study through an analysis of specific scenes.