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Manners In David Russell's Pygmalion

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Required Questions I agree with this statement because you can have the best manners in all of society, but if people do not respect you and treat you as a lady then nobody will recognize your characteristics. People in this society need recognition from everybody, not just themselves. For example, Eliza only feels like a lady when pickering calls her “Miss Doolittle” because Pickering has addressed her the same way he would address a real lady and that was the “beginning of self-respect” for her (5.130). Eiza has learned good manners and now she knows that she speaks well, but she still feels like a lowly flower girl. She has always seen herself and been seen by society as unworthy and she always will feel that way because that is all that …show more content…

In Pygmalion, the way they speak is a reflection of their education and it determines their class, but today, language is “rule-governed, coherent and fully expressive” of the person’s personality (Johnson 1). The way someone speaks is still a reflection of a person, but it does not mean as much as it did in the Victorian Era. If someone in today’s society uses poor grammar, most people will not even notice because nobody speaks with proper grammar. That is one thing that changed in order to become more modern. For example, in today’s society we do not talk in full sentences or even in full words. As a society we have started talking in text slang. Instead of saying “I have to go” we say “gtg” or when something is funny our immediate response is to say “LOL”. Text lingo is the new proper english. When people talk, proper english is not necessary, but when a person is writing a formal essay for a class they must “write the correct variety of English” because that has always been the expectation, but that is teaching children that their normal speech is not proper or accepted (Johnson 1). This could lead to the child becoming very discouraged because their home dialect is frowned upon in their english class. If society has abandoned proper english in everyday speech then they need to abandon it in all aspects of language because requiring kids to write with proper english is teaching them that they have to write like someone they are not. The natural dialect of a child is unique to their personality so instead of discouraging who someone is, society needs to accept all forms of speech in all forms of

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