Specific Instructions: You are free to come up with a topic of your choice. Just make sure it addresses a significant issue, is limited to what can be accomplished on four pages, etc. Your goal is to persuade me, your special reader in this case, to conclude that you are offering an argument that is being supported with sufficient specific evidence from the text. I don't expect to read exactly what I might have claimed: all you should worry about is that you come across as somebody who has a reasonable case.
A Possible Topic in Descriptive Form: In Pygmalion, whose title is derived from a classical myth, Professor Henry Higgins demonstrates the decisive power of language as a means of self-projection, using Eliza Doolittle as his guinea pig, so to speak. The play has resonated strongly with all sorts of audiences since it first appeared on the stage. Higgins considers his achievement a good thing, while others--including Mrs Higgins--view the experiment with alarm. In a period of hightened feminist and/or"multi-cultural" awareness, the professor of phonetics' bet has met with much resntment.
Given the above facts, what does your analysis of the fate/fortunes of Eliza Doolittle in Shaw's comedy, not Broadway's My Fair Lady compel you to conclude? (Please, ignore Shaw's argument in the Afterword he penned for the printed edition: the play's our sole text!) Did Higgins do Miss Doolittle a favor, or did he cripple her by "gentrifying" the erstwhile "drappletailed guttersnipe"?
If you have questions or simply want to check out your ideas before you commit them to 'paper,' feel invited to see me. It usually helps a lot to start such a critical essay early.----Good Luck,cpb
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