A-2 English Name:______________________

Pygmalion, by Bernard Shaw

Pastiche

“A pastiche,” according to the I.B. syllabus, “is the imitation or recreation of an already published work. Students are expected to imitate the style and form of the original.”

Pygmalion is perfectly set up to develop a pastiche. Not only is the ending famously unclear—does Eliza end up with Higgins or Freddy or Pickering or someone else or no one else?—Shaw also has a particular style of writing; the characters are very clearly defined; the time and place recreated exactly, giving the play an easily-identified feeling and mood.

Your job is to write a pastiche of Pygmalion by writing a new scene to take place after Act Five of the play.

For this assignment, you should ignore Shaw’s own “sequel” to the play. Imagine that the last line of Act Five—“Pickering! Nonsense: she’s going to marry Freddy. Ha ha! Freddy! Freddy!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!”—is all Shaw wrote. Your job is to write a scene from the next (imaginary) act of the play, Act Six.

You can set your scene immediately after Act Five, or days later, weeks later, years later. You should have many of the same characters—Liza, Higgins, Pickering, Freddy, Mrs. Higgins, etc.—in your pastiche. Your scene should indicate what choices Liza and Higgins and the others have made, and how their lives did—or will—turn out.

Remember: This is NOT a parody! You are not making fun of Shaw’s writing or Shaw’s play. You are not taking anyone out of character. You are trying to write in the style of Shaw, keeping the characterizations of Shaw’s characters, creating a scene that is likely, and in keeping with the original text. Use the same format of the play, the same altered spellings that Shaw uses, the same characters, in a scene that is as much like Shaw as possible.

Your scene should be at least 1,000 words, and no more than 2,000 words. Aim for around 1,500 words.

Your pastiche is due on Tuesday, November 28^th.