Language and Metadrama in Major Barbara and Pygmalion

“In a cleverly developed argument, refreshingly new in its unearthing of the more complex metadrama beneath the surface drama, Reynolds shows us the complexity of the battle that ends without a knockout yet celebrates the “Shavian sisters” for their resourcefulness in seeing it to the end, and even more celebrates Shaw for writing with such depth and breadth of understanding.”

— Richard F. Dietrich, Author of Bernard Shaw’s Novels (1996), Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida, USA 
This book focuses on two important topics in Shaw’s Major Barbara and Pygmalion that have received little attention from critics: language and metadrama. If we look beyond the social, political, and economic issues that Shaw explored in these two plays, we discover that the stories of the two “Shavian sisters”— Barbara Undershaft and Eliza Doolittle—are deeply concerned with performance and what Jacques Derrida calls “the problem of language.” Nearly every character in Major Barbara produces, directs, or acts in at least one miniature play. In Pygmalion, Henry Higgins is Eliza’s acting coach and phonetics teacher, as well as the star of an impromptu, open-air phonetics show. The language content in these two plays is just as intriguing. Did Eliza Doolittle have to learn Standard English to become a complete human being? Should we worry about the bad grammar we hear at Barbara Undershaft’s Salvation Army shelter? Is English losing its precision and purity? Meanwhile, in the background, Shaw keeps reminding us that language and theatre are always present in our everyday lives—sometimes serving as stabilizing forces, and sometimes working to undo them.


Jean Reynolds is Professor Emerita of English at Polk State College, USA. Her previous publications include Shaw and Feminisms (2013), co-edited with D.L. Hadfield, and Pygmalion’s Wordplay: The Postmodern Shaw (1999), as well as multiple articles and reviews for SHAW: The Journal of Shaw Studies, of which she is an editorial board member.