Pygmalion and Equality

Shaw's play, Pygmalion, demonstrates the belief that all people are created equal and all have equal ability and opportunity to achieve and succeed in every aspect of life, by revealing the absurdity of the class system of Victorian England. This belief goes strongly against Victorian era's views of social stature; social roles and classes were regarded as natural and fairly inflexible. Shaw, who was an ardent socialist, saw flaws in this way of thinking, and …

…equality of all people, a belief that is rooted in Shaw's socialist ideology and contrary to the strict Victorian social beliefs held in the play's time period and at the time of it's writing. The belief in equality is shown in many ways throughout the play, but three main areas that exemplify it are Shaw's treatment of Eliza, Colonel Pickering's behavior and the differences, or more accurately lack of, between the upper and lower classes.