Pygmalion: Comaprison of Shaw's play and Ovid's myth

The story of Pygmalion has been adapted into various forms of medium including poetry, literature, paintings, and audio recordings. The earliest literary version originates from Ovid's Metamorphoses who's character Pygmalion creates a perfect female out of ivory stone. He becomes obsessed with the statue and pleads to the gods to find a woman with the likeness of the statue. Venus answers his prayers, turning the statue into a living woman, Galatea, whom Pygmalion then married. …

…comedies. Ovid, meanwhile, does have a romantic ending which provides closure with no hidden, political messages. There is no social critique, the story is simply what it is meant to be; a pleasurable myth. Shaw, on the other hand, bases his play on the theory that theatre should be didactic which is meant to instruct. He clearly accomplishes this with the telling of his version of Pygmalion and solidifies its classification as a modern text.