Pygmalion

Undoubtedly Bernard Shaw's most celebrated play was inspired by the legend of the mythical sculptor Pygmalion, who longed to breathe life into a statue with which he had fallen in love. In Shaw's modern variation, the Pygmalion is Henry Higgins, a London professor of phonetics, who takes it upon himself to transform Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl from the streets who speaks with the dreadful language of a market vendor, into a lady whose manners (pronunciation and deportment) will allow her to move among even the highest social circles. A decision made partly for amusement and as a wager with his friend Colonel Pickering, however, has unexpected consequences for Higgins's life, for through their mutual struggle, not only does the "object of the experiment" Eliza depart transformed, but so too does her very teacher.