TURGENEV'S DOCTOR SHPIGELSKY: A PROTOTYPE FOR SHAW'S PROFESSOR HIGGINS?

Resumo

This paper intends to establish some parallelisms between Doctor Shpigelsky, a country doctor in Turgenev's play A Month in the Country, and the famous Professor Higgins, in Shaw's Pygmalion. In spite of differing in almost every other aspect, these two characters display similar attitudes towards women: both feel godlike in their masculine superiority of being able to mould women, one as a future husband, the other as a professor, and both consider women either despicable, or a nuisance, besides being idiots. On the other hand, both men make allowances as to their own character, conceding that they are vain, exacting, and bossy. Thus, although the effect of their speeches is different in both plays, for Dr. Shpigelsky's fiancée will probably submit to his wishes, while Elisa Doolittle does rebel in Pygmalion, nevertheless the fundamental parallelisms remain: bothcharacters are the mouthpiece of their authors' ideas on women. As Shaw was probably not acquánted with Turgenev's play, the initial question remains: how far is Dr. Shpigelsky a prototype for Prof. Higgins, in relation to the parallelisms established above?