Jane Austen > George Bernard Shaw

My Fair Lady.

We watched it last night.

(The Audrey Hepburn one, I haven't seen the play)

I've been brooding ever since.

And I'm still moderately irked.

(As much as you can be after watching an Audrey Hepburn movie, anyway...)

Why?

Higgins.

Of course they end up together.

Silly old movies always give you what you expect in that regard.

(Except for Casablanca, of course, which is why it's so fantastic.)

But honestly?

He's the same egotistical, contemptuous, self-righteous

---I'm looking for a noun here that runs no risk of being offensive---

Brute?

He's the same at the end of the movie as he was at the beginning.

Why do I dislike it so much when characters are allowed to maintain the same level of elevated conceit throughout the duration of a story line? Perhaps I've been spoiled by Pride and Prejudice... I spent a year pouring over that text, analyzing the arrogance and eventual humility of both Darcy and Elizabeth. (Not of my own volition-- it was for a class. I like the book, but I'm not THAT crazy.) The nature of the story-- the reason it's endearing-- is that they both have to realize that their level of presupposed self-awesomeness isn't quite where they had previously thought; they have to get over themselves. They force one another to develop-- to grow and change and become better people. And to be honest, it's quite refreshing.


Iron sharpens iron. It's something meaningful. Something to strive after, you know what I mean?