LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY
an essay by Kenneth Hermansson

Language and Identity is the topic of this essay based on the reading of two literary plays, George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Willy Russell’s Educating Rita. The following should be regarded as a personal interpretation and not as the absolute truth in every respect.
Language and identity are two expressions that need to be explained. English is the official language in several countries, Chinese is the language spoken by Chinese people and Danish is how Danes speak. But languages could also be described as different ways of talking due to social background, education, profession, age and sex. A person’s language is connected to his social situation. Eliza, the cockney flower girl from the gutter does not speak the same language as professor Higgins, even if English is their common mother tongue. They speak differently because they belong to different social worlds. Identity can signify the very special characteristic of a person, something that makes him differ from others.
EDUCATION AND IDENTITY CHANGES
Eliza and Rita, the principal characters of the two plays are both objects of identity change in the course of the stories. Are these changes identical or can we find differences? The two young women originally come from intellectually poor circles. Eliza is a young flower girl who speaks a gutter language. She talks in the following way: "Aint no call to meddle with me, he aint." (1) Her manners are crude, and her cockney accent leaves her feeling as if she is a second-class citizen. She is treated that way. Still, she seems to be proud of herself, "I’m a good girl, I am." (2)
Rita is a twenty-six-year-old, brash, earthy hairdresser, married to a Liverpudlian beerdrinker who demands her to have children and to be a good wife. She feels unsatisfied with her marriage. At the hairdressing salon where she works, she gets tired of the daily listening to women who talk a lot without saying any important. "They never tell y’things that matter." (3)
The story of the two plays tells how the education of the women changes their lives. There are remarkable progresses in their studies and the result is an obvious change of their lives.
INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CHANGES
I would guess that many readers and spectators of the two plays regard them as about the same story. As a matter of fact, they are not. There is at least one important difference. The changes are not the same. One of them is external while the other is internal.
What happens to Eliza is more or less a change on the surface. In a few months Henry Higgins, a professor of linguistics, manages to lift her up from a low status on the street and transform her into a refined young lady. Among the upper class representatives of London she is able to behave like a duchess and by those who do not know her she is treated like a princess. Her mastering of English grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation is admirable. But do these progresses of language skills mean a real change of personality? Certainly not! Eliza remains a cockney gutter girl even though her conversation becomes more sophisticated. A few months of language learning do not transform her character and identity profoundly.
Rita, on the other hand, keeps her old manners of talking like an uneducated woman. When Frank, her teacher, at the end of the story asks her if she will follow a friend to France, she answers: "I dunno. He’s a bit of a wranker really. But I’ve never been abroad. An’ me mother’s invited me to her’s for Christmas." (4)
Nevertheless, Rita has been changed. Not because of pure language training, but owing to her literary learning. Her deep determination to change her life brings her to a world ofd self respect and new ideas.
There is a link between language and identity. But language studies that are concentrated on pure linguistic training of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation bring only about external progresses. If they are completed with literature they are likely to attain a higher level. Language skills are important, but the are nothing but tools. To be used in a fertile way that produces interior changes of character and personality, the need to be completed with a knowledge of literature.
Eliza achieves good language proficiencies, but her identity remains that of a cockney gutter girl, while Rita develops her character and reaches personal independence. However, it would have been ideal if the two young women had been able to study together and learn more about both language and literature.

Footnotes
1. George Bernard Shaw, 1957: Pygmalion, page 24
2. Shaw, 1957, page 24
3. Willy Russell, 1997, Educating Rita, page 10
4. Russell, 1997, page 72