—Kelly Leung
For me, a “great work” is essentially a work of timeless meaning, which encompasses several important life lessons that can be applied to anybody regardless of what time period they live in. It is also a plus that the story portrays it in a way that can be easy to understand yet deep and profound in its writing. I personally enjoyed reading both myths from Ovid, as I think that they very creatively portray very deep concepts that can be easily understood by wide amounts of people. It was packed with several lessons that can be derived through different interpretations of the metaphors, and it would definitely lead to an interesting discussion. It was interesting to read the Ovid myths and read how my classmates interpreted what the stories were trying to portray. I particularly enjoyed reading “Pygmalion,” and would not have minded if we had focused on reading the entire piece.
I thought that the plot could be metaphoric of so many concepts that remain relevant today, such as the criticism of patriarchy and social class. On many levels, everyone could find some way to connect with the story. To me, the story of Pygmalion can be applied to colonization, as colonizers would force the indigenous to conform to their beliefs, culture, and education the same way that Pygmalion had forced his beliefs and culture on this statue, who had no power to resist. It can be similar to how colonists at some points in history forced entire countries to stop speaking their own language and learn English instead, or forced people to stop practicing their own religion because it was different from theirs. As a commentary on social class, it can be said that those with authority, like the colonists, have the power and will to force everybody in that class and even those of lower classes to conform to their tastes and beliefs.
The same can be said of this story as a commentary on the patriarchy, where women are stripped of their authority and being told what makes her beautiful and how she can please men. This is a particularly important point in the story because of how Pygmalion had initially created this statue because he found that none of the women who existed in his world at the time fit his standards. This implies that in his mind, women exist to please him, and reinforces the fact that women are held to impossible standards, so much so that he had to create a statue, the epitome of unachievable perfection. I’m sure that such issues resonate within all the women who read this story, which makes it particularly powerful to us. Both issues continue to be relevant and profound today, and I find it crucial to understand that it was revolutionary to write about and even criticize such topics at the time, which makes it, to me, a “great work.” It also shows us that problems relevant today were still relevant to writers back then, which makes me question the moral advances of society.
