Pygmalion

In the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, Pygmalion decides to abandon real women and sculpts his idea of a perfect woman. He does this because the women that he had seen were not perfect and often too provocative. By doing this, he abandons the reality that people are imperfect and clings to his (impossible) idea of the perfect woman. He falls in love with the state and treats it like a real person, bringing it gifts and affection. On the festival of Aphrodite, he prays that he finds a woman as perfect as Galatea. His wishes are granted when Galatea is brought to life from stone. This all makes sense to me until the end. In reality, it was a statute, and I honestly don't understand the meaning of rewarding him for abandoning reality.

I personally would not bring any character to life. In my opinion, Pygmalion should have later realized that the statute was only perfect while in stone form. The reason being that I believe characters are only perfect because we can give them any connotation without actually knowing them. Whether we are taking in the characterization from a fictional character or deciding that a statue is a perfect woman, it often is unrealistic.