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ENGLISH HL
Pygmalion
Study Notes
Gr.12
By Clarissa Iyer

[DATE]
[COMPANY NAME]
[Company address]
 TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE
1. Introduction 2
a) Tips and Advice

2. Themes 3

3. Character analysis 6

4. Play information 10

5. Act summaries and analysis 11

6. Quotes and Evidence 22

7. Contextual questions 26

8. Essays 32

9. Critics 36

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 INTRODUCTION
The material for ‘Pygmalion’ (Paper 2 Eng HL gr.12) has been summarized down into 36
pages, and includes each Act summary and analysis, an overview of all the characters,
themes and quotes, essays and contextual questions, and critics.
Please Note: Always make sure to listen and read the additional content the teachers may
give you, especially before a test or exam, as the work they choose to cover or focus on
more is sometimes most likely to come out in the paper. Always keep eyes and ears open
throughout each lesson.
IMPORTANT: Please DO NOT copy or by-heart the sample essays or any answer questions
or paragraph questions provided in this study guide, as this can be marked as plagiarism,
and you will be given a zero on your examinations. Instead, use these answers and essays
as a guide to help you formulate and write your own answers to the questions provided and
given during the course.

a) Tips and Advice

• Make sure to read the entire play at least two times, as this will help ensure that you
fully understand the plot and storyline, as well as the course of events and when they
had taken place. This knowledge is crucial when answering exam questions.
• Watching the movie or crash courses can help broaden your understanding of the
play, and how each scene took place. The movie for Pygmalion can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygBkAcyYkW0
• Answer (and check) as many essay and contextual questions as possible. In this
guide, there two sections including a few contextual questions for each act, and sample
essays. However, please attempt to answer them on your own, as this will greatly
assist in expanding your knowledge on the content provided. Moreover, a great way to
receive more interpretations for certain sections is to discuss with other classmates
who have also answered similar questions, or joining class discussions. The more
interpretations you have for a section, the greater your chances are at appropriately
answering exam questions based on the play.
• By-heart quotes and critics for certain themes or topics, as this will assist in answering
essay (or contextual) questions. You can do this by using flashcards or testing yourself
on them regularly.

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 Appearances, Reality and Identity
- Examined primarily through Eliza’s character + issue of personal identity
- Social rules of Victorian era were viewed as natural and largely fixed
- Noble vs unskilled laborer
- Question Social norms: Eliza’s ability to fool Victorian society about her ‘real’ identity.
- Play points to the idea of having manners by being in the upper class
- Social identity is formed through patterns of speech and one’s general appearance
- Even before Eliza’s complete transformation, her own father fails to recognize her in act
two only because she has changed clothes and bathed.
- ELIZA: “the difference between a lady and a girl is not how she behaves but how she is
treated”
- HIGGINS: “You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep
her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off
as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party.”

Change and transformation

- Liza’s transformation is not only the adoption of refined speech and manners, but
learning independence and a sense of inner self-worth which allows her to leave Higgins
- In both Eliza and her father, they undergo major transitions throughout the play. Alfred
transforms into a man of the middle class, and Eliza transforms into a lady. However,
initially, both these transformations are greatly based on superficial aspects, such as
their manner of speech and general appearance.
- Higgin’s rough manners, rudeness and swearing don’t teach Eliza the accompanying
social etiquette, despite her successful transformation.

Language and Meaning

- An age of growing standardization of “Queen’s English”
- Pygmalion points to much wider range of varieties of spoken English
- Subjective characteristic of social identity: refined speech
- Real richness of English language is in the variety of individuals who speak it
- It is evident, in Act 3, we are shown a scene in which Eliza might have exhibited perfect
pronunciation and tone, but lacked social graces and thought in the words and
conversations she held.
- Language is closely tied to class

Sex roles
- Dynamics between Liza and Higgins
- Includes their sexual tension
- Shaw calls attention to questions of femininity and gender. As Pygmalion sculpts his
ideal woman, so Higgins and Pickering mold Eliza into an ideal lady.

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- The narratives of Pygmalion portray the unrealistic and unnatural norms and
expectations placed on women.
- In the Victorian era, before women had gained greater roles and rights, they were
confined to their respective household, as seen by Mrs. Pearce and Mrs. Higgins.
- Women are under a constrain of a man, as even by the end of the play, Eliza must still
choose between living with Higgins, her father or marrying Freddy.
- HIGGINS: “I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes
jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself
make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything.”
- ALFRED DOOLITTLE: “Is this reasonable? Is it fairity to take advantage of a man like
this? The girl belongs to me.”
- HIGGINS: “I shall never get into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits
lie too deep to be changed. [Rising abruptly and walking about, jingling his money and
his keys in his trouser pockets] Besides, they're all idiots.”

“Superman”

Wealth and Poverty

- Chasm and the power play between the poor and the wealthy
- Class consciousness
- British class-consciousness is based not only on economic power, but also on historical
class differences
- Pygmalion examines both realities of class, and its subjective markers
- Linguistic signals of social identity (ex.) are simultaneously an issue of class.
- Shaw injects humor: Doolittle’s surprising distaste for his new status, according to
traditional class values

Social classes and manners

- Eliza states, “We were above that at Tottenham Court Road. I sold flowers I didn’t sell
myself.”
This blasts the artificial moral interface of class and morality, and negates the gently
disguised aspersions cast against Eliza for being poor and for housing with two unwed
men without a suitable chaperone.
- Social Issue
• Assumptions of social superiority and inferiority which underlie the class system
• Demonstrates how speech and etiquette preserve class distinction
• Illustrates the arbitrariness of basing a person’s worth on his/her pronunciation

Education and Intelligence

- Higgins and Pickering are academics
- Shaw subtly expresses different forms of intelligence and smarts throughout the play,
and intertwines this with the generally accepted form of intelligence displayed by Higgins
and Pickering.

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- Mr. Doolittle, Eliza and Mrs. Pearce are smart in different ways, even thought they lack
the education the academics have received.
- Shaw displays a downside to academic learning and intellectualism through Higgins, as
he has reached such an extend in this academics that he views and sees the world and
other people through a academic lens, and as subjects for his own linguistic studies.

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 Henry Higgins
IDENTITY
• Phonetics professor
• Expert in dialect and accents
PERSONALITY

• Violently enthusiastic about anything scientific

• Believes to be kind-heartened and considerate; bad tempered and a profane bully
• Tyrannical and condescending
• Frankness and lack of malice – impossible for anyone to dislike him
• Orders Eliza around – shows his lack of empathy and judgmental ways. He is excited by
the potential of his own success.
• Claims that he cares about Eliza, but only seems to care about her as a student.
• He immediately identifies where Alfred Doolittle is from.
• Whenever he meets a new person, his first thought is to use the person for his own
academic learning.
• Irreverent
• Invective
• utter naiveté and oblivion of the enormity of his actions
• vibrant, cynical, encouraging, dedicated, devoted, utterly brilliant and law unto himself
• challenges convention, flouts societal rules, but has an innate ability to find humor in
situations
• holds others in contempt

NOTES:
- Coinages: “squashed cabbage leaf” ; “bilious pigeon” ; “draggletailed guttersnipe”

Eliza Doolittle
IDENTITY
• Flower girl
• She is disparaged, until she is found valuable for boosting another’s accomplishments
and achievements (ego)
PERSONALITY

• Dirty and ignorant – begs Higgins to teach her to speak proper and run a flower shop
• Began with great latent potential
• Has inner drive, and the ability to ‘dare to dream’
•

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IN STORY
• After successfully passed off as a noble women, Higgins and Pickering congratulate
each other and ignore Liza
• “I am a good girl, I am” → Eliza is protesting.
(Act 2) – she is making it very clear that she is not here to participate in anything else
that she came there for.
• Wants to improve her standing in society and is willing to invest in paying for lessons –
shows her self respect “I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling at the corner
of Tottenham Court Road. But they won't take me unless I can talk more genteel. He
said he could teach me. Well, here I am ready to pay him—not asking any favor--and he
treats me as if I was dirt.”

Colonel Pickering
IDENTITY

• Linguistic: travelled from India to London to see Higgins

• Elderly, amiable soldier
• Confirmed a bachelor at Higgins
PERSONALITY

• Gentlemen who treats Liza with respect

• Helps to moderate Higgins mistreatment of Liza
• Conscience stricken

Alfred Doolittle
IDENTITY

• Dustman, Eliza’s father

• One of the “undeserving poor”
• Made middle class later on in story
PERSONALITY

• Good voice, an original mind, complete absence of consciousness

IN STORY

• Plans to blackmail Higgins, mistakenly thinking that he had taken her as his mistress
• Higgins and Pickering give him 5 pounds, as they are delighted by the scoundrel’s
straightforwardness
• In letter to American philanthropist, Ezra. D. Wannafeller, Higgins calls Doolittle “the
most original moralist” in England.
• Wannafeller leaves Doolittle an income of 4 000 pounds / year
• Doolittle is made middle-class; Eventually marries his “old women”
• He becomes a demand in society later on due to his:
- Native talents
- Odd background
- Nietzschean philosophy

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 Mrs. Higgins
IDENTITY

• Henry Higgin’s mother

• Member of aristocracy
PERSONALITY

• Women of taste
• Poise and confidence: help to bring some order into lives around her
IN STORY

• Asked her barbaric son to stay away when she invites guests

Miss Clara Eynsford Hill

IDENTITY

• Freddy Hill’s sister

• At length redeemed by reading the works of H.G. Wells, becoming a critic of society.
PERSONALITY

• Ignorant, pretentious, useless snob

• In role of critic, her gaucheness is an asset.
IN STORY

Miss Eynsford Hill

IDENTITY

• Freddie and Clara Hill’s mother

PERSONALITY

• Quiet and well-bred

• Plagued by anxieties natural to an aristocrat (noblewomen) without money
• Due to her poverty: children have neither education nor sophistication.

Mrs. Pearce
IDENTITY

• Henry Higgin’s housekeeper

PERSONALITY

• Proper, and middle-class women

• By sheer force and will, enforces a semblance of order and property in Higgins’ house

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• Reminds Higgins to set an example for Eliza if she is to learn to act like a lady.
IN STORY

Freddy Eynsford Hill

• Is amused by Eliza, and appears to see through her façade – doesent bother him
(genuine character)

Nepommuk
• Spectacularly bewhiskered Hungarian
• At embassy reception where Eliza is passed off as nobility, he testifies Eliza is certainly
of royal nobility
• Formed student of Higgins who makes his living off a translator

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 General Information
• Written: 1912
• Genre: Drama

- Written and set in London

- 20th century: end of Victorian period
- Time where a lot of change was happening: women’s rights; WW1 was looming

Climax:
In Act 4, after winning the bet concerning Eliza, Higgins says that he has been board with
the experiment, and treats Eliza poorly. Infuriated Eliza throws Higgin’s slippers at him and
argues and fights with him.
- Shows that Higgins has not CHANGED her, but has TAUGHT her how to behave like a
lady.

Antagonist:
While Eliza and Higgins argue with each other, they both cooperate in order to fool London’s
high society. The rigid hierarchy of social classes in Victorian England can be seen as the
antagonist against which all the characters struggle, as they deal with the issues of class
and wealth.

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 ACT 1
Summary
- The play opens with a heavy thunderstorm, late at night.
- Freddy Eynsford-Hill is forced to look for a taxi for his mother and sister in the rain,
however he cannot find any.
- While rushing to find a cab, he knocks over a Flower girl, Eliza Doolittle.
- When Freddy leaves, the flower girl is given money by his mother to ask how she had
known her son’s name. But she replies that ‘freddy’ is a common name that she would
use to address anyone.
- A gentleman gives her change when she tries to sell him flowers, however a bystander
cautions her to what looks like a police informer taking down her every word.
- She protests hysterically, as she is innocent. While refugees crowd around whom they
believe to be an undercover cop, the Note taker begins determining where each person
is from based on their speech.
- Once the rain clears, the gentleman, the flower girl, and the note taker are left.
- The note taker responds to a question posed by the gentleman that he studied
phonetics, the science of speech. The note taker is Henry Higgins and the Gentleman is
Colonel Pickering.
- Higgins brags that he can turn the Flower Girl into a duchess simply through phonetics.
- Colonel and Higgins reveal that they are both scholars who have been wanting to visit
each other and decide to go to supper, after Higgins is convinced to give the flower girl
some change.
- Eliza was able to afford to take a taxi home, which is the same taxi hat Freddy has
brough back once he found out his impatient mother and sister had left without him.

Significant of setting in ACT 1:

- Setting is an area in London where theatregoers gather to await transportation home.
- Knowing this area as such, the flower girl taps into the rich theatregoers.
- She is in fact successful in this endeavor and in doing so, interacts with several key
characters in the play.

Character Analysis
The flower girl (Eliza Doolittle)
The characterization of the flower girl begins in Act 1:
- She has poor language skills
- She is dressed uncommonly and unkept
- Her character introduces a theme. She and her description convey that she is no
different from those around her other than her language and superficial appearance. She
makes a point that no one has the right to take away her identity, and she does not
defend that identity. She shrieks for her rights.
Henry Higgins

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- Arrogant, impatient professional who baits his audience with his knowledge and
performance skills
- Readers/viewers learn he is a successful author and dialectician.
- He is a much more passionate and defensive man as seen in his defense and
interactions with the flower girl
- Higgins propels the plot forward with his boast to remake someone with poor speech
patterns.
Colonel Pickering
- A successful author and dialectician as in Higgins. A gentleman, a colonel and an
academic, who studies Indian dialects.
- He is less tolerant of Eliza in Act 1
- The two meet in a chance encounter and leave at the end of his act to share a meal.
The Eynsford-Hills Family
- They’re a family who travel in upper social circles, and the daughter is impatient and
arrogant.
- We will learn that money is an issue for this family
- Symbolism of thunder and lightning when Freddy runs into Liza represents a cosmic
force that will intrude into their lives.

Themes
Language being a barrier to social acceptance
- Seen in the flower girl’s character, in particular her speech patterns
- Her pronunciation of words classify her as poor and uneducated as opposed to her dress
and attire.
Social class
- In a time of post-industrialization in England where the old order of class still holds
archaic values and perceptions, Liza represents a reeducated and trained element in
that order.

Symbolism
Clothing
- It is an important part of character’s appearances and how they display their identity and
social standing.
- Different people under the church portico are able to discern each other’s social class by
their clothes.
- Pickering is easily recognizable as a gentlemen, whereas Eliza is easily identifiable as a
poor flower-girl.
- Because of this, clothing is naturally an important part of Eliza’s transformation.

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 ACT 2
Summary
- Eliza shows up at Higgin’s door, while Higgins and Pickering are having a morning
conversation
- Mrs. Pearce and the two gentlemen are surprised to see her
- Eliza has come to request lessons from Mr. Higgins so that she is able to open her own
flower shop due to being able to speak more genteel
- Higgins makes fun of her during their discussion, whilst Pickering is more considerate
and kinder towards her.
- Pickering and Higgins make a bet that is Higgins is able to pass Eliza off as a duchess at
the Ambassador’s Garden party, Pickering will cover the costs of the experiment.
- After a long discussion between the three of them, Mrs. Pearce takes Eliza upstairs to
have a bath
- Whilst they are gone, Pickering confirms if Higgin’s intentions towards Eliza are
honorable, where Higgins replies that women “might as well be blocks of wood” to which
Mrs. Pearce warns Higgins that he should be more careful with his swearing and
irreverent behaviors.
- Mr. Doolittle shows up at Higgin’s house to request for his daughter as an act of ‘honor’.
- In reality, Doolittle later explains that he is actually there to ask for five pounds when
Higgins states that he can take his daughter away, and Higgins gives Mr. Doolittle the
money.
- Eliza enters shortly after wearing a blue kimono and clean from her bath.
- Everyone is in awe of her physical transformation, and Eliza wishes to go to her old
neighborhood to show off, however Higgins warns her against snobbery.
- Higgins and Eliza both agree that they have taken on a difficult task, which closes off the
act.

Themes
• Language and speech
• Social class and manners
• Appearance and identity

- Eliza approaches professor Higgins and asks him to help her improve her speech, as
she wants to improve her social class
- Eliza is made to feel foolish and ‘beneath’ the gentleman. She makes ‘funny noises’, and
the men make fun of her.
- Eliza portrays the idea that she does have good manners, regardless of her social class
and being a women – shown when Higgins doesn’t giver her a seat, and she says that
she would expect to be told that she may sit down.
- The way in which Alfred Doolittle speaks is very intelligent as shown in the way in which
he holds up an argument or case against Higgins. However, just because of the way he
is dressed and pattern of speech does not mean he is any less than the gentlemen in the
house.
- After Eliza has scrubbed up and looks like a genteel lady, her own father does not
recognize her. Eliza herself felt like her identity was changing.
- Eliza realized her potential, as she changes her appearance which in turn helps her to
change her own identity. She becomes proud of the person she could potentially be.

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 ACT 3
Summary
- Mrs. Higgins is surprised when Higgins randomly shows up at her house without
warning, as she is expecting respectable guests and is aware of Higgin’s eccentricities.
- Higgins states that he is bringing his experiment subject in order to fulfill a bet he had
placed with Pickering.
- Mrs. Higgins is displeased with an unsolicited visit from a flower girl, but it is too late to
change plans, as the guests arrive shortly afterwards.
- They Eynsford-Hill family show up, as well as Colonel Pickering.
- Before Higgins is about to disrespect the guests through his personal opinions of them
being savages, Eliza shows up making an impact on everyone through her speech and
appearance.
- All goes well until Eliza beings speaking about her aunt who had died of influenza, and
shocking facts based on her father’s alcoholism.
- Freddy is convinced that she is affecting the “new small talk”, and is blown away by her
skill at it.
- Freddy is infatuated by Eliza and offers to walk her, to which she replies that she will not
walk, and is going to take a taxi.
- Once the guests leave, Mrs. Higgins explains that Eliza is not presentable so long as she
takes on Higgins swearing and type of speech.
- She demands to know the conditions under which Eliza is living with the two bachelors,
and criticizes the two men, stating that they are playing with a ‘live doll’.
- They try to assail her with accounts of Eliza’s improvements; however, she questions
what they will do with her once it is all over.
- They all leave, and Mrs. Higgins is left exasperated by the ‘infinite stupidity’ of men.

Themes
• Language and Speech
Higgins has changed the way Elzia speaks, but not made changes to the content - it is
an external change.

The youngest Eynsford-Hills are taken with Elzia’s conversation as she is challenging the
norms of the time. The new “small talk” is scandalous both in content and diction
(‘bloody’). Mrs. Eynsford-Hill’s reaction is symbolic of the norms of Victorian times.

Eliza is seen as “acceptable” because she speaks well (and is well-groomed)

Higgins wants Eliza to fit into Victorian high society. He wants her to be accepted
according to the norms of the day and not be a symbol of change.

Higgins’ experiment may work in the confines of his laboratory (or a garden party), but it
does not equip Eliza to achieve her dreams and goals for the future.

• Social class and manners

Mrs. Eynsford-Hills horrified reaction to Eliza’s conversation underlines the social class
divide.

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 It is also important to remember that when this family first met Eliza, they dismissed her
as unimportant because of her low status.

Clara: “It’s all a matter of habit. There is no right or wrong in it”

Higgins experiment will only succeed in a small section of society.

Pickering uses his time spent in India as an excuse not to agree with Mrs. Eynsford-Hill.
He believes his views may be outdated which alerts us to the changes happen in the
society of the time.

Higgins, as a member of the upper class, should be better behaved, but is too
outspoken, uses improper language and is generally “rather-trying” as his mother points
out.

• Appearance and reality

“You have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her
into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her.” – Higgins

While Eliza may appear to have been transformed, the reality is that Higgins fails to take
into account Eliza’s soul and a will of her own which he cannot change.

Liza appears as something she is not. Liza’s ability to fool society raises questions about
appearances.

Reality for the Eynsford-Hill is very different to the appearance they project in this Act.

• Femininity and Gender Roles

Higgins dismissed his mother’s notion of a romantic interest in Liza by dismissing any
women under 45 as immature and naïve
Note the irony of his declaration that “some habits lie too deep to be changed” when this
is the exact change he is determined to bring about in Liza

Mrs. Eynsford-Hill voices disdain for young women who use coarse language and
content in their conversation.

Mrs. Higgins criticizes the men for treating Liza like a “live doll” in their experiment. She
defends Liza while she realizes that neither man views Liza as a human with feelings
and dreams.

• Education and intelligence

Eliza’s progress in her education is tested. She is dressed like a lady, behaves like a
lady. Eliza did not receive an education of substance, but was taught the mannerisms an
educated women of the age required to acquire a husband.

While telling his mother about Eliza’s quickness in learning, Higgins remarks “She has a
quick ear”. This speaks to her innate intelligence.

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 ACT 4
Summary
- Higgins, Pickering and Eliza return to Higgin’s laboratory, and discuss the success from
the night’s happenings.
- Higgins seems bored and concerned about where his slippers were.
- Eliza silently returns his slippers behind Higgins, whilst him and Colonel Pickering are
conversing.
- Higgins believes that the slippers appeared out of nowhere when he sees them, and
expresses his gratification and happiness of the completion of the experiment.
- Both Higgins and Pickering leave to go to bed.
- Eliza is hurt from this, and her “beauty turn murderous”, however the two men are
unaware of her.
- When Higgins re-enters, Eliza throws his slippers in his face.
- Eliza is enraged, and believes that she is seen as low as his slippers to him, but Higgins
simply replies by expressing how ungrateful she is.
- Eliza acknowledges that no one has treated her poorly, but she does not know what is to
become of her now.
- Higgins recommends that she gets married or opens a flower shop, but Eliza wishes to
remain the way she was before the experiment.
- Eliza questions if her clothes are her own possession, so that she can take them without
being accused of thievery.
- Higgins is hurt through his, and Eliza continues by returning the ring he had given her, to
which he throws it into the fireplace.
- When Higgins exits, Eliza finds the ring again and leaves it on the dessert stand. She
then leaves.

Themes
• Social class and manners
“Eliza did the trick” – Liza’s success is less important to Higgins that his own victory

Liza is proof that manners are learned and not innate to any class.

Higgin’s disregard for Eliza’s well-being is a sign of his prejudice against those in lower
class.

Eliza defines the differences between her and Higgins and we realise that despite his
cold exterior, Higgins has feelings too. He is hurt when she points out his selfishness.

Higgins belieces that Eliza should be grateful for his help/charity.

• Appearance and Reality

Liza’s success proves that appearances can be deceiving. She has convinced the upper
class that she is a duchess.

Eliza realizes that clothing is simply an outer symbol of class. She is changed and now
needs to find her place in the world.

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• Education and Intelligence
Higgins lacks emotional intelligence despite his academic education

Liza is able to use her intelligence to make decisions for her future.

• Femininity and Gender Roles

Higgins suggests that Liza married Pickering to establish a life for herself. Liza rejects
the idea as she has always rejected prostitution.

Higgins referring to Liza as a “creature” reveals his misogyny. Both men underestimate
Liza because she is a poor flower-seller.

• Language and speech

Despite her high emotions, Liza has internalized the language Higgins taught her.

Higgins is the one who resorts to “common” language.

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 ACT 5
Summary
- Higgins and Pickering show up at Mrs. Higgins home the next day.
- They are both uneasy and distracted due to Eliza leaving.
- Mr. Doolittle interrupts by entering being dressed in proper, neat, clean clothing, and
looks like a gentleman.
- Mr. Doolittle comes with the intention of expressing how he is now unhappy with being in
the middle class due to middle-class morality.
- This newfound wealth has brought him pain and suffering, and long-lost relatives have
found a way back into his life in search of a ‘better life’.
- Mrs. Doolittle also expresses that he has lost his ‘freedom’, and cant be as casual as he
use to be.
- The talk then turns into a squabble on who Eliza belongs to, and Mrs. Higgins stops
them by sending for Eliza who had been upstairs the whole time. However, she requests
for Mr. Doolittle to step out on the balcony in order to not shock Eliza on his new fortune
and transformation.
- Eliza behaves civilly when she enters and Pickering explains that she must not think of
herself as an ‘experiment’.
- Eliza expresses that even though Higgins trained her to be a duchess, Pickering had
always treated her as one, and is grateful towards him.
- Pickering’s treatment towards her had taught her self-respect.
- Higgins disrespectfully speaks to her once her father enters, and surprises her.
- Mr. Doolittle states that the reason he is dressed up is that he is going off to marry a
woman, and him, Pickering and Mrs. Higgins all leave, allowing Eliza and Higgins to be
alone.
- The both of them argue, and Eliza says that Freddy is in love with her, while Higgins
dismisses him as a fool.
- She says that she is going to marry Freddy, and they will support themselves by taking
Higgins' phonetic methods to his chief rival.
- Even though Higgins is outrages, he finds her defiance more appealing them her
submissiveness.
- Mrs. Higgins comes to request that Eliza is to leave, and they both later depart.
- The Act ends with Higgins hysterically laughing at Eliza marrying Freddy, to his mother.

Themes
• Social class and manners
Mr. Doolittle’s rise in society due to luck, criticizes the notion that upper class Victorians
deserved to be wealthy due to their birth right/being better than those of the lower class

It was probably due to luck that upper class Victorian’s ancestors were rich

Mr. Doolittle’s dilemma: being stuck between the discomfort of being poor is he rejects
the money and all the responsibilities of being wealthy if he keeps it.

Mrs. Higgins scolds Pickering and Higgins – they treat Eliza as an experiment only.
She reminds Higgins to use his manners as he is rude.

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 Pickering starts to understand the problem. Higgins rejects the idea that they treat Eliza
badly.

• Language, manners and speech

Despite Higgins’s high class upbringing, Higgins lacks proper manners, and sets a bad
example for the pupil.

Eliza reveals the power of language – Pickering’s verbal recognition that she could be
someone who could be called Miss Doolittle, was what helped her realize that she
deserves the same respect anyone else does.

• Wealthy vs poor
There is no difference between the wealthy and the poor – the only difference is whether
other people grant them the respect they deserve or not.

Eliza demands respect from Higgins.

• Femininity and Gender Roles

Near the end, Higgins shows that he cared about Eliza
Higgins states that Eliza took it upon herself to act like a servant
Eliza responds that Higgin’s treatment of her forced her into that position.

Higgins proposes that they stay together as equals

Eliza desires a simpler life as she had as a flower girl. She feels like upper class society
enslaves women – they have to marry to have a say in life and be able to survive since
they are not allowed to work. Eliza says this is akin to prostitution.

Eliza considers love important when she decides who to marry – Freddy

Higgins considers what Eliza’s future husband can make out of Eliza.

Eliza does not want to be controlled by any man

She suggests that she could be a phonetics teacher as good as Higgins and stands up
for herself

Higgins is impressed with the fact that she stands up to him and claims her
independence.

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 SEQUEL
Summary
- Once the play ends, the audience is left to wonder what is to become of all the
characters, and if Eliza and Higgins will marry, however they will not.
- ‘A romance also can suggest a "happy ending," and Shaw says he is not interested in
such an ending to his story’ - He will not allow his creation, Eliza, to marry such a misfit
as Higgins simply to satisfy the whims of the sentimentalists of the world, even though
these sentimental people outnumber the realists.
- Eliza has gained self-respect and dignity. She is intelligent, independent, witty and
desirable.
- Eliza marries Freddy Eynsford Hill, who treats her like a proper lady, and is in love with
her.
- Colonel Pickering helps Eliza and Freddy set up their flower shop (financial assistance),
however, they were unable to keep it up due to no prior and adequate knowledge on
business and how to run a shop.
- Eliza remains a part of Wimpole street, still with a slight interest in Higgins, however she
keeps a distance from him.
- In Shaw's words, Eliza "likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like
Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is
too godlike to be altogether agreeable."

Conventions of romance denied:

1. ‘our imagination have been enfeebled by ‘’their dependence on the ready-mades and
reach-me-downs (made from nobody in particular) of the ragshop in which Romance
keeps its stocks of “happy endings’’ to misfit all stories’
2. Eliza’s transformation; not an uncommon story
3. Does the hero have to marry a heroin?
4. Eliza’s and Freddy’s marriage and their shop

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Factors in Eliza’s decision
Eliza’s status
• Her decision depends on ‘’whether she
is really free to choose’’. She is since
she is young and pretty.
• ‘’ eliza’s instinct tells her not to marry
Higgins. It does not tell her to give him
up.”
Higgins
• His love of his mother
• Typical of an ‘imaginative boy’ with an
intelligent and graceful mother.
• Leads to ‘a disengagement of his
affections, his sense of beauty and his
idealism from his specifically sexual
impulses.”

Higgins Eliza and Fredd

Eliza resents Higgin’s domineering
superiority. She mistrusts his coaxing
cleverness in getting round her and evading
her wrath when he has gone too far with his
impetuous bullying.
Freddy is a gentleman; he is weak, thus
attatched to Eliza as a strong woman.
Conclusion: “will she look forward to a
lifetime of fetching Higgin’s slippers of to a
lifetime fo Freddy fetching her?. Unless
Freddy is biologically repulsive to her.

Consequences
Money:
• Feddy – no money, no job
• Alfred Doolittle – not willing to offer supprot.
• Honeymoon would have been penniless without Pickering’s support
• Uses the gift of 500 pounds for a long tim; keeps getting supported by the two bachelors

Clara:
• Changed under the influence of Eliza’s transforation, H. G. Wells and the novelist
Galsworthy to realize the vanity and unimportance of her class;
• Works at a furniture store

Elizas relationship with Higgins after her marriage:

• Still lives in Wimpole Street; still naggins;

• Cannot become a professional phonetician (no right to meddle with ‘his’ knowledge)
• Her secret wish to be alone on a desert island with Higgins to seduce him

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 HEIRARCHY, EGO

• “The creature is nervous after all” - Higgins

• Higgins ‘ego’ gets the better of him: “It’s almost irresistible. She’s so deliciously low, so
horribly dirty”
• Higgins is so consumed in his own experiment that he has disregarded Eliza’s own
thoughts and feelings: MRS PEARCE: “Well the matter is, sir, that you can’t take a girl
up like that as if you were picking up a pebble on the beach”
• Higgins only thinks of whether Eliza can be of any use to him or not: “She’ll only drink if
you give her money” Mr. PICKERING: “Does it occur to you, Higgins, that the girl has
some feelings?”
• HIGGINS: “Get something out of him” – only interested in using someone for the purpose
of his own academic learning.
• HIGGINS: “Besides, they’re all idiots”
• DOOLITTLE: “I’m one of the undeserving poor”
• Doolittle declines the opportunity to improve his standing in society – criticizes Victorian
Hierarchy, not only for letting lower-class people move up in hierarchy, but for upper
class being seen as better than the lower-class.
• Higgins calls Eliza a “squashed cabbage leaf” and an “insult to the English language” &
when he drops a handful of coins into her basket, he is simply getting rid of spare
change. [she is totally excited, because the coins are more money than she may make in
a week or month]

Sex and gender roles:

• Higgins – only wants to do what he wants to do, doesn’t take women’s feelings into
consideration → points to misogyny – “Women upset everything. When you let them into
your life, you find that the women is driving at one thing, and you are driving at another”
• DOOLITTLE: “Is this reasonable? Is it fair to take advantage of a man like this? The girl
belongs to me, you got her, where do I come in?” – both men see Eliza as a kind of
property One to be traded, bartered and used for, as a kind of commodity.
- Lack of empathy for Eliza points to Victorian misogyny and lack of treatment of women
by men and patriarchal structures in general.
Even though Eliza is caught between a rock and a hard place, Higgin’s care is a glimmer
of hope for a better life.
• DOOLITTLE: “Better you than her, because you’re a man, and she’s only a women and
don’t know how to be happy anyhow”
• DOOLITTLE: “If you want the girl, I’m not so set on having her back home but what I
might be open to is an arrangement. Regarded in the light of a young women, she’s a
fine handsome girl. As a daughter, she’s not worth keeping.” ; “Well, what’s a five pound
note to you? And what’s Eliza to me?”
• The only way for Eliza to free herself is to marry rich. She is resistant to the traditional
female roles of the Victorian society – sees this kind of marriage motivated by money or
prostitution.

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• MRS.HIGGINS: men are a “pretty pair of babies playing with their ‘grown up doll’”. – the
men are so excited about their progress with Eliza, that they speak rapidly and
enthusiastically, as if they are enamored of Eliza and her accomplishments.
• In the end - They have made her too “genteel” to return to her old life, but not
sophisticated enough to inhabit their world. Mrs. Higgins points out that they haven’t
what Eliza is to do when the experiment is over.
They have been selfish and mercenary in their exploitation of her for the experiment.
Mrs. Higgins berates them for their self-serving attitude towards Eliza, neither man
seems to understand the problem that has been created.

MRS. HIGGINS OPINION OF ELIZA

In answer to Higgins question “Is she presentable?”, Mrs. Higgins says of course she is not
presentable. She tells Pickering that Henry will not be able to improve Eliza’s speech,
because his speech is only appropriate for a canal barge. She is curious about Eliza’s true
purpose in her son’s home and she asks Pickering about the “state of affairs” there. She
appears to suspect that her son has feelings for Eliza, that he has not yet identified.
• MRS HIGGINS: “Does that mean some girl has picked you up?” – Mrs. Higgins hopes
that her son has found a romantic partner but he is so consumed by his studies that he is
only interested in women (or people) as possible “phonetic job”

SUPERFICIALITY
- Clara assumes Eliza’s behaviour and speech is the new fashion, and that she and her
mother are “out of style” or “old-fashioned”. What societal practices would keep Clara
and her mother from recognizing or suspecting Eliza as a flower girls?
- Thinks she is a friend of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering, and
must be in upper class to be in their group of acquaintances.
- Higgins calls Eliza’s speech the “new small talk” and Clara assumes that she and her
mother are hopelessly out of fashion.
- Her mother doesn’t approve of Eliza’s use of the word “bloody”, and says that Clara’s
language which includes ‘filthy’ and ‘beastly’ is shocking enough.
- Their inability to see Eliza’s identity shows their absolute trust in the “system” of British
society, in which people did not associate socially with those below them in rank.
- ‘Mrs. Eynsford believes Eliza’s new way of speaking is the new fashion – shows her
artificial ideas of proper manners of what ways of speaking are’
• When the Eynsford Family sees Eliza: they think she is beautiful and assume she is
upper class because of her clothing, her deportment (posture), and her enunciation.
However, her small talk is either extraordinarily intellectual or very crude and vulgar to
them, but Freddy finds her amusing.

BAD MANNERS
(Higgins):

• He bursts in without introduction & shows up on a day when is mother is staying at home
to accept callers – she has requested that he does not visit her “at home days”
• He brings Eliza home without being invited.

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• He attempts to leave without introductions when the Eynsford-Hill family arrives.
• He swears “damn it” in front of his mother’s guests and says they “will do as well as
anybody” to meet Eliza.
• When Freddy enters, Higgins says “God of heaven! Another of them!”
• He continues to curse “dickens”; “what the devil”; “damned”, and his mother’s warnings
don’t halt his rudeness.
• He is also clumsy and throws himself from one piece of furniture to another.

DIFFERENT “WORLDS”/CLASS DIVIDE

• Language and dialect are obvious clues, but the most telling difference is their attitude
towards money. Higgins empties his pockets with “spare change” when he throws a
handful of money into Eliza’s basket, without even counting it. It is probably more money
than the Flower girl has even seen at one time.
- It is enough money that she can afford a luxury that she has never experienced before,
riding in a taxicab, and still have coins left to count when she goes home.
It is a sudden windfall for her, but for Higgins, it was simply weighing down his pockets.
In addition, the professor treats the Flower Girls as a science specimen rather than a
human being. He doesn’t ask her permission before taking down her words, and rebukes
her unkindly, pointing out in public that she doesn’t have the knowledge of the proper
use of the King’s English.
• He treats her as if she isn’t of the same worth as him, because she is uneducated and
poor.
• He rewards her with coins, not out of true charity, but because the church bells reminds
him of his duty to those less fortunate. He believes that is he gives her money, she will
leave him alone.

• When she takes Freddy’s cab, she is ashamed of the location of her home, and she asks
the cabdriver to take her to Buckingham Palace, not savvy enough to realize that Freddy
would never mistake her as an inhabitant of that address.
• She is poor enough that she cant afford to keep the gas running all night at her flat, she
sleeps in part of her clothes, and uses those that she discards as additional covering for
her bed.

• Higgins: “A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to
be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and
the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of
Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious
pigeon.”
• Higgins: “You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as
a percentage of this girl's income, it works out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy
guineas from a millionaire.”
• Mrs. Pearce: “Well, the matter is, sir, that you can't take a girl up like that as if you were
picking up a pebble on the beach.”
• Mrs. Pearce: “Then might I ask you not to come down to breakfast in your dressing-
gown, or at any rate not to use it as a napkin to the extent you do, sir. And if you would
be so good as not to eat everything off the same plate, and to remember not to put the
porridge saucepan out of your hand on the clean tablecloth, it would be a better example
to the girl.”

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• Higgins: “I shall never get into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits lie
too deep to be changed. [Rising abruptly and walking about, jingling his money and his
keys in his trouser pockets] Besides, they're all idiots.”
• Higgins: “Well, I feel a bit tired. It's been a long day. The garden party, a dinner party,
and the opera! Rather too much of a good thing. But you've won your bet, Higgins. Eliza
did the trick, and something to spare, eh? Thank God it's over!”
• Higgins: “It was interesting enough at first, while we were at the phonetics; but after that
I got deadly sick of it. If I hadn't backed myself to do it I should have chucked the whole
thing up two months ago. It was a silly notion: the whole thing has been a bore.”
• Eliza: “I'd like to kill you, you selfish brute. Why didn't you leave me where you picked
me out of—in the gutter? You thank God it's all over, and that now you can throw me
back again there, do you?”
• Alfred Doolittle: “Who asked him to make a gentleman of me? I was happy. I was free. I
touched pretty nigh everybody for money when I wanted it, same as I touched you,
Henry Higgins. Now I am worrited; tied neck and heels; and everybody touches me for
money. It's a fine thing for you, says my solicitor. Is it? says I. ...A year ago I hadn't a
relative in the world except two or three that wouldn't speak to me. Now I've fifty, and not
a decent week's wages among the lot of them. I have to live for others and not for
myself: that's middle class morality.”
• Higgins: “Nonsense! He can't provide for her. He shan't provide for her. She doesn't
belong to him. I paid him five pounds for her.”
• Mrs. Higgins: “She had become attached to you both. She worked very hard for you,
Henry! I don't think you quite realize what anything in the nature of brain work means to a
girl like that. Well, it seems that when the great day of trial came, and she did this
wonderful thing for you without making a single mistake, you two sat there and never
said a word to her, but talked together of how glad you were that it was all over and how
you had been bored with the whole thing. And then you were surprised because she
threw your slippers at you!”

• Perhaps Mrs. Eynsford and Clara go without names because they provide the
benchmark comparison to Liza’s inner qualities and future achievements.

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 ACT I
1. Why was the flower girl upset that a stranger had been taking down on paper her
every word?
She probably assumes that the stranger was a police officer who would bring charges
against her. She has obviously had bad experiences with law enforcement in the past.

2. What evidence do we have that the flower girl and Professor Higgins are from two
entirely difference social and economic worlds?
Professor Higgins dismisses the flower girl as unimportant and calls her a “squashed
cabbage leaf” and an “insult to the English Language”. When he drops a handful of coins
into her basket to silence her, he is simply getting rid of spare change. She is totally excited
because the coins are more than she might make in a week.

3. What “claim” Higgins make concerning the flower girl?

Higgins indicates that after 3 months of instruction, he could pass the flower girl off as a
guest at an Ambassador’s Garden party, or as a lady’s maid or shop assistant (which
requires better English)

4. In the opening scene, why do you think Shaw attatches labels rather than specific
names to his characters? How would you describe the types of characters
represented in Act 1?
As part of Shaw’s intent to instruct while he entertains, he introduces the three principle
characters by labels rather than by names, as well as introducing Mrs. Eynsford Hill and
Miss Clara Eynsford Hill by their labels of Mother and The Daughter. The minor characters
are also introduced by their labels, such as ‘Bystander;, but its not an uncommon practice to
minor characters designated as Girl 1, Girl 2 , Shopkeeper, etc. the only character top get a
name in Act 1 is Freddy, and perhaps he gets a name because he misbehaves by treading
underfoot some of the Flower Girl’s floers then running off without paying for them. Perhaps
Mrs. Eynsford Hill and Clara go without names because they provide the benchmark
comparison to Liza’s inner qualities and future achievements.
It may be that The Gentlemen, The Notetaker (who are both upper class), and The Flower
Girl (who is lower class) go without names at first so that the character development that
occurs over the course of the play will be more dramatically pointed out and to emphasize
their roles in life so that associations between them will be put into sharper relief (given
sharper contrasts). For instance, when Higgins changes from a note taker to an interacting
human as he notices Liza for her true qualities and then falls in love with her, his
development is more pronounced because all he was at first was just the Note Taker,
nothing more human than that. A similar principle holds for The Gentlemen but points out o
the idea that the supposed noblest in the land turn a blind eye to humanity of the individuals
in classes lower than their own. The Flower Girl is so called to point out how society views

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her – just a girl who sells flowers – and to emphasize that dramatic changes that unfolds in
her as the play progresses.

5. What actions and statements by the flower girl reveal that she has integrity and is
also streetwise or shrewd? How would you define aspects of her character?
Initially she is fairly careful of Higgins, since she is worried he is a policeman or informant.
Later. She takes Higgins on, when she realises that he is copying down what she says in the
way she says it.
She makes the point that no one has the right to take away her identity, and she does not
defend that identity. She shrieks for her rights. She is outspoken.
Eliza’s moral character is never in question nor is her attire, but it is her pronunciation of
words that classifies her as poor and uneducated.

6. Professor Higgins and The Flower Girl are from two completely different ‘worlds.’
What evidence do you have of this? What evidence is there that The Flower Girl is
embarrassed by her poverty? How poor is she?
Language and dialect are obvious clues, but the most telling is the difference in their
attitudes towards money. Higgins empties his pockets of his “spare change” when he throws
a handful of money into her basket without even counting it. It is probably more money than
the Flower Girl has ever seen at one time. It is enough money that she can afford a luxury
that she has never experienced before, riding in a taxicab, and still have coins left to count
when she gets home. It is a sudden windfall for her, but to Higgins it was simply change
weighing down his pockets. In addition, the professor treats the Flower Girl as a science
specimen rather than a human being. He doesn’t ask her permission before taking down her
words, and he rebukes her unkindly, pointing out in public that she doesn’t have knowledge
of the proper use of the King’s English. He treats her as if she isn’t of the same worth as he,
simply because she is uneducated and poor. He rewards her with the coins, not out of true
charity, but because a nearby church bell reminds him of his duty to those less fortunate. His
offering to her is quite like Pickering’s earlier donation of 3 hay pennies. If he gives her
money, she will probably leave him alone. When she takes Freddy’s cab, she is ashamed of
the location of her home, and she asks the cabdriver to take her to Buckingham Palace, not
savvy enough that Freddy would never mistake her as an inhabitant of that address. She is
poor enough that she can’t afford to keep the gas running all night in her flat, she sleeps in
part of her clothes, and uses those that she discards as additional covering on her bed.

27 | P a g e
 ACT II & III
1. How is Mrs. Higgin’s home décor different from her son’s? How is she different
from her son?
Her home is simpler with fewer pieces of furniture and fewer pieces of bric-a-brac. The
petterned fabrics on her furnishings and draperies provides most of her decoration. She
is not a collector of things. Her home is lighter, airier and probably much less masculine
that her son’s/ her home is decorated in the fashion influenced by the artists of the time:
Morris, Burne Jones, and Rosetti were artsists and designers who influenced the
Victorian period. Morris was a famous stained-glass artist. Burne Jones was a painter
and designer. Mrs. Higgins is fashionable, but not snobbish. She understands the social
mores of the day and adhered to them while her son is socially awkward. She sees her
son’s eccentricities and is embarrassed by them; he probably doesent realize he is
eccentric.

2. Playwrights normally don’t introduce speaking characters without purpose. Where

has the ‘audience’ seen the Eynsford-Hill family before?
Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, her daughter Clara and her son Freddy were present in Covent
Garden when Eliza first met Professor Higgins. They were the family hoping to find a taxi
in the rain, and Freddy was the young man who ruined Eliza’s flowers when he bumped
into Eliza.

3. Give examples of ‘bad manners’ displayed by Henry Higgins during his visit at his
mother’s home. Include some statements that would be offensive to the Eynsford-
Hill family.
He bursts in without introduction and shows up on a day when his mother is staying at
home to accept callers. She has requested that he not visit her on her ‘at home’ days. He
brings Eliza to his mother’s home without being invited. He attempts to leave without
introductions when the Eynsford-Hill family arrives. He speaks whatever he thinks
without attempting polite small talk. Henry Higgins turns his back, walks away from the
guests and stares out the window at the river, ignoring them. Higgins sweats (‘damn it’)
in front of his mother’s guests and say they will ‘do as well as anybody’ to meet Eliza.
When Freddy enters, Higgins says, ‘God of heaven! Another of them!’ He continues to
curse (‘dickens’ ‘damned’ and ‘what the devil’, and his mother’s warnings don’t halt his
rudeness. Higgins is also clumsy and throws himself from one piece of furniture to
another.

4. What is the Eynsford-Hill family’s reaction to Eliza?

They think she is beautiful and assume that she is upper class because of her clothing,
her deportment and her enunciation. However, her small talk is either extraordinarily
intellectual or very crude and vulgar to them, but Freddy finds her amusing.

5. Name several things that Eliza does or says that are inappropriate for the
situation.
She speaks of her aunt who died of influenza, indicating the death wasn’t of natural
causes, since someone ‘done the old women in’ hoping to ‘pinch’ her new straw hat that
shouldn’t have been Eliza’s when her aunt died. She also indicated that her aunty was

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 very familiar with gin (‘it was mother’s milk to her’) and that her father was a drunk. She
indicated that her father was much easier to live with when he was drunk rather than
sober. When Freddy asks if he can walk her to the park, she says “Walk? Not bloody
likely. I’m going in a taxi.” Everyone is shocked by her course speech.

6. Humorously, George Bernard Shaw has Clara assume that Eliza’s behaviour and
speech is the new fashion, and that she and her mother are ‘out of style’ or ‘old-
fashioned’. What societal practices would keep Clara and her mother from
recognizing or suspecting Eliza to be a poor girl?
Clara and her mother think Eliza is a friend of Mrs. Higgins, Professor Higgins, and
Colonel Pickering, and must be upper class to be in their group of acquaintances.
Higgins calls Eliza’s speech the ‘new small talk’ and Clara assumes that she and her
mother are hopelessly out of fashion. Her mother doesn’t approve of Eliza’s use of the
curse word ‘bloody’, and says that Clara’s language which includes ‘filthy’ and ‘beastly’ is
shocking enough. Their inability to see Eliza’s identity shows their absolute trust in the
‘system’ of British society in which people did not associate socially with those below
them in rank. In addition, Mrs. Eynsford-Hill reveals privately to her friend Mrs. Higgins
that her family is ‘so poor’ that Clara doesn’t get to attend many parties and doesn’t get
to attend many parties and doesn’t understand what is appropriate and what isn’t.
Freddy is amused by Eliza and appears to see through her façade although it doesn’t
bother him.

7. What is Mrs. Higgins’ opinion of Eliza’s ‘successes and her son’s ‘experiment’?
What does she assume about Eliza’s presence in her son’s home?
In answer to Higgins’ question “is she presentable”, Mrs. Higgins says of course she is
NOT presentable. She tells Pickering that Henry will not be able to improve Eliza’s
speech because his speech is only appropriate for canal barge. She is curious about
Eliza’s true purpose in her son’s home and she asks Pickering about the ‘state of affairs’
there. She appears to suspect that her son may have feelings for Eliza that the has not
yet identified.

8. Based on their conversation with Mrs. Higgins, discuss Higgins’ and Pickering’s
treatment of Eliza. What is Mrs. Higgins’ opinion of their treatment?
She is a caged bird, a zoo specimen, a science experiment. Mrs. Higgins says the men
are a ‘pretty pair of babies’ playing with their “grown up doll”. The men are so excited
about their progress with Eliza that they speak rapidly and enthusiastically as if they are
enamored of Eliza and her accomplishments. Pickering and Higgins have failed to
realize that Eliza will eventually have to leave them and find a position in the world. They
have made her too “genteel” to return to her old life, but not too sophisticated enough to
inhabit their world. Mrs. Higgins points out that they haven’t considered what Eliza is to
do when the experiment is over. They have been selfish and mercenary in their
exploitation of her for the experiment. Even after Mrs. Higgins berates them for their self-
serving attitude toward Eliza, neither man seems to understand the problem that has
been created.

9. How does the behaviour of Higgins with the Eynsford-Hill family make Higgins’
experiment with Eliza now seem ironic?

29 | P a g e
 Mrs. Higgins points out that Henry isn’t a good example or role model of sophisticated
behaviour and upper-class manners. Eliza will be hard-pressed to learn good manners
from a teacher who doesn’t understand etiquette himself.

10. What unexpected guest is present at the Embassy Ball and why does he make
Pickering and Higgins uncomfortable.
A former phonetics student of Higgins, a Hungarian named Nepommuck is present at the
part as an interpreter for the Ambassador and his wife. He claims to be able to ferret out
imposters and use his language skills to identify their origins.

11. What does Nepommuck “reveal” about Eliza, and on what does he base his
assumptions?
Nepommuck says Eliza’s name cannot be Doolittle because “Doolittle” is an English
name and she isn’t English. Her English is too precise for er to be English. He believes
she is Hungarian royalty, and he convinces his hostess that he is correct.

12. What is the outcome of the wager?

The wager is won.

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 ACT IV & V
1. After Eliza’s victory at the Embassy party, what do Higgins and Pickering do?
They ignore Eliza completely and get ready for bed.

2. What does Alfred Doolittle admit to?

He admits that he never married Eliza’s mother.

3. How does Eliza show her anger at Professor Higgins’ obvious lack of
understanding?
She throws his slippers at him

4. After her success at the Embassy Party, where does Eliza pitch up?
At Mrs. Higgins’ home.

5. Why is Eliza upset with Higgins and Pickering after the triumph at the Embassy
gathering?
Neither Higgins nor Pickering congratulate her or giver her any of the credit for the
success of the experiment. In fact, Higgins says that he is relieved and thankful that it’s
over.

6. What is ironic about Eliza and Freddy’s foray around London at night in the taxi?
Eliza is paying for the taxi because she has cash and Freddy does not. In addition, it is
improper for Eliza to be alone with a man at night, but they ignore the social mores

7. What part does Eliza insist that Colonel Pickering has had in her transformation?
Eliza indicates that Colonel Pickering showed her how to be a lady by being a gentleman
and always treating her like a lady.

8. How have Eliza and Doolittle been changed by Higgins “interference”?

- Eliza has bee educated
- And had experienced her life beyond her social and economic status
- Het father has been given an inheritance
- That places him in the middle class where he is expected to maintain standards of
morality that he has never had to maintain before.
- Both have risen to a new social echelon where neither is comfortable.

9. How does the play end differently from possible audience expectations?
- Audience probable expected Higgins to fall in love with Eliza, but he has no romantic
interest in her
- He doesn’t intend to change
- And the last conversation between Eliza and Higgins seems to leave the future uncertain
- Eliza has taken care of Higgins’ request before he even asked, which leaves us to
believe that she may maintain her place in his household even though he doesn’t appear
to appreciate her, or perhaps doesn’t wish for her to know that he appreciates her.

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 SAMPLE ESSAYS
Pygmalion explores how social identity is formed not only through patterns of speech
but also through one's general appearance. Critically discuss the validity of this
statement. Refer to at least 3 characters in your response and refer to the play as a
whole to support your discussion.
Your response should take the form of a well-constructed essay of 400 – 450 words (2
– 2½ pages).
In the play Pygmalion, written by Shaw Bernard, the author explores social norms of the
Victorian era, and demonstrates how speech and etiquette preserve class distinction. This
idea is expressed through Eliza’s transformation from a lower-class flower girl to a lady, Mr.
Doolittle’s shift into the middle-class of society, and Colonel Pickering’s ability to maintain his
upper-class ‘façade’.
Eliza Doolittle experiences a vast array of physical, mental and emotion shifts throughout
Pygmalion, and reveals the fickle nature of all which builds one’s social identity in the
Victorian era. As she transitions from a ‘dirty’ flower girls with English and dialect “from the
gutters”, to a young lady who is high viewed in society and desired, it is evident that these
changes in viewpoints towards her were merely superficial. In an age of a growing
standardization of “Queens English”, her initial, and most significant changes, were her
improvements in speech, through her lessons with Higgins and her clothing amendments.
This further is evident in Mr. Doolittle’s moving away from her “deferentially” when she had
changed into a neater, Japanese outfit, from older, dirtier clothes, and her reply “Don’t you
know your own daughter?”. This proves that the better one is dressed and speaks, the
higher they are held in regard, within the Victorian society.
Alfred Doolittle is yet another character in the play who experiences a shift in social identity,
moving from one of the “undeserving poor”, to a middle-class man. However, these shifts
had occurred mainly in his appearance and dialect, as evident in the transition from being
called a “dustman” in Act 1, to a “gentleman” in Act 5, simply through a change in outfit,
wearing spruce clothing from older ‘rags’. He also experienced a moderate improvement in
his general speech. This point to the fact that appearances and articulation were the only
given factors that shaped the change in the way people had viewed him, and, thus, his social
identity.
Colonel Pickering represents the nature of largely fixed social rules and its ‘subconscious’
present in the lives of members in the Victorians society. He is a respectful, amiable
character in the novel, and shows how, due to his upper-class standing, feels need to
maintain this ‘façade’. This is evident in his reference to Eliza as “Miss Doolittle”, and
sympathies toward her, as well as his neat, considerate dressing and higher quality outfits.
This idea is further emphasized through his contrast with other characters, especially one
being Higgins and his ruthless temperament. Mr. Pickering, thus, greatly accounts for the
notion his aristocratic identity may be firmly based on his outward appearance and superior
dialect, relative to the other characters in the play.
In conclusion, the Victorian social identity is formed through patterns of speech and general
appearance, apparent in the characterization of Eliza Doolittle, and her change in speech
and outfit, Alfred Doolittle and his transition to a middle-class man from a dustman, and

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Colonel Pickering trying to maintain his lofty social standing through well-spoken speech and
choice of clothing.
Discuss how Pygmalion can be said to be commentary by Shaw on societal issues,
including equality between classes as well as gender? Provide examples from the
play as substantiation for your argument.

In the play Pygmalion, written by Shawn Bernard, the author explores societal issues
weaved from inequality between classes and gender, faced within the Victorian era. Such
issues can be seen from the contrast of treatment between the different classes, the
misogyny and disrespect towards women and their intellect, and the unimportance placed on
females in society.
In the early 20th century, the Victorian period was greatly characterized through its rigid
structures of social hierarchy. Those who served in the lower, working-class were
disregarded, and treated poorly by those with a higher status. This is evident in judgements
passed by Higgins, such as “Uttering such disgusting sounds”, and “the creature is nervous
after all”, as well as Mr. Doolittle saying “I am one of the underserving poor”. Moreover, the
change in treatment Mr. Doolittle had experienced from being seen as a dustman, to being
seen as a gentle further emphasize the disrespect faced by people in a lower class, and the
high regard for those in an upper class, linking to social injustice and inequality faced in this
time.
Through Victorian patriarchy, we also come face to face with gender inequality and
misogyny. In Pygmalion, women are looked down on and are not respected for their own
intelligence and intellect. This is evident in women being confined to their own respective
households, such as Mrs. Pearce and Mrs. Higgins, where they are not allowed to have a
proper job in society, as well as Mr. Higgins comments such as “Besides, they’re all idiots”,
and “women upset everything”, which highlights the ignorance men have to the value and
contribution of a women. This links to gender inequality, as they are not given the same
opportunities as men in their society, and are not valued for their intelligence and intellectual
thought.
Moreover, women in Victorian society experience a lack of concern and care from those
around them, and are only seen as a ‘benefit’ or ‘property’. This is evident in Higgins not
being concerned on Eliza’s thoughts and feelings through her transformation, and Mr.
Doolittle stating “The girl is mine. You have her. Where do I come in?” in Act 1, showing that
women are seen as a type of commodity that can be bartered or traded. Additionally, Eliza is
even seen as a benefit to Higgins, where her emotions and feelings are not of worth of value
to him. This is evident in his lines “She so deliciously low, so horribly dirty”. This links to
females of the Victorian society being discriminated against and not being viewed with the
same worth as men are, tying into social inequality and gender norms.
According to Charles Mcnulty of the Los Angeles Times, “Pygmalion starts as a playful
venture, but quickly develops into an X-ray of a stratified nation.” In the play, Shaw uncovers
the raw truth of social injustice and societal issues in the Victorian era, where women are
looked down and not given equal opportunities as men, and higher classes are viewed more
highly than those of a lower standing, resulting in disrespect and irreverent behaviours faced
by the working class from others of a higher standing.

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 ESSAY QUESTIONS
Critically discuss how the treatment of Eliza and her father is shaped by the norms of
the time
Points to discuss:

• Higgins: Eliza has to remind Higgins to offer her a seat when she arrives at his home,
yet, he almost immediately gave Mr. Doolittle a seat when he arrived. Gender trumps
class. Higgins is dismissive of both as their clothing indicate they are from the lower
class, however he treats Mr. Doolittle slightly better because he is a man.
• Mrs. Higgins. Treats them both the same
• (Mrs. Higgins as a mother figure) She offers Eliza refuge when she leaves Wimpole
Street and accepts Eliza into her home
• Mr. Higgins: facilitates Mr. Doolittle’s improvement (he is given a new career based on
Higgins playful recommendation), but not Eliza. Doesn’t help her or encourage her to
become a phonetics teacher, Eliza must forge her own path. But he helps Mr. Doolittle
find a job etc. Instead, her advices Eliza to marry (gender norms) Mr. Doolittle: once he
becomes a man of means, he is expected to marry (social norms)
• Mr. Doolittle: As a man of lower class, it is not expected for him to look after his
daughter, but once he becomes a middle class man, and has the means, he should take
Eliza in and look after her. (both social and gender norms)
• The men dismiss Mrs. Pearce when they have to discuss the future of Eliza and payment
of Mr. Doolittle. Higgins and Pickering value the “brotherhood of men”
• Eynsford family dismissive and suspicious of Eliza as a flower girl. Freddy hardly
acknowledges her as she is unimportant. But when they meet Eliza as a women of
standing, their treatment towards her changes (their social class). Clara comes to admire
her, and Freddy comes to admire her, simply because she is socially acceptable.

Write an essay discussing the gender roles for both men and women in the Victorian
era – make reference to at least 3 characters.
Points to discuss:

• Eliza – is expected to marry or move back into her father’s house after she has been
transformed into a duchess
• Clara – plays the coy, yet hip/trendy young women in the hopes of attracting Higgins
attention. Her conditioning to find a husband shapes her behaviour.
• Freddy – despite his youth is expected to take care of his mother and sister. Forced into
the rain to find a cab. Treated badly by his mother and sister. He is also expected to
have money as he is considered upper class society, but when it comes to light that their
family is genteel poor, he is not considered good enough to marry Eliza who is no better
than he is as she comes from no money at all. Freddy is placed under a huge amount of
pressure to provide financially for both his mother, sister and his future wife.
• Higgins – does not allow himself to seek love/marriage as he believes that all women are
problematic/troublesome and he expresses concern that he does not measure up to the
image of men. He is expected to marry a fine young women by his mother, and when he
chooses to be a bachelor, he is frowned upon.
• Doolittle believes that he is the victim in his relationship before he marries his partner as
he must court her in a particular way. He also feels a victim when he comes into money

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 and is required to marry his partner, provide for all his poor relatives and also take Eliza
into his home as he is expected to provide for her until she can be married.

"Yes: in six months—in three if she has a good ear and a quick tongue—I'll take her
anywhere and pass her off as anything. We'll start today: now! this moment! Take her
away and clean her, Mrs. Pearce." -- Henry Higgins (Act 2 Pygmalion)
Higgins is obviously presented as the Pygmalion figure in this play; however, Act 2
reveals that there is no way his phonetic magic could do a complete job of changing
Eliza on its own.
In a well-constructed essay of 400 – 450 words (2 – 2½ pages), critically discuss the
extent to which you agree with this statement. Refer to the play as a whole in your
response.

During the play Pygmalion, the audience is provided with many opportunities to
observe the way Higgins interacts with various people. Despite his idiosyncrasies, he
is still a representative of the ‘privileged’ class.
In a well-constructed essay of 400 – 450 words (2 – 2½ pages), examine the way he
speaks to and treats different people in various scenes and discuss what these
interactions tell you about his particular personality and about the attitudes of the
class that he represents.

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According to Wikipedia, “Nearly all his [Shaw] writings address prevailing social problems,
but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined
education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege…. He is the only
person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938),
for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (an adaptation of his
play of the same name), respectively.”

According to Charles Mcnulty of the Los Angeles Times, “Pygmalion starts as a playful
venture but quickly develops into an X-ray of a stratified nation. Yes, it remains a love story,
but one that understands just how profoundly the romantic is political”

According to London Garrick of the Guardian,” It is, in fact, a beautifully structured play of
infinite subtlety: one that is about the tragi-comic consequences of seeking to artificially
create life, and one that should leave Higgins torn between despair at Eliza's departure and
delight at her independence.’

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