Pygmallion By Alfred Doolittle Essay, Research Paper

In Act 3 we learned a lot more about the character and philosophy of Alfred

Doolittle. He is strangely individualistic personally and very eloquent. He is

representative of the social class of the "undeserving poor", which,

means that he is not entitled to receive financial support from the government,

since he is physically able to work. He lives only for the moment; from day to

day. The money he gets he wastes on intoxicating himself, and he has no

intentions of taking any serious responsibilities, for himself, or for his

daughter. Further on, in Act 5, Mr. Doolittle appears at the house of Professor

Higgins, and angrily accuses Higgins of making him into a middle-class gentleman

against his will. Higgins has said that Alfred Doolittle was the most original

moralist in present day England. He has written a note to Mr. Wannafeller, a

rich American and told him that. Wannafeller died and left Dolittle a share

worth a thousand dollars a year on condition that he?d lecture for his

Wannafeller Moral reform World League ax often as they?d ask him, possibly up

to 6 times a year. Doolittle doesn?t mind the lectures, but he hates becoming

one of the working class, because now he?s earning a living (middle class

morality). He sees now that he has to taken added responsible onto him. He could

have turned down the offer but was intimidated. As a result he needs Higgins to

teach him to speak proper English. He doesn?t like it at all and blames Higgins

for it. By virtue of his newfound morality, he must marry the woman with whom he

has been living for years. 2.) Eliza angers Higgins by telling Colonel Pickering

that his gentlemanly manners have meant more to her than Higgings? teaching.

She says that the difference between a lady and a flower girl isn?t the way in

which she behaves but how she is treated. She knows that Pickering will always

treat her as a lady and that she will always be a flower girl to Higgins.

Higgins tries to convince Eliza that she is better off staying with him, instead

Eliza leaves in search of her independence. Pickering and Dootlittle leave for

the church for his marriage and Mrs. Higgins also leaves so Higgins and Eliza

are alone. Higgins wants Eliza to come back because they have grown accustomed

to each other; he is irritated when she says she may marry Freddy. But Eliza

finally wins his respect by declaring her a teacher of phonetics. Higgins is not

pleased that she wants to help Nepommuck. As the play ends, everybody except

Higgins in on his way to Doolitte?s wedding. Eliza says she will not see

Higgins again, and tell him that he will be lost without her, but Higgins only

laughs at her. 3.) Pickering feels the experiment was a smashing success. At the

garden party a new person appears, Mr. Nepommuck. He was Mr. Higgins? first

pupil. He speaks 32 languages and works as an interpreter. So, he will be a real

challenge for Eliza because of his great ability to identify those with distinct

accents, or incorrect pronunciation. After a little conversation he indentifies

Eliza as a Hungarian princess. For him she cannot be English because her

pronunciation is too perfect, which you can only hear from foreigners, who were

talk to speak like this. So after all, the bet is won, and Eliza, Higgins and

Pickering leave for the reception. 4.) Higgins brings Eliza to his mother?s

house to try her out in a society. His mother isn?t very happy of this because

Higgins is always rude and she is afraid that her guests won?t come again. The

guests are Clara and Freddy Eynsford Hill and their mother. Although they have

already seen Eliza in Covent Garden, they did not recognize her now, beautifully

dressed and speaking perfectly pronounced English that Higgins has taught her. A

trouble that Higgins knows Eliza will face is not her ability to speak rather

her inability to say the proper thing. Her grammar is incorrect, and she the

vocabulary and the subject matter of the street, not of high society. Higgins

excuses it as the new small talk. Freddy and Clara both admire Eliza very much.

Freddy falls "head over hills" in love with her and Clara decides to

imitate Eliza?s unconventional conversation (they both think it?s her style).

A few months later, at a reception at an embassy in London, Eliza causes a great

excitement with her beauty, her graceful manners and her lovely speech. The

renowned phonetician Nepommuck, a former pupil of Higgins? is convinced that

she is a Hungarian princess. Higgins has won his bet (if Nepommuck had

discovered that she was only a common girl that Higgins would have lost, but

Higgins remains calm). The flower girl has been transformed in to a fine lady.

5.) In the final act Eliza is found in Mrs. Higgins? house upon her leaving the

home one can see the hostility that has grown between the too. In the beginning

both Pickering and Higgins felt excited about the whole process of turning a

flower girl, from rags to riches, and how she was making progress everyday.

During the experiment Mr. Pickering?s opinion of the whole process, was that of

success, with Higgins being able to pass Eliza as a duchess, which meant she had

mastered phonetics. But, when he met Eliza at Higgin?s home he felt that Eliza

had changed emotional from the beginning of the experiment to it?s finale, with

her becoming more independent. He did not want to think as this process of it as

an experiment but rather as an experience that helped better Eliza. Professor

Higgins? felt relieved that it was that is ongoing saga of helping transform

Eliza was over. But after Eliza left his home, he felt that this whole

experience was a total success, with him making a graceful lady out of Eliza.

Higgins always felt that Eliza was an immature and ignorant girl, who believed

in controlling people, but now she was able to overcome that and became a better

person. She proved this when she lashed out at Higgins, and leaving him there,

and she vowed that she would not return to him, or his house as a simple-minded

girl. In the end Eliza walks out on Higgins in order to pursue a new

relationship with a young man named Freddy. With her belief that she is a better

person now she is in search of a good relationship with someone who would

respect her as a lady, and a person, as well not be afraid to show his affection

toward her. For Henry Higgins his life returns the way it has always been with

alone. He feels being a bachelor is the best way to go he believes that women

will ruin him. Colonel Pickering sees Eliza?s dramatic change as a positive

thing for her life, as well as aid Higgins with his studies. Freddy, the man who

is madly in love with Eliza, is still trying to be with her. Eventually they

will both marry one another.