Pygmalion Essay, Research Paper

PYGAMALION 1.) 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.