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.