DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

GOVT.POST GRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN SAMANABAD LAHORE

ASSIGNMENT OF ENGLISH

PRESENTED BY
ASMA JAFAR
PRESENTED TO
M`AM NAUSHEEN
ROLL NO
6762
MAJOR
ECONOMICS


DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT.POST GRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN SAMANABAD LAHORE

PYGMALION

TRANSFORMATION OF ELIZA DOOLITTLE FROM A
`GUTTERSNIPE` TO A ` DUCHES`
Pygmalion is the story of a professor who has the challenge of transforming a Cockney
Flower girl into a lady, by improving her etiquette, pronunciation of words, and grammar.
Pygmalion is a book about money, freedom, social class and independence but most
importantly about language. I am going to be looking at the main things that Higgins has to
change, how difficult these will be, and how successful he is.
The character of Eliza is best seen by the progression which she makes from "a thing of
stone," "a nothingness," a "guttersnipe," and a "squashed cabbage leaf' to the final act where
she is an exquisite lady totally self-possessed, a person who has in many ways surpassed
her creator. In the opening act, the audience cannot know that beneath the mud and behind
the horrible speech sounds stands the potential of a great "work of art." This carries through
the Pygmalion-Galatea theme in which a crude piece of marble is transformed into a
beautiful statue. It is not until the third act, when Eliza makes her appearance at Mrs.
Higgins' house, that we know that Eliza possesses a great deal of native intelligence, that she
has a perfect ear for all sorts of sounds, an excellent ability at reproducing sounds, a superb
memory, and a passionate desire to improve herself.
In the first act, Shaw takes great pains to hide all of Eliza's basic qualities. He shows her not
only as a person who completely violates the English language, but, more important, he
shows her as a low, vulgar creature ( totally without manners). We see her initially as a
low-class flower girl who vulgarly tries to solicit money from a well-dressed gentleman,
Colonel Pickering, and then as a young girl who is vulgarly familiar to another gentleman
(Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who ironically wants her to be familiar with him when she becomes a
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT.POST GRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN SAMANABAD LAHORE

lady); last, we see her as a person who is obnoxious in her protestations when she thinks that
she is about to be accused of prostitution. Thus, what Shaw has done is to let us listen to a
flower girl who totally violates the English language and who is a total vulgarian in terms of
language. The change in Eliza's pronunciation will come about because of Higgins' lessons in
phonetics, but the important change, and the real subject of the play, is the change that will
come about in Eliza's manners something which even Higgins cannot teach her because he
has no manners himself.
Eliza arrives at Higgins' laboratory-living room for rather ironic reasons. She wants to adopt
middle-class manners that both Higgins and her father despise. Eliza's ideal is to become a
member of the respectable middle class, and in order to do so, she must learn proper
pronunciation and manners. But then we notice that in spite of the original motive, Eliza's
monumental efforts to master her lessons have their bases in the fact that she has developed
a "doglike" devotion to her two masters a devotion which Higgins will ultimately reject
and which Eliza will ultimately declare herself independent of in the next stage of her
development.
In both Acts IV and V, Eliza is seen as a completely transformed person, outwardly. She is
poised, dignified, in control of her once spitfire temper, and she has rejected all of the old
common vulgarity of her past life. She is no longer willing to be Higgins' creation; she now
asserts her own independence. But it is an independence which demands values from life
which Higgins cannot give her. Unlike Higgins, who wants to change the world, Eliza wants
only to change herself. Unlike Higgins, who can and does stand apart from the common
aspects of life, Eliza can be content with Freddy, who simply needs and wants her as a
compassionate human being. And whereas Higgins can get along without anyone, Eliza and
Freddy need each other. In contrast, Higgins will continue to try to improve the world, while
Eliza will make a comfortable home for herself and Freddy.
The real making of Eliza Doolittle happens after the ambassador's party, when she decides
to make a statement for her own dignity against Higgins' insensitive treatment. This is when
she becomes, not a duchess, but an independent woman; and this explains why Higgins
begins to see Eliza not as a mill around his neck but as a creature worthy of his admiration.
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
GOVT.POST GRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN SAMANABAD LAHORE

Higgins' and Pickering's Influence
With his ability to discern any British accent, Henry Higgins is a gifted linguist. He believes
that the only requisite to being a member of the upper class is the way in which one speaks.
He is mistaken, however, as Eliza points out. Higgins never would have been able to win his
bet had he alone instructed Eliza. It was the behaviour exhibited by Pickering that allowed
Eliza to understand the proper manners to use when among the upper class.
It is not simply Colonel Pickering's manners that influence Eliza. In Act V, Eliza says that
"the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's
treated". She goes on to say "I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he
always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because
you always treat me as a lady, and always will". Eliza demonstrates the true difference
between the upper and the lower class lies in the way in which they are treated by others.
Although Colonel Pickering modestly concedes that it would have been impossible for Eliza
to learn to speak like a princess had it not been for Professor Higgins, she merely responds,
"Of course: that is his profession". This contrasts the subtle, almost natural tendency of
Colonel Pickering to present himself as a gentleman to everyone regardless of social class.
These subtle actions taught Eliza more about etiquette than any lesson Higgins taught her.