Eliza Doolittle: Pygmalion

The play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw has many different characters that bring much to the play due to their backgrounds, feelings, and intentions. One of these remarkable and famous characters is Eliza Doolittle. How Eliza comes across, how she is treated by others, and how she changes are what make Eliza such a wonderful character.

Firstly, Eliza comes across as a sassy, smart-mouthed flower girl with horrible English, and is transformed to a still sassy, figure fit to consort with nobility. She has self confidence but wants to improve her well being. This is why she goes to Mr. Higgins for help. She is not at all a romantic figure. Everything about Eliza Doolittle seems to defy any conventional notions about a romantic heroine. The character of Eliza Doolittle comes across as being much more instrumental than fundamental. She also comes across as not being afraid of anyone. She is not worried about anyone hitting her, and will make sure that she doesn’t do anything wrong because she continually says “I’m a good girl I am.” Eliza Doolittle doesn’t loose any of her confidence when she is transformed into a lady, and perhaps even gains more. In the end of act five she stands up for herself to Mr. Higgins and says “I’ll go and be a teacher... I’ll teach phonetics... I’ll offer myself as an assistant to Professor Nepean” defying Professors Higgins.

This is when Eliza comes across as an independent woman.

Secondly, Eliza is treated poorly by many who surround her. Her father is not there for her during her lifetime and the only time he comes around is to “touch” money from others. He comes to Higgins and wants him to pay for Eliza. When Eliza sees him and sticks her tongue out at him, he goes to hit her. She says “I don’t want never to see him again I don’t.” Higgins also doesn’t treat Eliza very well. In the beginning he says that she “has no right to be anywhere-no right to live.” And she is “a disgrace to humanity.” He continues throughout the play to treat he like a flower girl or “dirt he walks on.” The only time Higgins begins to see Eliza not as a mill around his neck, but as a creature worthy of his admiration, is when she stands up to him in the end of the play. Despite