Pygmalion

Henry Higgins is a paradoxical man who is both likable and unlikable. On the one hand, he is a brilliant scholar. Shaw describes him as “so entirely frank and void of malice that he remains likeable even in his least reasonable moments” (Act I, Page 30). His charm keeps Mrs. Pearce from quitting her job. In many ways, he is Shaw’s archetypal creative rebel. Higgins rejects the rigidity of Victorian classes and, in particular, resists the pressure to conform to middle-class morality and manners. He engages in experiments and studies that he hopes will improve humanity. On the other hand, he is rude to Eliza and everyone he meets. He has such bad manners that his mother prefers he not be at her house on her social day. He has misogynistic views on marriage and women’s roles. He acts petulantly, and sometimes violently, when he is rejected or challenged. He often lacks self-awareness, as his rude actions contradict the mannered way that he describes himself. As the play concerns itself with the differing types of manners, Higgins’s breeches in conduct suggests that his use of language does not outweigh his poor behavior.

Higgins is an expert linguist who specializes in phonetics and dialectology. He often functions as Shaw’s mouthpiece for sharing his views on language, class, and manners, but this position does not prevent Shaw from criticizing Higgins. Higgins often views people as subjects to be studied, failing to recognize their humanity. In his first appearance, he jots down voluminous notes on those around him and reduces them to their dialects. He understands that phonetics plays a key role in social mobility, but he also strongly associates it with moral and spiritual qualities. He believes that changing Eliza’s language creates an internal change as well.

Whether Higgins actually changes throughout the play is a matter of debate. Shaw first describes Higgins as “a very impetuous baby” whose “manner varies from genial bullying when he is in a good humor to stormy petulance when anything goes wrong” (Act I, Page 30). His treatment of Eliza does not indicate a significant change. When he first meets her on the portico, he refers to her in derogatory terms such as a “squashed cabbage leaf” (Act I, Page 23) and suggests that she “ha[s] no right to live” (Act I, Page 22). When Albert Doolittle attempts to take his daughter, Higgins shouts that he bought her. Even at the end of the experiment, he ignores her and plans to get rid of her like an unwanted object. Despite having earlier praised her skill with Pickering, he calls her an “idiot” (Act V, Page 127) and a “fool” (Act V, Page 129). In the face of Eliza’s demand to be treated with dignity, he belittles her and threatens to “wring [her] neck” (Act V, Page 131). When she suggests she can support herself by teaching phonetics, he calls her an “impudent slut” (Act V, Page 131). This vitriol calls into question his claims to want to adopt her or that he “like[s her] like this” (Act V, Page 132). The closest he comes to expressing affection is his saying that he has “grown accustomed to [her] voice and appearance” (Act V, Page 123). The play ends with him ignoring the change in Eliza, instead insisting that the status quo will be maintained and that Eliza will return.

Alfred Doolittle, Eliza’s absentee father, is poor, greedy, abusive, and alcoholic. While he occasionally works as a dustman, his name Doolittle suggests he does as little work as possible. His first appearance at Higgins’s house plays on the trope of the virtuous father rescuing his compromised daughter. He promptly declares, “I want my daughter; thats what I want” (Act II, Page 52). Although Doolittle uses the guise of caring for his daughter, Eliza already described her father’s throwing her out onto the streets over two years prior. When Higgins quickly acquiesces and tells him to “[t]ake her away at once” (Act II, Page 52), Doolittle switches to his primary tactic, seeking to essentially sell his daughter to Higgins. Doolittle attempts to conform to middle-class standards but ultimately drops the act. His honesty and his poetic use of language appeal to Higgins, which prompts him to offer Doolittle more money.

Doolittle’s moral philosophy regarding the difference between poor people who are deserving and those who are undeserving amuses Higgins, while also serving as a satire of middle-class morality. Doolittle’s delineation of these groups reveals the excuses that the middle class uses to justify both helping and not helping other people. This rhetoric appeals to Higgins, who rejects many Victorian middle-class expectations.

Despite their outward differences, Doolittle and Higgins share a core similarity. Eliza compares Higgins’s so-called view of equality with Doolittle’s. After hearing his explanation, she points out that his idea of “[t]he same to everybody” is exactly “[l]ike father” (Act V, Page 14). Neither man treats others differently between classes, and both men have the same manners. This similarity suggests that the classes are not so clearly separated and differentiated as genteel society claims they are.

When Doolittle reappears in the fifth act of the play, he is forced into the role of a gentleman by Higgins’s joke. Like Eliza, he changed his way of dressing, but unlike Eliza, he did not change his speech and his manners. This action further shows that Higgins doesn’t consider the effects on others of his actions. For Shaw, forcing Doolittle into the middle class reflects his socialist desire to do away with the lower class completely. Doolittle’s long speech in the fifth act has Doolittle acting as a mouthpiece for Shaw, who criticizes English codes of morality when he has Doolittle state that “Americans is not like us: that they recognize and respect merit in every class of life, however humble” (Act V, Page 111). The American belief that anyone can succeed contrasts with the rigid hierarchy of English society.

Colonel Pickering largely functions as a foil to Higgins. He shares many characteristics with Higgins; like him, Pickering is a linguistic expert passionate about phonetics, especially in Indian dialects. He also enthusiastically participates in the wager with Higgins. Yet, unlike Higgins, Pickering has gentlemanly manners and treats all with dignity. From the beginning, he addresses Eliza as Miss Doolittle and seeks her consent to the experiment. Throughout the play, he promises to defend her from Higgins’s threats of violence. In the end, he feels sympathy for her and apologizes, while Higgins does not and cannot recognize the offense he causes. Pickering encourages Eliza to change and supports her claims that she “wont relapse” (Act V, Page 121). His gentlemanly behavior acts as a contrast that highlights Higgins’s coldness and insensitivity to others.