This meant that Eliza wasn’t making a lot of money. Henry Higgins is of the posh gentry. He doesn’t need to work but still chooses to,
“That’s my profession: also my hobby.”[Page 15]
He has inherited a lot of money and is adding to that by his highly paid job in phonetics. When Eliza is trying to sell flowers to Pickering, Higgins throws money at her and into the gutter. Deliberately making Eliza pick it up of the dirty floor. To the upper class it would be an absurd gesture, but Eliza is desperate.
“Aaah-ow-ooh! [Picking up several coins]…” [Page 17]
To Higgins this ‘spare change’ is nothing but for Eliza it’s more than a weeks pay. After this she gets a taxi. This is a first time experience for Eliza but a mundane way of transport for the upper class such as Higgins.
“Never mind young, I’m going home in a taxi.” [Page 18]
She arrives at Drury Lane, an extremely poor area of London. It then describes her room,
“A small room with very old wallpaper hanging on in the damp places. A broken pane in the window is mended with paper. A portrait of a famous actor and fashion plate of ladies’ dresses… These are the only visible luxuries: the rest is the irreducible minimum of poverty’s need: a wretched bed heaped will all sorts of coverings that have any warmth in them, a draped packing case with a basin and a jug on it and a little looking glass over it, a chair and table, the refuse of some suburban kitchen…” [Page 19]
At the beginning of Act 2 Higgins’s household on Wimpole Street is described,
“It was a room on the first floor looking onto the street, and was meant for the drawing room…” [Page 20]
The contrast between Eliza’s room and Higgins’s house is stunning.
Eliza’s hopes and aspirations are extremely high and she is willing to do whatever it takes to get them. She has a lot of potential and is very smart, unlike most working girls but lacks the opportunity and money to develop her skills. She wants to develop her language in order to get a decent job. Unlike Higgins Eliza’s English is atrocious.
“Ow, eez ye-ooa san is e? Wal, fewd dan y’de-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzn…” [Page 9]
Higgins takes many things for granted, that Eliza would never have dreamed of having,
“Gawd! What’s this? Is this where you wash your clothes...No Eliza this is where we wash ourselves, Eliza, and where I’m going to wash you.” [Page 33]
Another example of this is when Higgins is tempting her to stay,
“At her age! Nonsense! Time enough to think of the future when you haven’t any future to think of. No, Eliza; do as this lady does: think of other people futures; but never think of your own. Think of chocolates, taxis gold and diamonds.” [Page 31]
Higgins is always well attired, smart and clean. On the other hand Eliza is never these things,
“She takes of her shawl and skirt and adds them to the miscellaneous bed-clothes. Then she kicks off her shoes and gets into bed without any further change.” [Page 19]
We can now see the enormous contrasts in the lives of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins.
