Looking closely at Pygmalion, consider the relationship between Higgins and Eliza. Where do your sympathies lie?

David Rankin 856941.doc 1,358 words

In the play Pygmalion, my sympathies change between the two characters Higgins and Eliza, as the play progresses. Eliza seems the more likely of the two to feel sorry for because she is without money and was brought up in filth. At some points during the action we do tend to sympathise for Higgins because of what he is going through and sometimes the stress of teaching a lower class girl gets the better of him.

In Act1, at Covent Garden outside St Paul’s Church my sympathies are for Eliza as she is grovelling in the rain for money. She clearly is poor and is dressed in dirty clothes as well as not having had a wash. When her flowers are knocked out of her hands by Freddy and trodden into the mud, she is deeply annoyed as it is her only means of living and without selling the flowers (which are now destroyed) she does not have much chance to have a bed to sleep on: “…eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahrzen than ran awy like that athaht pyin.” When the mother kindly offers to pay for the flowers, Eliza is pleased that she now has more money than they were worth: “Thank you kindly, lady.”(page11). Her daughter on the other hand is very rude and says: “Make her give you the change; these things are only a penny a bunch.”(p11). I feel sorry for her in this scene because all she wants is money for her flowers to make a living. Higgins selfishly throws money onto the road, after being requested, Eliza dives at the loose change. She is so happy to be able to hold that much money at one time she is very grateful to the man although he just wanted to get rid of her: “I really don’t have any change.”(p19). Then when it is time to go, she hops into a taxi, showing off she has money: “Never mind, young man. I’m going home in a taxi.”(p19). At the moment we do not have many feelings for Higgins because the play has not described much but likes to stick to his own class (Pickering) as he was reluctant to give any money to a lower class, common girl. At the end of the scene we feel relief for Eliza as she gets to sleep with what she feels like unlimited light and warmth.

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In Act 2, we feel sorry for Eliza because Higgins, at first, is unwilling to give lessons and makes a joke of it until Mr Pickering kindly offers to pay. Eliza is being a bit protective because she is not quite sure what is going on in Higgins’ house. One minute she is pleased: “Oh you are real good. Thank you Captain.”(p29). The next minute she is crying her eyes out exclaiming “Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-ow-oo-oo!”(p29) or really unhappy and distressed: “No, I’ll call the police, I will!” When Higgins accepts the challenge of creating Eliza into a duchess he cares only for the bet, not for what else could happen as a consequence. He does not know what to do with her in the meantime so says carelessly to Mrs Pearce “You can adopt her,…, I’m sure a daughter will be a great amusement to you.”(p31). When Eliza offers Higgins money for the lessons, he starts to be a bit careless and calculates the offer, related to what a millionaire would pay him when he full well knows that she will not be able to pay. He is just trying to test her resistance: “Two-fifths of a millionaire’s income for a day would be somewhere about £60.”(p28). This starts off the bet which Higgins cannot resist and leads onto the garden party which Eliza begins to be very pleased but worried about. At times Higgins can be careless although Eliza thinks he is being very harsh. Sometimes when Eliza is being unreasonable Higgins will be strict towards her: “If she causes you any trouble, wallop her.”(p30). I think that most of the time during the scene Higgins is being unfair to Eliza and not giving her much of a chance to speak out although he is testing her for her patience and strength of character.

In Act 4, Higgins and Eliza argue when they return from the Embassy. Higgins was speaking across Eliza to Pickering, who for once in the play was ignoring Eliza which is bound to test her patience and will cause us to have some feelings for her. Eliza gets extremely irritated when Higgins is being so rude that she shouts back at him but Higgins takes in none of what she says and cannot see her point of view. She shouts out cruel remarks: “I’d like to kill you, you selfish brute.”(p76). Although Eliza is losing her temper, I do understand what she is going through and sympathise for her as Higgins is ignoring her and taking the credit away: “I won it [the bet]”(p76). At home Higgins was being especially rude. When Eliza gave him his slippers while he was complaining, he was not grateful: “I wonder where the devil my slippers are!”(p74). Eliza throws the slippers at him for his ignorance but he just does not understand what he is doing wrong as he has grown up like that being careless. At the end of the argument Eliza finishes politely by asking what she can take away with her so therefore telling Higgins she does not want to stay: “I want to know what I may take away with me. I don’t want to be accused of stealing.”(p79). Finally she makes her move by walking out the house to see Freddy. In this scene, I feel sorry for Eliza because Higgins is being cruel. All Eliza wants is to be acknowledged. The fact that they are not doing that is unfair.

In Act 5, the final showdown between Eliza and Higgins commences on neutral turf at Mrs Higgins’ house. This does not give Higgins the home advantage where he can be unreasonable. All Eliza wants is to be cared for. She stays at Mrs Higgins’ house because she is annoyed with Higgins. Finally, Higgins goes round to his mother’s house because he is worried about Eliza as well as being useless without her: “But I can’t find anything.”(p86). When Eliza comes down from upstairs and meets Higgins and Pickering she speaks the way Higgins taught her to. She starts off by talking about their health: “Are you quite well?”(p93) and then the weather: “Quite chilly this morning, isn’t it?”(p93). This winds Higgins up although he says: “I taught it to you; and it doesn’t take me in.”(p93). Eliza begins to speak to Pickering, leaving Higgins out of the conversation and when he interrupts, Eliza answers him with confidence and continues her original discussion. Higgins admits that she has a finer ear than him. He laughed nervously when she said she would teach phonetics because he knows she is good at it: “Ha! ha! ha!”(p104). All the way through the scene Eliza is getting her own back on Higgins. He likes this as it shows she can stand up for herself although she is not going to go back to Wimpole Street and he is on the losing end of an argument. I don’t feel sorry for Eliza as she can stand up for herself and Higgins is getting what he deserves. Eliza gets a clever answer to Higgins cheeky order at the end of the play which we admire.

At the end of the play, Eliza gets my vote for sympathy as she is under Higgins wrath for most of the action. Only a few times do I feel sorry for Higgins when he is working hard to teach Eliza the tricks of the trade. At the end, I think Higgins regrets letting Eliza go as he becomes quite fond of her. Overall though Eliza has started from so low and reached great potential that she never realised she could because she never had a chance that she deserved so much from this. Eventually Eliza has what she wants; a decent life.

15/03/2009 Page of