Through Higgins and Pickering’s perceptions of Eliza, we are shown that the class system is all in the mind of the beholder and how it is perceived differently in each person. Higgins sees Eliza as lower class; “I treat a duchess as if she were a flower girl” put Pickering sees Eliza as an equal, someone of the same class as himself or above “he’d treat a flower girl as if she were a duchess.” In my opinion I think Shaw is trying to tell us the class system doesn’t make the person, that it’s the person that makes the class system.
At the beginning of Pygmalion Shaw uses the dramatic device of labelling the characters instead of giving their names. “The flower girl”, “the gentleman” “the note taker”, by doing this Shaw shows us how quickly we judge people by what they do and what they look like and not on what they are. Further on in the play the labelling of the characters changes, “the flower girl” changes to “Liza”, “the gentleman” to “Pickering” and “the note taker” to “Higgins” by using first names and surnames we can see where the characters have been placed with in the class system.
Using detailed stage directions Shaw shows how materialistic things seem to matter more to the upper-class and how they take them for granted and how the lower class treasure what they have. “These are the only visible luxuries”” Shaw shows how Eliza has to live off necessities and how she can’t afford many luxuries and how she treasure what she has. He shows us the position she is in and the lifestyle she lives is purely because of the class boundaries others have placed her in. Shaw shows us Eliza is a better person than Mrs Higgins is, because she care about what is important in life. “All the ornaments, and are much too handsome to be hidden” This shows us that Mrs Higgins’ flat is full of materialistic objects. When Shaw says they are “too handsome to be hidden” I think he is trying to tell us that this is what is important to Mrs Higgins and the upper class alike. He is telling us that they don’t concentrate on what is important in life, and that the upper class are considered to above everyone else yet the lower class are better people. He shows how the lower class is more grateful for what they have and how the upper class take what they have for granted. “Did you tell him I come in a taxi?” the taxi ride is of importance to Eliza because to her the taxi is a symbol of wealth to her it represents something the upper class would do, it gives her a feeling of importance. “What do you think a gentleman like Higgins cares what you came in?” A taxi ride doesn’t matter to Higgins because he has the wealth and he takes them for granted.
Shaw uses humour in the play as a dramatic device to highlight characters and their actions. One of the comic characters in Pygmalion is professor Higgins; we have two different views of Higgins. The audience and the characters gather one view that he is very arrogant, tactless and naïve. Higgins has a very different self-image, he believes that he is kind and well mannered and that he could no wrong to any one. With his own self-image Higgins is over confident and speaks without thinking “put her in the dustbin” “all I propose is that we should be kind to the poor girl.” Higgins is unaware of how others will perceive him and what they will think about him and this creates humour for the audience.
Another comic character in Pygmalion is Eliza; she creates humour through her constant changing actions. Professor Higgins teaches Eliza to speak with an upper class accent and dialect, yet when it comes to the Eynsford hills party we as an audience know that she is going to trip up. Eliza speaks in the upper class accent she has been taught but she goes back to using her poverty-stricken dialect and this creates humour for the audience. Through this I think Shaw is trying to tell us that you can’t change a person no matter how much they seem to have changed who they really are is still there.
At the Eynsford hill’s party Eliza is not the only character to create humour, the Eynsford Hills create humour when they meet Eliza, because she speaks with an upper-class accent they believe that the dialect she uses are the new phrases to use. “I find the new small talk delightful and quite innocent.” Shaw uses the Eynsford Hills to show how the class system is based on superficial ideas. He shows that the people who believe in the class system are false and how they are willing to change who they are so they can be accepted by others.
Shaw shows how people are judged when we first meet Doolittle. “He’ll make bad use of it I’m afraid!” because of his poverty-stricken appearance, Pickering assumes that Doolittle will waste the money. Shaw also uses Doolittle to show that happiness can’t be bought with money, when we first meet Doolittle he is happy but when he comes into money he doesn’t like his new lifestyle and isn’t happy with his new found finances.
Shaw successfully criticises the British class system through Pygmalion. He shows how people can’t be fitted into categorise as he makes many of the characters exceed the boundaries that they have been confined within. Through Pygmalion he picks up on the class system’s many flaws and how easily it can be proved wrong. Pygmalion is successful in getting the message across about the class system and how it is based on superficial ideas.
