Pygmalion. diary entries for Higgins and Eliza

Authors Avatar

Pygmalion

By Mudasser Hussain

Stage 1: Eliza’s diary

Today it was raining and we all had to take shelter in Covent Garden.  I met a young and sweet man named Freddy and he was sweet and kind. I met military gentlemen named Colonel Pickering and he was a real gentleman. I tried to sell him some flowers but he did not want them and told me in a polite and gentlemanly way but he did give me three hapence.  Anyway, that’s better than nothing.

        Suddenly a young man a stranger said to me “there’s a bloke over there taking down every blessed word your saying” I turned round and looked at him and said “ I’m a good girl I am” .  I thought he was a Police informer until a man shouted out “ He’s a busybody, that’s what he is,  look at his boots.” Then the note-taker told him he was from Selsey and everyone was amazed and he knew where everyone was from it was as if he was trying to impress everybody and he knew what road they lived on.  

        I later found out that this note-takers name was Higgins and I realised he was a snob.  He was very cheeky and did not have very good manners.  He insults be by calling me a “creature” and he called me a “gutter-snipe” and “a squashed cabbage leaf” and I don’t even like cabbage.  He was very rude towards me and did not show respect.  He said that I couldn’t speak English and he had a very posh accent and spoke perfect English.  I overheard him talking to Pickering saying how he could pass me off as a duchess.  I was quite shocked me a duchess (never in a million years).  I tried to sell him some flowers and he threw me a handful of money. I had ridden in a taxi for the first time when I returned home.

Stage1: Higgins diary

Today I was in Covent Garden listening to the different accents and making notes.  They all thought I was a Police informer and it was quite difficult explain to them because most of them could not understand proper English.  

Join now!

        I met a true cockney creature today and she was a flower girl.  She spoke so much rubbish it was very difficult to understand her and she always made these horrible noises.  I called her a “gutter snipe” and a “squashed cabbage leaf” I was referring to her brain but of course she did not understand.

        I began talking to Colonel Pickering and I said to him that I could pass this creature as a duchess. Colonel Pickering was quite an interesting man I told him that he was from Cambridge, Harrow and had traveled India. I was going ...

This is a preview of the whole essay