Eliza and Alfred Doolittle, originally living in bad conditions, represent the working class. What happens to Eliza and her father expresses Shaw’s belief that people are able to improve their lives through their own efforts, but they have to consider that their character might change as well. Thus it doesn't seem astonishing that the difference between a lady and a flower girl lies rather in her treatment than in her behaviour. Another example of the change that Eliza is going to have a change is the fact that at the beginning of the play she gets paid for the flowers she gets a taxi, which for her is a very big deal that in her eyes only people in high class use and something that she wouldn’t use in a everyday use. Eliza decides to make a better person out of her by referring to Mr. Higgins by telling him that “I don’t want to talk grammar. I want to talk like a lady in a flower shop”. Mr. Higgins is not so sure whether to take Eliza in or not, as he thinks it over he offers her a chocolate and, since she is not used to high class people offering their guest something every time they visit she makes the remark, “How do I know what might be in them”, that is one more example how she is not used to that lifestyle and the customs.
Higgins' many insults "squashed cabbage leaf", "draggle-tailed guttersnipe" to Eliza are cruel, but we should not overlook his better points, such as his goal of creating a better society through knowledge and elimination of class and all the unfairness associated with the latter. Higgins, reflecting Shaw's own beliefs, believes that, by using phonetics, accents could be eliminated and therefore, with everyone speaking the same, society would become classless.
"The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another."
The upper class regards background and wealth as decisive and is keen to preserve class distinctions. In the play they are represented by the Eynsford Hills appearing dishonest towards themselves. They escape from reality and prefer an illusion. This can be explained by the fact that the Eynsford Hills are lacking money, but refuse to go earning their own living. At the end, Clara can be seen as an exception because she makes up her mind and takes an honest, realistic look at her own life.
During the time of the play, Pygmalion, classes in England were seemingly artificial. It is shown very well in Act III during one of Mrs. Higgins’s at-home days the differences between classes. Mrs. And Miss Eynsford Hill claim to be of the upper class and they act as if they are in the upper class to try and impress Henry Higgins during this scene.
Impossibility of movement in classes
Eliza takes her place in higher society because she learns to speak like the upper classes, but loses herself in the process. Bartered by an opportunistic father whose presence signals little sentiment in Shaw’s perception of working class prejudices, she eventually comes to understand that she has become even lower than a proletarian, unable even to sell her labor in the face of a society which requires nothing more of her than correctness and propriety. She finally sees she has lost her independence in the process of "improving" herself and in quietly falling in love with Higgins, her "social better." It is only when she defies him and threatens to ruin him that he treats her with some regard. It is then she truly becomes part of the upper classes, plotting marriage to a socially-connected dimwit and nursing contempt for others. When she leaves him, Higgins laughs without irony or, we suspect, very much genuine sadness.
Eliza’s transformation demonstrates that social distinctions such as accents are artificial and suggest that class barriers can be overcome by language training. It becomes questionable however if language reveals or forms one's character. Eliza's outcry at the end of the play denies this idea. Yet she understands herself better. Education is connected with social progress. Eliza's problems show that language alone provides only a superficial transformation. She lacks education to become fully integrated. By this, Shaw illustrates the impossibility of moving classes in those days.
Eliza has shown that education (and money) can elevate one to another class, but is this a complete transformation? It can be seen that she does not truly belong to either class - she cannot go back to being a flower girl, however she does not feel completely at ease in the middle-class, either. Alfred Doolittle is a good example of the new upwardly mobile middle class, where criterion of gentility was changing from family and background to money. Doolittle provides much comic relief throughout the play. His comments on "middle-class morality" ring true. Pickering is a good foil to Higgins, as a caring and articulate man who treats Eliza well. Shaw's ending is brilliant as it does not adhere to the usual romantic ending, where the reader would expect Eliza and Higgins (the other option to Freddy) to have a romantic relationship. The reason why is explained in the epilogue. The fact is, Higgins was Eliza's teacher and that, as he says himself at the beginning, is a sacred relationship - "You see, she'll be a pupil; and teaching would be impossible unless pupils were sacred." That cements their relationship as unequal. In addition, Higgins' passion would always be phonetics and learning - all other people and things are second - and this is something that is converse to Eliza's values - the one she marries must love her foremost. This line seems to sum up Higgins' thoughts of his finished Galatea -"By George, Eliza, I said I’d make a woman of you; and I have. I like you like this." The creation has become independent of its creator and he is glad. In conclusion, Shaw's play "Pygmalion" is a well-written play which is both a drama and social critique.
Realization of belongingness to a particular class
Act I of the play first introduces the reader to the rich of London. The author, Bernard Shaw, uses these well moneyed citizens to display the contrast between them and Eliza. In this act, Eliza has yet to be introduced to the world of the rich, and is portrayed by Shaw as in innocent dreamer. Eliza is concerned for her own safety, in making sure that it was known that she only wanted to sell a flower to the gentleman. She is persistent in a kind way; the reader sees this when she tries eagerly to sell to the gentleman without change. It becomes apparent that she is very poor, and needs success from her flower selling to live a life at all. Eliza shows great pride in her line of work, and that she stays above the law, not resorting to illegal prostitution or stealing.
Higgins's study at the start of act II, Eliza feels that she has to impress Higgins by making sure he knows that she arrived in a taxi. Eliza doesn't understand the way that Mr. Higgins treats people, she thinks, as would any normal person, that he is being particularly mean to her specifically. She quite rightly gets very upset when Henry Higgins rambles on about her money, and wanting to throw the "baggage" out of the window. Eliza shows little emotion towards the wager set by Pickering; she merely thanks him for offering to pay for the lessons
For Higgins and Pickering the ambassador's ball was a great success. Eliza, on the other hand, had fulfilled her purpose as far as Higgins was concerned. She was merely a tool used to enhance Higgins reputation in society. Having shown absolutely no appreciation towards Eliza, Higgins kept boasting about his success, and failed to acknowledge Eliza, besides the one time he did, which was simply to make clear that it was not Eliza that won his bet, but it was himself. Eliza is shattered upon hearing this. Higgins had drilled into Eliza that she was a lady, she would speak like a lady and also that she would act like a lady. What he had not realized, because he shows the same level of selfishness to everyone, was that he had slowly been making Eliza a stronger person, as illustrated by Shaw in Eliza's throwing the slippers at Higgins. Eliza finally stands up to Higgins and uses his own tactics against him.
Language distinguishing the classes
The story of Pygmalion is of Eliza Doolittle, a woman with a bad register, who is taught the social register. In the happy ending of the story, she has hit all the right notes. She has achieved the best register.
Henry’s chief and central craft is to improve the way Eliza speaks her vowels and expresses herself. He sees the construction of accent and register as the key to adapting to society. He delights in it, “How frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul.” Henry sees the training as an interesting experiment in linguistics and a bit of a prank. We can also see it as an interesting example of “how English works”.
Registers represents varieties of language, defined by use. So, cockney speaking Londoners, living in a small geographic area and maintaining a closed system of types of sounds, phrases and noises, might be grouped and called a register. This Cockney registers also holds the key to elements of the class structure.
A certain voluble cheerfulness or sentimental rhetoric, as displayed by Mr. Doolittle, and the stoutness of spirit which leads Eliza to seek self improvement lessons from Henry are also an important part of the Cockney register.
When Henry first meets Eliza, he contends that he can pass her off as the Queen of Sheba. Not only must he transform her accent, he must introduce a different vernacular which would help Eliza to identify with the upper class. Shaw addresses the issue of snobbery when he talks to Eliza about “cutting off her old friends now she has risen in the world – that’s what we call snobbery” Eliza confirms everyone understands the lessons of linguistic class.
Shaw makes wonderful use of example, in which he demonstrates the sounds of lower and upper class. Upper class is Freddy’s way of saying, How Do You Do, as Ähdedo. Here is the lower class, as expressed by Eliza, “Garn”. Eliza uses this word to mean “Go On” as a way of saying Do Not Tease Me.
Another assertion related to the class distinction is the sense of a wider vocabulary and a broader way of encountering the world through language and self expression. This play appears to maintain a balance. Arthur Doolittle is wonderfully express and Henry impresses with his easy intelligence.
A common truth is that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. No more than a duchess out of a flower girl or flesh and blood out of marble. These images are at the heart of the Pygmalion archetype.
At the beginning of the conversation, in Act III, Eliza is speaking with pedantic correctness of pronunciation and great beauty of tone. “How do you do, Mrs. Higgins? She gasps slightly in making sure of the H in Higgins....” Eliza starts to go off and loses control of her emotions later on during the conversation when she misconstrues the remark of Freddy Eynsford Hill. She starts to get like her old flower girl self and gets so comfortable that she doesn’t even realize it. Henry jumps into the conversation and stops her and she finally realizes what happens. The Eynsford Hills still seem a little bit puzzled because they have never heard a person of such “high class” speak in such a manner. Henry goes on to explain that she is just talking the new small talk and that everybody who is anybody is doing it. The Eynsford Hills being the rocket scientist that they are don’t realize that Higgins is not telling them the truth about Eliza and who she really is. They want to be accepted so much by him and his upper class friends that they believe him and start talking in the same way. On the way out of the door Clara imitates the silly nonsense and laughs as she says goodbye.
Alfred Doolittle is another character in the play that doesn’t
really show a class distinction. When you first see Alfred in Act II he
is a trash man. “He is an elderly but vigorous dustman, clad in the
costume of his profession, including a hat with a back brim covering
his neck and shoulders,”
While his clothing and his appearance are disapproving, his
language of persuasion is very appealing. Higgins is surprised by the
way that Doolittle speaks and becomes somewhat interesting. He
says to Pickering, “if we were to take this man (Doolittle) in hand for
three months, he could choose between a seat in the Cabinet and a popular pulpit in Wales.” As you can see, Higgins believes that even though Alfred Doolittle is of the lower class he could be transformed into a member of the so-called upper class in just a short time.
The class distinctions in the play are evident but you can see that people can behave differently in different situations when under stress; or just people behaving the way they do regardless of class, money, or position in society. Accent represents the concept of pronunciation common to a group. The sounds and concepts presented, in Shaw’s London, as a way of identifying a person according to a confining stereotype, is narrow minded and prejudicial. It is presumptuous to pretend to know someone solely by the way they express themselves in language. Yet it happens all the time.
English society is a class conscious society where manners of social conduct are of much too importance. English language is spoken with many different styles and different accents forming many dialects within the language. Especially Standard English is spoken by posh people with good social back ground. Higgins shows this tendency that in the following speech: “Higgins: Men begin in Kentish Town with ₤80 a year end in Park Lane with a hundred thousand, they want to drop Kentish Town.” It means with the shift in the class there is also a shift from bad English towards Standard English. Rather there is an assumption that it is only Royal Blood which speaks good English with good accent and pronunciation. Bad English is associated with the lower strata of the society. “Higgins: But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It is filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul”. Higgins in his speech shows that language differences marks a great class distinction. And if there is no difference of language spoken these class barriers can be broken down. Shaw himself was a great advocate of equality in society. Therefore he worked in this drama as a drama of phonetician to show the importance of language in a social context. He wanted to make the entire nation aware of the fact that good communication skill is of vital importance. Shaw wants to convince us that for good communication a good language with good pronunciation is utmost necessary.
1. The Importance of Correct Pronunciation -Shaw who wants an equality of status among human beings wanted to establish a new Universal Standard Language which would eliminate all class distinction from the society. He wanted that at least language should break all class distinctions which are associated with it.
2. Eliza in phonetics - Her new environment and her training in middle class manners and morality transform her from a flower girl to a duchess which Higgins intended to make her. The main theme of the play also shows that for becoming a duchess or a princess, one must know the art of speaking good English with good pronunciation. It is only the proficiency of language because of which Eliza was succeeded in passing of as a duchess. Correct pronunciation is as much a matter of phonetics. Phonetics as you all know is the knowledge of sounds. Higgins is the professor of English who is master in his art of teaching correct pronunciation to make the people proficient in the use of English language
3. Economical Attachments Associated with Phonetics Eliza: “An old lady has just told me that I speak exactly like Queen Victoria.” As in the example of Eliza that when she dreamt of being able to speak good English, she realizes that she will look lady like and can get a job in a flower-shop where better English is needed “Eliza: But they won’t take me unless I can talk more genteel”. Man’s economic life also depends on good language skills. Without good speaking power it is much difficult to get a handsome job. Therefore Eliza was forced to sell flowers while walking on the roads. But when in the end of the play she has learnt to speak well, she is confident enough that she decided to marry Freddy and even she has developed the courage to support that timid fellow.
Middle class morality
The play pokes fun at "middle class morality" and upper-class superficiality, reflects the social ills of nineteenth century England, and attests that all people, regardless of class background, are worthy of respect and dignity.
Pygmalion pokes fun at middle class morality through the characterization of Mr. Doolittle, Eliza's father. Mr. Doolittle is a "common dustman," an insolent man who spends his time drinking alcohol at the local pub. He is not too proud to beg for money, even from Eliza. Moreover, he lives with a woman to whom he is not married. When Henry Higgins writes to a politician and refers to him as the best.
The superficial nature of “human moral systems" is a valid concern in society today. This has always been a factor in society that authors have felt the need to address. People see the hypocrisy in themselves and know that it exists in others. The manners that are so commonly used in public are rarely practiced in private. Most people are ashamed to say and do what they believe is right when they are in public. This understanding causes people to worry what other human beings are doing out of the public view. If it weren't for the opinions of others, most of the popular ideas on morality would not be implemented at all.
Bernard Shaw's character Alfred Doolittle has the same ideas about human morality. It is something that only the rich can afford. Anyone who is well off feels an obligation to help others that they would not consider otherwise. The pressure of having something while others have nothing causes people to take measures on the behalf of other humans. This very concept allows the idea to follow that the compassion that the charitable seem to have is based on appearances rather than an actual concern.
All information seems to indicate that human morality is for the most part a pretense. If it weren't for the unwritten laws of society, human beings would openly manipulate and hurt each other for their own gain. Most people do not even speak up for what they believe and cannot stop pretending to believe the same as everyone else in society. Perhaps it is only this pretense that keeps human society from completely destroying itself.
“DOOLITTLE: Don't say that, Governor. Don't look at it that way. What am I, Governors both? I ask you, what am I? I'm one of the undeserving poor: that's what I am. Think of what that means to a man. It means that he's up agen middle class morality all the time. If there's anything going, and I put in for a bit of it, it's always the same story: 'You're undeserving; so you can't have it.' But my needs is as great as the most deserving widow's that ever got money out of six different charities in one week for the death of the same husband. I don't need less than a deserving man: I need more. I don't eat less hearty than him; and I drink a lot more. I want a bit of amusement, cause I'm a thinking man. I want cheerfulness and a song and a band when I feel low. Well, they charge me just the same for everything as they charge the deserving. What is middle class morality? Just an excuse for never giving me anything. Therefore, I ask you, as two gentlemen, not to play that game on me. I'm playing straight with you. I ain't pretending to be deserving. I'm undeserving; and I mean to go on being undeserving. I like it; and that's the truth. Will you take advantage of a man's nature to do him out of the price of his own daughter what he's brought up and fed and clothed by the sweat of his brow until she's growed big enough to be interesting to you two gentlemen? Is five pounds unreasonable? I put it to you; and I leave it to you.”
Doolittle is not so much a character as he is a vehicle which Shaw manipulates for his own dramatic purposes. Through Doolittle, Shaw is able to make many satirical thrusts at middle-class morality and to make additional comments on class distinctions and on class manners. (It is especially witty when Eliza points out to Higgins that the Professor's so-called equality in the way he treats people shows that he has the same manners as her father because Doolittle makes no class distinctions either: the analogy wounds Higgins because he has to acknowledge that it is essentially true.)
As his name readily suggests, Doolittle does as little as possible to get through life. He is a dustman because that is easier for him than "real work." (A dustman was a person who simply collected the ashes that people put out; by Shaw's time, refuse was added to the ashes, making Doolittle essentially a garbage collector.)
The comedy connected with Doolittle is his transformation during the course of the play. Whereas his daughter wants to become a member of the respectable middle class, Doolittle is delighted that his job as dustman is so low on the social class scale that it has absolutely no morals connected to it; therefore, he is not subjected to "dreadful" middle-class morality — at least not until the last act.
When we first meet Doolittle, he comes to Professor Higgins' house in the hypocritical role of the "virtuous father" in order to rescue his "compromised daughter." It is soon discovered, however, that he threw his daughter out into the streets to earn her own living over two years ago, and, furthermore, he was never married to Eliza's mother. In fact, the people in the neighborhood won't even let Doolittle have any of Eliza's belongings. When the ruse of the virtuous father fails, Doolittle quickly changes his pitch and becomes the ingratiating pimp as he tries to sell his own daughter to the men for almost any price they are willing to pay. Higgins and Pickering are not taken in by his nauseating suggestions, however, but they are delighted by Doolittle's poetic use of the English language, by his use of rhetoric that could only be used by a Welshman, and by his ingenuity as he tries one method after another until he assumes a philosophical pose; in his resourceful rhetoric, he stoutly proclaims that too much charity has been directed at the "deserving poor." Now is it time for him to claim his equal share as a member of the "undeserving poor." An undeserving poor man, according to Doolittle, has as much right to go on a drunken binge as does a deserving poor man; furthermore, if they will give him some money, he will promise to spend it all on a drunken binge immediately and will thus be broke and ready for work on Monday morning.
The originality of this idea, and the audacity and impudence with which it is put forward, cause Higgins and Pickering to yield to Doolittle's request, and they even offer him ten pounds, but Doolittle refuses because it would involve him in responsibilities; he can't drink up ten pounds in the weekend, but he can drink up five pounds.
In the last act, Doolittle's character does not essentially change. It is only that through a large sum of money, he has been forced to accept responsibilities that he would rather not have been faced with. The immoral blackmailer and pimp of the second act has now been forced into the role of a lecturer on moral reforms, and he must now adopt middle-class morality. Since Shaw philosophically wanted to do completely away with the lower class, he is pleased to force Doolittle into accepting a position where he will not be comfortable being one of the "undeserving poor"; Shaw undoubtedly was secretly delighted at the discomfiture that Doolittle was undergoing.
The issue of class is common and pervasive in all parts of our cultural environment. Prestige is a hot commodity, from shoes to cars, from poets to rappers, if the allure of status and class can be called on, they will be.
Higgins speaks about the great secret…of not having bad manners or good manners but having the same manner for all human souls” Behaving as if one soul is as good as the other, regardless of class, power, education, wealth and status.
Conclusion
It´s written as a play and even though at first sight this book could sound like a common soap opera, there are some aspects in the plot that make the difference and some others that are worth mentioning in this text such as the way the plot is developed, Eliza becoming the new ladylike Miss Doolittle, the way it registers some characteristics of English society in those years.
A very remarkable aspect in the plot is that the main thing that Eliza has to change is her accent vocabulary and tone of voice, actually it´s interesting how the author tries to capture the essence of Eliza’s accent not just by registering a possible transcription to her pronunciation but by including a transcription of the way Eliza shouted which is something I just was not able to reproduce in my mind. It´s also very funny how the “fairy godmother” is transmigrated into a pair of linguistic investigators and the way the personality of those characters is so different that seems to be the opposite but at the same time makes them a very interesting and witty duo.
The environment and essence of the classes is interestingly reflected in the descriptions of the room´s furniture and clothes, we can also observe the early use of technology in linguistic investigations by Pickering and Higgins.
I felt that the story could have been longer but it would have been a problem because it is a play, there were situations that would have been interesting to observe in a more detailed way, such as the improvement of Eliza’s speech, because it was just so sudden. There were also some other characters that I would have liked to be more developed within the plot, for example Freddy and his family which were a hilarious representation of mid class aspirants.
It is commendable to see the way it reflects English society in these years and the importance they gave and still give to the accent in order to determine a social status. However, there is an aspect that I just can´t conceive, which is Eliza´s evolution, how she changes is really difficult to believe and I actually think that nobody is able to change in such a short period of time even if that person has the best teachers.
Bibliography