This document contains the analysis of all the characters, a summary of all the acts, and a full book summary. It also includes the different themes and styles used in the Drama.
A cockney flower girl of around 18 or 20 years
of age, Eliza is streetwise and energetic. She is
not educated by traditional standards, but she
is intelligent and a quick learner. As she
presents herself in her "shoddy coat" at
Higgins's laboratory, Shaw describes the
"pathos of this deplorable figure, with its
innocent vanity and consequential air." She
learns a genteel accent from Higgins and,
washed and dressed exquisitely, passes in
society for a Duchess. In this transformed state,
she is shown to be capable of inspiring awe in
the observer. While she wins Higgins's wager for him, she is shocked to find
him lose interest in her once the experiment is complete; she cannot believe
that he's given no thought to her future well-being. Pickering, by having been
polite to her from the very beginning, provides a contrast, from which Liza is
able to realize that "the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how
she behaves, but how she's treated." She learns from Higgins's behavior an
even deeper truth, that social graces and class are not the true measure of a
person's worth.
✓ Alfred Doolittle:
Alfred is Liza's father, whom Shaw
describes as "an elderly but vigorous
dustman.... He has well marked and rather
interesting features, and seems equally
free from fear or conscience. He has a
remarkably expressive voice, the result of
a habit of giving vent to his feelings without
reserve." Doolittle describes himself as
the "undeserving poor," who need just as
much as the deserving but never get
anything because of the disapproval of
middle-class morality. Nevertheless, he is
a skilled moocher who is capable of finessing loans from the most miserly of
people. He is miserable when he comes into money during the course of the
play, however, because people then come with hopes of borrowing money.
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,✓ Professor Henry Higgins
Henry Higgins is an expert in phonetics and
the author of "Higgins's Universal Alphabet."
Shaw describes him as "a robust, vital,
appetizing sort of man of forty or
thereabouts.... He is of the energetic, scientific
type, heartily, even violently interested in
everything that can be studied as a scientific
subject, and careless about himself and other
people, including their feelings. His manner
varies from genial bullying... to stormy
petulance... but he is so entirely frank and void
of malice that he remains likeable even in his
least reasonable moments." In his book Shaw: The Plays, Desmond
MacCarthy observed that "Higgins is called a professor of phonetics, but he
is really an artist—that is the interesting thing about him, and his character is
a study of the creative temperament." For many, this temperament is a
difficult one. His housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, observes of Higgins that "when
you get what you called interested in people's accents, you never think of
what may happen to them or you." Certainly, Higgins gives no thought to
Liza's future after his experiment, and when he gradually loses interest in it,
he seems, at least from her perspective, to have disposed of her as well. He
is shaken by the independence Liza demonstrates and thus by the end of the
play is able to show a kind of respect to her. It is on such terms and presented
in such a way, however, that a romantic ending between himself and Liza is
never really feasible.
✓ Mrs. Higgins:
Henry's mother, a generous and gracious
woman. She is frequently exasperated by her
son's lack of manners and completely
sympathizes with Liza when the girl leaves
Higgins and takes shelter with her. She is
perceptive and intelligent, and capable of
putting Henry in his place. It is indicative of
Mrs. Higgins's character that after the conflict
between her son and Liza, both characters
choose to come to her for guidance.
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,✓ Colonel Pickering:
A phonetics expert like Higgins, this
"elderly gentleman of the amiable
military type," meets the latter in a
rainstorm at the St. Paul's Church.
The "author of Spoken Sanskrit,''
Pickering excels in the Indian dialects
because of his experience in the
British colonies there. Courteous and
generous, as well as practical and
sensible, he never views Liza as just
a flower girl and treats her with the
respect due a lady of society. "I assure you," he responds to a challenge by
Mrs. Higgins, "we take Eliza very seriously." Open-hearted, he finds it easy
to sympathize with others and, decidedly unlike Higgins, is conscience-
stricken when he fears he's hurt Liza.
✓ Freddy Eynsford Hill:
Freddy is an upper-class young man of
around 20, somewhat weak although eager
and good-natured. Proper and upstanding,
he is infatuated with Liza and thoroughly
devoted to her both before and after she
takes shelter with him in an all-night cab
after leaving Higgins. Liza claims to be
going back to him at the end of the play, an
idea which Higgins finds preposterous.
Freddy does not have the money to support them both (and from Liza's
perspective seems unfit for difficult work), which prompts her idea to earn a
living by teaching phonetics.
✓ Miss Clara Eynsford Hill:
A pampered socialite of around 20, she is
somewhat gullible and easily disgusted. Shaw
writes that she "has acquired a gay air of being very
much at home in society; the bravado of genteel
poverty." Her social position is not secured,
however, and this anxiety drives much of her
behavior.
3
,✓ Mrs. Eynsford Hill:
The middle-aged mother of Freddy and Clara, whom
Shaw describes as "well-bred, quiet" and having "the
habitual anxiety of straitened means." She is acutely
aware of social decorum and highly invested in finding
proper spouses for her two children.
✓ Nepommuck:
Higgins's first pupil and later his dupe, a Hungarian of around 30. The
mustachioed interpreter, according to Higgins, "can learn a language in a
fortnight—knows dozens of them. A sure mark of a fool. As a phonetician, no
good whatever." He is completely fooled by Liza's performance as a lady of
high society and declares that she must be a European duchess.
✓ Mrs. Pearce:
Higgins's middle-class housekeeper. Very practical,
she can be severe and is not afraid of reproaching
Higgins for his lack of social graces. She is conscious
of proper behavior and of her position, and quite
proud. She is taken aback by the seeming impropriety
of Liza coming into the Higgins household but quickly
develops a bond with the girl, often defending her
from Higgins.
4
, • ACT 1:
Summary:
The action begins at 11:15 p.m. in a heavy summer rainstorm. An after-theatre
crowd takes shelter in the portico of St. Paul's Church in Covent Garden. A
young girl, Clara Eynsford Hill, and her mother are waiting for Clara's brother
Freddy, who looks in vain for an available cab. Colliding into flower peddler Liza
Doolittle, Freddy scatters her flowers. After he departs to continue looking for a
cab, Liza convinces Mrs. Eynsford Hill to pay for the damaged flowers; she then
cons three halfpence from Colonel Pickering. Liza is made aware of the
presence of Henry Higgins, who has been writing down every word she has
said. Thinking Higgins is a policeman who is going to arrest her for scamming
people, Liza becomes hysterical. Higgins turns out, however, to be making a
record of her speech for scientific ends. Higgins is an expert in phonetics who
claims: "I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles
in London. Sometimes within two streets." Upbraiding Liza for her speech,
Higgins boasts that "in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at
an ambassador's garden party." Higgins and Pickering eventually trade names
and realize they have long wanted to meet each other. They go off to dine
together and discuss phonetics. Liza picks up the money Higgins had flung
down upon exiting and for once treats herself to a taxi ride home.
• ACT 2:
Summary:
The next morning at 11 a.m. in Higgins's laboratory, which is full of instruments,
Higgins and Pickering receive Liza, who has presented herself at the door.
Higgins is taken aback by Liza's request for lessons from him. She wants to
learn to "talk more genteel" so she can be employed in a flower shop instead of
selling flowers on the street. Liza can only offer to pay a shilling per lesson, but
Pickering, intrigued by Higgins's claims the previous night, offers to pay for
Liza's lessons and says of the experiment: "I'll say you're the greatest teacher
alive if you make that good." Higgins enthusiastically accepts the bet, though
his housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce, pleads with him to consider what will become of
Liza after the experiment. Liza agrees to move into Higgins's home and goes
upstairs for a bath. Meanwhile, Higgins and Pickering are visited by Liza's
father, Doolittle, "an elderly but vigorous dustman." Rather than demanding to
take Liza away, Doolittle instead offers to "let her go'' for the sum of five pounds.
Higgins is shocked by this offer at first, asking whether Doolittle has any morals,
but he is persuaded by Doolittle's response, that the latter is too poor to afford
them. Exiting quickly with his booty, Doolittle does not at first recognize his
daughter, who has re-entered, cleaned up and dressed in a Japanese kimono.
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