Pygmallion By Alfred Doolittle Essay, Research Paper
In Act 3 we learned a lot more about the character and philosophy of Alfred
Doolittle. He is strangely individualistic personally and very eloquent. He is
representative of the social class of the "undeserving poor", which,
means that he is not entitled to receive financial support from the government,
since he is physically able to work. He lives only for the moment; from day to
day. The money he gets he wastes on intoxicating himself, and he has no
intentions of taking any serious responsibilities, for himself, or for his
daughter. Further on, in Act 5, Mr. Doolittle appears at the house of Professor
Higgins, and angrily accuses Higgins of making him into a middle-class gentleman
against his will. Higgins has said that Alfred Doolittle was the most original
moralist in present day England. He has written a note to Mr. Wannafeller, a
rich American and told him that. Wannafeller died and left Dolittle a share
worth a thousand dollars a year on condition that he?d lecture for his
Wannafeller Moral reform World League ax often as they?d ask him, possibly up
to 6 times a year. Doolittle doesn?t mind the lectures, but he hates becoming
one of the working class, because now he?s earning a living (middle class
morality). He sees now that he has to taken added responsible onto him. He could
have turned down the offer but was intimidated. As a result he needs Higgins to
teach him to speak proper English. He doesn?t like it at all and blames Higgins
for it. By virtue of his newfound morality, he must marry the woman with whom he
has been living for years. 2.) Eliza angers Higgins by telling Colonel Pickering
that his gentlemanly manners have meant more to her than Higgings? teaching.
She says that the difference between a lady and a flower girl isn?t the way in
which she behaves but how she is treated. She knows that Pickering will always
treat her as a lady and that she will always be a flower girl to Higgins.
Higgins tries to convince Eliza that she is better off staying with him, instead
Eliza leaves in search of her independence. Pickering and Dootlittle leave for
the church for his marriage and Mrs. Higgins also leaves so Higgins and Eliza
are alone. Higgins wants Eliza to come back because they have grown accustomed
to each other; he is irritated when she says she may marry Freddy. But Eliza
finally wins his respect by declaring her a teacher of phonetics. Higgins is not
pleased that she wants to help Nepommuck. As the play ends, everybody except
Higgins in on his way to Doolitte?s wedding. Eliza says she will not see
Higgins again, and tell him that he will be lost without her, but Higgins only
laughs at her. 3.) Pickering feels the experiment was a smashing success. At the
garden party a new person appears, Mr. Nepommuck. He was Mr. Higgins? first
pupil. He speaks 32 languages and works as an interpreter. So, he will be a real
challenge for Eliza because of his great ability to identify those with distinct
accents, or incorrect pronunciation. After a little conversation he indentifies
Eliza as a Hungarian princess. For him she cannot be English because her
pronunciation is too perfect, which you can only hear from foreigners, who were
talk to speak like this. So after all, the bet is won, and Eliza, Higgins and
Pickering leave for the reception. 4.) Higgins brings Eliza to his mother?s
house to try her out in a society. His mother isn?t very happy of this because
Higgins is always rude and she is afraid that her guests won?t come again. The
guests are Clara and Freddy Eynsford Hill and their mother. Although they have
already seen Eliza in Covent Garden, they did not recognize her now, beautifully
dressed and speaking perfectly pronounced English that Higgins has taught her. A
trouble that Higgins knows Eliza will face is not her ability to speak rather
her inability to say the proper thing. Her grammar is incorrect, and she the
vocabulary and the subject matter of the street, not of high society. Higgins
excuses it as the new small talk. Freddy and Clara both admire Eliza very much.
Freddy falls "head over hills" in love with her and Clara decides to
imitate Eliza?s unconventional conversation (they both think it?s her style).
A few months later, at a reception at an embassy in London, Eliza causes a great
excitement with her beauty, her graceful manners and her lovely speech. The
renowned phonetician Nepommuck, a former pupil of Higgins? is convinced that
she is a Hungarian princess. Higgins has won his bet (if Nepommuck had
discovered that she was only a common girl that Higgins would have lost, but
Higgins remains calm). The flower girl has been transformed in to a fine lady.
5.) In the final act Eliza is found in Mrs. Higgins? house upon her leaving the
home one can see the hostility that has grown between the too. In the beginning
both Pickering and Higgins felt excited about the whole process of turning a
flower girl, from rags to riches, and how she was making progress everyday.
During the experiment Mr. Pickering?s opinion of the whole process, was that of
success, with Higgins being able to pass Eliza as a duchess, which meant she had
mastered phonetics. But, when he met Eliza at Higgin?s home he felt that Eliza
had changed emotional from the beginning of the experiment to it?s finale, with
her becoming more independent. He did not want to think as this process of it as
an experiment but rather as an experience that helped better Eliza. Professor
Higgins? felt relieved that it was that is ongoing saga of helping transform
Eliza was over. But after Eliza left his home, he felt that this whole
experience was a total success, with him making a graceful lady out of Eliza.
Higgins always felt that Eliza was an immature and ignorant girl, who believed
in controlling people, but now she was able to overcome that and became a better
person. She proved this when she lashed out at Higgins, and leaving him there,
and she vowed that she would not return to him, or his house as a simple-minded
girl. In the end Eliza walks out on Higgins in order to pursue a new
relationship with a young man named Freddy. With her belief that she is a better
person now she is in search of a good relationship with someone who would
respect her as a lady, and a person, as well not be afraid to show his affection
toward her. For Henry Higgins his life returns the way it has always been with
alone. He feels being a bachelor is the best way to go he believes that women
will ruin him. Colonel Pickering sees Eliza?s dramatic change as a positive
thing for her life, as well as aid Higgins with his studies. Freddy, the man who
is madly in love with Eliza, is still trying to be with her. Eventually they
will both marry one another.