My Fair Lady

“An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.”

In “Why Can’t the English,” Higgins complains about all the different ways that English people butcher the language. In this line, he asserts that this isn’t simply linguistic snobbery by a scholar—every English person hates other English people just from hearing the sound of their dialect. Higgins is suggesting that Eliza is in poverty because of her accent alone, introducing the theme (Im)permeable Hierarchies of Class.

“Anything? I gave her everything. I give her the greatest gift any human being can give to another: life! I introduced her to this here planet, I did, with all its wonders and marvels […] I give her all that, and then I disappears and leaves her on her own to enjoy it.”

Doolittle is exerting a patriarchal claim over Eliza and the expectation of her continued loyalty and support by asserting that he “gave her everything” by fathering her, an act that can never be repaid. Eliza is told multiple times throughout the musical that she needs to show gratitude to the men who claim credit for creating her, reflecting Gender Stereotypes and Expectations in the musical.

“Nonsense, girl! What do you think a gentleman like Mr. Higgins cares what you came in?”

Eliza is proud to have shown up in a taxi, which to her, represents class and sophistication. Mrs. Pearce is harsh with Eliza, claiming that Higgins is wealthy and isn’t impressed by a taxi. Eliza, however, is already attempting to mirror the appearance and behavior of the class she aspires to join.

“You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girl’s income, it works out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy pounds from a millionaire. By George, it’s the biggest offer I ever had.”

Higgins’s comment makes Eliza upset, as she takes it as him thinking that she actually offered 60 or 70 pounds, but he is marveling—if sardonically—at how much such a small amount of money means to Eliza. It says a lot about how much she wants lessons and to improve her speech that she is willing to spend so great a part of her income on lessons.

“We want none of your slum prudery here, young woman. You’ve got to learn to behave like a duchess.”

After Eliza is scandalized at Higgins’s order for Mrs. Pearce to strip her down, burn her clothes, and wrap her in paper until new clothes arrive, Higgins refers to her feelings of modesty as a type of “prudery” belonging to the lower class. An upper-class woman would be used to being naked in front of the women who help her dress. The passage reflects the (Im)permeable Hierarchies of Class.

“PICKERING: Does it occur to you, Higgins, that the girl has some feelings?

HIGGINS: Oh, no, I don’t think so. […] Not any feelings that we need to bother about. Have you, Eliza?”

Higgins’s reply is to humorous effect, but it reflects the way that Eliza is treated throughout the experiment. She is often told how to think or feel, or asked rhetorically for her input, which isn’t heard. The gendered conflict between Higgins and Eliza mirrors the gender dynamics of their society.

“If you refuse this offer you will be the most ungrateful, wicked girl; and the angels will weep for you.”

Higgins gives a fast-paced speech that sets out the terms of the wager, and what Eliza is to expect from it. He doesn’t ask her if she agrees, merely telling her that she must agree, or her character will be in question. Notably, she doesn’t answer.

“HIGGINS: Do you mean to say that you would sell your daughter for fifty pounds?

PICKERING: Have you no morals, man?

DOOLITTLE: No! I can’t afford ’em, Governor.”

Doolittle comments that he would have demanded 50 pounds if he thought that Higgins or Colonel Pickering wanted Eliza for something inappropriate, and Pickering and Higgins are shocked. Doolittle points out that moralizing often requires privilege, and this is especially true where money is concerned.

“The missus wouldn’t have the heard to spend ten, Governor; ten pounds is a lot of money: it makes a man feel prudent-like; and then goodbye to happiness. No, you give me what I ask for, Governor: not a penny less, not a penny more.”

Doolittle wants some money to have fun with his “missus,” but he doesn’t want enough money that he feels like he needs to be responsible with it. He doesn’t want to have enough money to be able to afford morals because then he would be expected to have them.

“Pickering, if we listen to this man another minute we shall have no convictions left.”

Higgins is speaking sardonically about Doolittle, but he is also noting that Doolittle is quite persuasive. His ideas seem to be a sort of philosophy of the streets, and it’s easy to see how Doolittle manages to get his hands on enough change to buy beer on a regular basis.

“I know your head aches. I know your nerves are as raw as meat in a butcher’s window. But think what you’re trying to accomplish. Think what you’re dealing with. The majesty and grandeur of the English language. It’s the greatest possession we have. The noblest sentiments that ever flowed in the hearts of men are contained in its extraordinary, imaginative and musical mixtures of sounds. That’s what you’ve set yourself to conquer, Eliza. And conquer it you will.”

Higgins has starved Eliza, deprived her of sleep, and denied her humanity, but at a vulnerable moment in the middle of the night, he treats her as a human. He acknowledges her pain and gives her the ice pack he had on his own head. Then he tells her what inspires him about language. This is the approach that works and leads her to have a breakthrough, suggesting that what Eliza really craves, above all else, is respect and equality.

“What a disagreeable surprise. Ascot is usually the one place I can come to with my friends and not run the risk of seeing my son, Henry. Whenever my friends meet him, I never see them again.”

Mrs. Higgins reveals that her son’s misanthropic ways have not endeared him to the aristocracy to the point that she prefers not to have him around her friends at all. This highlights the absurdity of Higgins running this experiment, when he clearly is incapable of charming upper-class people himself.

“You’re a pretty pair of babies playing with your live doll.”

Mrs. Higgins sees right away what her son and Pickering are doing: They are treating Eliza like an object, dressing her up and parading her around. Before she even meets Eliza, she sees her as a real person, although she is reluctant about the idea of a common flower girl being brought to her box at Ascot.

“I’m terribly sorry, sir. Miss Doolittle says she doesn’t want to see anyone ever again.”

Mrs. Pearce passes on this news to Freddy Eynsford-Hill, who is shocked, having found Eliza delightful. Eliza’s mortification over her faux pas at Ascot shows that she is transforming into someone who cares about what aristocratic people think. Earlier in the play, she shouted at Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, and now she is miserable that she embarrassed herself in front of her, reflecting the theme (Im)permeable Hierarchies of Class.

“Rubbish, Pickering. Of course she matters. What do you think I’ve been doing all these months? What could possibly matter more than to take a human being and change her into a different human being by creating a new speech for her? Why, it’s filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class, and soul from soul. She matters immensely.”

Higgins’s grand, defensive statement seems to miss the concern that Pickering expresses about Eliza as a person who could be profoundly humiliated if the evening goes wrong. Rather, Higgins feels that he has done something very important and socially meaningful with Eliza: His remarks about speech reflect The Links Between Language and Social Class.

“PICKERING: Mrs. Higgins, do you think Eliza will make it?

MRS. HIGGINS: Oh, I hope so! I’ve grown terribly fond of that girl.”

Unlike Higgins, Pickering and Mrs. Higgins have both been openly invested in Eliza as a person since the start of the experiment. While Higgins does seem to have some feelings for her that he tries to suppress, Pickering and Mrs. Higgins don’t have the same hang-ups. They have no problem expressing affection or concern for Eliza.

“Thank Heavens for Zoltan Karpathy. If it weren’t for him I would have died of boredom. He was there, all right. And up to his old tricks.”

Now that the evening is over and Eliza has been a success, Higgins is smug about his triumph. The reference to Karpathy’s “old tricks” alludes to his boast that he can detect imposters among the upper-classes.

“HIGGINS: I suppose it was natural for you to be anxious, but it’s all over now. There’s nothing more to worry about.

ELIZA: No, nothing more for you to worry about. Oh God, I wish I was dead.”

Higgins is unconcerned about Eliza’s anxieties about her future, not understanding how the (Im)permeable Hierarchies of Class now affect her even more in her liminal state. As far as Eliza knows, Higgins plans to toss her out now that the experiment is done, but she is now unsure of where to go or where to fit in after her transformation.

“What am I fit for? What have you left me fit for? Where am I to go? What am I to do? What’s to become of me?”

Eliza is beginning to realize how much she has changed throughout the experiment. She can’t go back to who she was. She has no idea what a woman like her is supposed to do next.

“We were above that in Covent Garden. […] I sold flowers. I didn’t sell myself. Now you’ve made a lady of me, I’m not fit to sell anything else.”

Earlier in the play, when Higgins ordered her stripped naked, he told her to forget her “slum prudery” and think like a duchess. Now, she is seeing how she has entered the world that he was preparing her for from that moment. Eliza has just been mistaken for a princess, but she feels as if she has spent all of this time and effort to turn herself into a commodity. She worries that she may lose her independence completely.

“I’m sorry. I’m only a common, ignorant girl; and in my station, I have to be careful. There can’t be any feelings between the like of you and the like of me. Please will you tell me what belongs to me and what doesn’t?”

Although she infuriates Higgins, Eliza is only repeating back to him the things he has told her since the beginning of the play, reflecting (Im)permeable Hierarchies of Class. Higgins doesn’t understand why she’s concerned with belongings because Higgins is wealthy. Eliza is emphasizing the distance between them, and the gulf between his understanding and how she feels.

“Freddy, you don’t think I’m a heartless guttersnipe, do you?”

Eliza meets Freddy when she leaves Higgins’s house, since Freddy, who is infatuated with her, has been waiting outside for weeks. Higgins has been so incapable of expressing emotions and treating her with kindness that Eliza simply wants to hear reassurance from someone who won’t be unkind to her.

“HIGGINS: You mean I’m to put on my Sunday manners for this thing I created out of the squashed cabbage leaves of Covent Garden?

MRS. HIGGINS: Yes, dear, that is precisely what I mean.”

Higgins is being petulant, but he still treats Eliza as if she is inferior, expecting her to put up with him and his rudeness and thinking that he has done so much for her that she ought to be grateful. What his mother’s response is saying is that a lady is a lady, and Higgins owes courtesy to her regardless. Higgins’s attitude continues to reveal that while he has changed Eliza’s speech, his attitude to her class status has not changed at all.