Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw
(1856 – 1950)

SUMMARIES
(The stills are from the 1938 film, based on the
play. The screenplay is by Bernard Shaw)

Mrs. Eynsford Hill and her daughter Clara are waiting for
Freddy to get them a cab. But Freddy is too late and
when he is back, he says that all cabs are taken. The
mother and daughter blame him for not being able to
find them a cab and force him to go again to try to get
them one. He is obliged. As he is leaving hurriedly, he
accidentally he knocks over the basket of a Flower
Girl, Eliza Doolittle, who says to him, "Nah then, Freddy:
look wh' y' gowin, deah.“ After Freddy leaves, the
mother gives the Flower Girl money to ask how she
knew her son's name. It turns out that "Freddy" is a
common name the Flower Girl would have used to
address anyone. Eliza, in her loud cockney
accent, demands payment for her flowers.

Colonel Pickering joins the group and gives
Eliza three halfpence. A bystander directs
Eliza’s attention to a man who is writing down
what she is saying, and that perhaps he is a
police informer. Eliza protests loudly that she
is only a poor girl who has done no wrong.
People attack the note-taker, who shows his
ability to identify the origins of the speakers
from their language, to the amazement of
all, including Colonel Pickering. As the rain
stops, only the colonel, the note-taker, and the
flower girl remain under the portico.

The Note Taker explains that his talent in
recognizing people’s origins comes from
“phonetics...the science of speech." He adds that
he can use phonetics to make a duchess out of
the Flower Girl. The Note Taker and the
Gentleman discover that they are Henry Higgins
and Colonel Pickering, both scholars of dialects
who have been wanting to visit with each other.
They decide to go for a supper. Higgins gives the
girl some change, which allows her to take a taxi
home, the same taxi that Freddy has brought
back, only to find that his impatient mother and
sister have left without him.

Professor Higgins discusses his researches with
colonel Pickering. The housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce,
announces the arrival of a young woman, who turns
out to be Eliza. She wants Higgins to give her
lessons so that she can work as in a shop. While
Higgins makes fun of the poor girl and threatens her,
Pickering is much kinder and considerate of her
feelings, calling her "Miss Doolittle" and offering her
a seat. Eliza offers Higgins a shilling, a huge sum of
money, by her standards, which convinces Higgins of
her seriousness. Pickering challenges Higgins to
transform the flower girl into a lady as he once said.
Higgins accepts the challenge. He orders Mrs.
Pearce to take her and clean her.

Alfred Doolittle has learned that his daughter has
come to the professor's place. So, he comes,
pretending to be saving his daughter. When
Higgins agrees that he should take his daughter
away with him, Doolittle says that he is really there
to ask for five pounds. Higgins gives him the
money. Eliza enters, so completely different after
she has been cleaned up that even her father does
not know her.

Higgins keeps on teaching Eliza and preparing her for
facing the high society. The first test happens in his
mother’s house, in the presence of Mrs. And Miss
Eynsford and Freddy. When Eliza enters, she
impresses everyone, especially Freddy, who falls in
love with her. According to Higgins’ instructions, Eliza
talks only about the weather and people’s health.
When Eynsford Hill brings up the subject of influenza,
Eliza speaks about her aunt, who supposedly died of
influenza. At this point, she returns to her old accent,
and reveals such shocking facts as her father's
alcoholism. As she leaves, she uses the swear word
“bloody”. Freddy, however, thinks that she is affecting
this behaviour to make them laugh, and his infatuation
with her increases.

Higgins continues teaching Eliza until she
becomes fit to appear in high society.

In the ambassador’s party, she performs so well
that she is mistaken for a princess.

Back home, after a successful party, Pickering congratulates
Higgins on winning the bet. Higgins asks Eliza to leave a note for
Mrs. Pearce to make him coffee in the morning. After leaving,
Higgins returns to the room, looking for his slippers, and Eliza
throws them at him. She says that she does not mean for him
than just an object of the experiment and that he cares for his
slippers than he cares for her.

slippers

Higgins is taken aback, and does not understand Eliza's reaction.
She feels that she is ignored after her triumph. She doesn't know
what to do with herself now that he's won his bet. she's learned
how to act like a lady and now she's worried she won't be able to
do anything to make a living. Higgins says that she could get
married. Finally she returns her jewellery to Higgins, including
the ring he had given her, which he throws into the fireplace with
a violence that scares Eliza.

She returns him a ring he bought for her, but
he throws it into the fireplace. After he leaves,
she finds it again, but then leaves it on the
dessert stand and departs.

Higgins and Pickering go the next day to Mrs. Higgins'
home in a state of distraction because Eliza has run away.
Mrs. Higgins sends word upstairs to Eliza to remain in her
room until she sends for her. Higgins loudly tells Mrs Higgins
about Eliza's disappearance and how this has resulted in in
confusion for him since he has relied on her to keep up his
appointments for him.
Alfred Doolittle then arrives dressed as a gentleman.
Doolittle claims that Higgins has ruined his happiness by
jokingly recommending him to an American millionaire, who
left him a considerable amount of money after he died.
Doolittle says that he is miserable after being made a
gentleman. Doolittle has lost his free and easy ways and is
now obliged to conform to middle-class morality, along with
its restrictive respectability. On the other hand, he can’t
refuse the money because it is very tempting.

Mrs. Higgins reveals that Eliza is upstairs. She
has been very upset because they did nit say a
good word for her or tell her she did a good job
after her excellent performance. When Eliza
comes down, she looks self-possessed and very
much at home. She uses the genteel accents that
Higgins has taught her. Higgins is furious and
claims that he has made her what she is. Pickering
assures Eliza that he does not think of her as just
an experiment, and she expresses her gratitude to
him for everything, especially for teaching manners
to her. She adds pointedly says that Higgins could
not have taught her such manners.

Eliza says that the difference between a lady
and a flower-girl is not in what she does but in
how she is treated. Pickering treated her like a
lady, whereas Higgins has treated her like dirt.
She learned grammar and pronunciation from
Professor Higgins, but it was from Colonel
Pickering that she learned self-respect. Eliza
says that she could not utter the old sounds if
she tried and, but when she finds her father in
front of her in his new clothes, she
spontaneously emits one of her old guttural
sounds — "A-a-a-a-ah-ow-ooh!" Higgins feels
vindicated.

Doolittle has come to announce his marriage and to ask
Eliza to attend the wedding. Mrs. Higgins says that she will
also attend the wedding with Eliza.
Higgins argues with Eliza; however, they feel to like each
other. They proceed to quarrel. Higgins claims that while he
may treat her badly, he is at least fair in that he has never
treated anyone else differently. He tells her she should come
back with him just for the fun of it--he will adopt her as a
daughter, or she can marry Pickering. She swings around
and cries that she won't even marry Higgins if he asks. She
mentions that Freddy has been writing her love letters, but
Higgins immediately dismisses him as a fool. She says that
she will marry Freddy. Higgins likes her defiance much more
than her submissiveness. Mrs. Higgins comes in to tell Eliza it
is time to leave. As she is about to leave, Higgins tells her to
fetch him some gloves, ties, ham, and cheese while she is
out. We do not know if she will follow his orders.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

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Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw