PYGMALIONGeorge 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)

ACT I

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.

hasno right to be anywhere

ACT II

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.

ACT III

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.

At Mrs. Higgins’ house

ACT IV

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.

The ambassador’s party

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.

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.

slippers

Now you’re free.

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.

ACT V

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.

The final argument

I’m not afraid