Pygmalion_-_Social_Class

Pygmalion Final – Topic 1 The play “Pygmalion” directly targets the subject of social class. Shaw presents clear boundaries between the different positions in society. Professor Henry Higgins is evidently a member of the upper class. He is an obsessive professor of phonetics, and is rather wealthy. He is a very unconventional and pompous man, Professor Higgins knows nothing but his own work; he lacks compassion for other beings. Colonel Pickering, an associate of Professor Higgins’s, is also a part of the upper class; however, he has quite the opposite personality. Pickering also has a passion for phonetics, although he is not as infatuated upon it. He shows much kindness and presents himself as a gentleman. Both these men are involved in Eliza’s dramatic transformation. Eliza Doolittle is a young flower girl of about nineteen years of age. She is unquestionably a part of the lower class. She comes from a very low, underprivileged family. Her father, Alfred Doolittle, is an ignorant, drunken old dustman. He has had at the very least, six different wives. They are a broken family at the very bottom of the social pyramid. A bet was made by Professor Higgins that he could transform a dirty, impudent flower girl with horrendous use of the English language into a genuine lady; as poised as a duchess. He must teach her to speak English so that her speech is flawless; she must be able to convince the high society of London that she is of prominent status. During the time period of her instruction, Eliza lodges at the home of the Professor. Higgins proves himself to be a very tactless and insensitive host as well as teacher. He constantly taunts Eliza and makes merciless fun of her. Readers are under the impression that Higgins considers his students as merely ‘experiments’. He does not treat them as though they are capable of any feeling at all. He uses these students to satisfy his own obsession with phonetics. Colonel Pickering, on the other hand, is a very kind, considerate man. He is the person who comforts Eliza when she is bullied by Higgins. He plays a part in teaching Eliza as well, although he is not quite so fixated on the actual bet, but more on Eliza herself. As Eliza later points out, Higgins did not care in the least what happened to her, he only cares that he won his bet! She says that it is actually Colonel Pickering whom she’s learned from the most. He leads her by example, being and acting a perfect gentleman at all times. Pickering leads by example, which I think is a more effective method of teaching. Eliza says, “It’s not because you paid for my dresses. I know you are generous to everybody with money. But it was from you that I learnt really nice manners; and that is what makes one a lady, isn’t it' You see it was so very difficult for me with the example of Professor Higgins always before me…..And I should never have known that ladies and gentlemen didn’t behave like that if you hadn’t been there.” Eliza also points out that the difference between ladies of high and lower social classes is not how they behave, but how they are treated by others. “You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up, the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.” I find this statement to be very interesting. She proves an incredible point here. In our real-world society, if you are the wealthiest man, but the people around you treat you like a common knave, your place in the social class is worthless. Whether we like to admit it or not, the world we live in is extremely judgmental. The way that others portray us defines our place in the society. However, I believe that Shaw is trying to suggest the idea that no matter what social class you come from, people are basically all the same. The characters Higgins and Pickering are made so that the readers see Higgins as the bad guy and Pickering as the nice gentleman. Both these men come from the same social class with about the same social ranking. This shows that no matter what ‘group’ you belong to, there are always different kinds of people. There will always be some good and decent, and some indecent people in any grouping of people. This notion goes for people of different races and religious groups as well as for your social classes.