However, it is complicated for Eliza to become a lady as she is merely forced to sacrifice her personality and feelings. The only thing that stays unchangeable is Eliza’s great honesty. The radical changes can be noticed in Eliza’s speech and in her appearance and position in society. One such great example that demonstrates Eliza’s achieved self-confidence is when she confronts Higgins on the matter of his insensitivity, stating that she is not dirt under his feet. Eventually, at the end of the play, Eliza gains a lot of confidence and is not afraid to argue her point, defending her own rights. Hence, from some perspectives, Eliza was her own creator. For sure, without Eliza’s self-discipline and commitment to learning, she could not become the lady she was at the end. However, it is not poorly his achievement. In fact, he transforms a poorly-educated girl into an intelligent woman. Professor Higgins influences the heroine’s character. However, the woman is far away from being a romantic figure and is quite an introverted person. In some ways, Eliza’s over-sensitivity may be described as the outcome of her insecurity. Also, one may see that Eliza as a compassionate person who is not able to defend herself. Eliza’s negligence at the beginning creates the dramatic effect of transformation and demonstrates that the heroine belongs to the lower status and class. It seems that the new life made everything more difficult than it was before.Īt the beginning of the film, Eliza is described as a poorly-educated, insignificant woman who slowly transforms into an authentic lady. She turns into a new person who belongs to the upper class and exceeds almost all expectations of Higgins and Pickering: Although Higgin's experiment on Eliza is crowned with success, in the end, it is not clear to the reader whether Eliza wants to return to her old life. But when Higgins drops into her life with the possibility to change it, she doesn't refuse his "bet" with Pickering because of the prospect of her longest dream coming true, owning her own flower shop and earning a little bit more money.Īfter learning different accents and studying the proper language that belonged to Higgins and Pickering's arrangement, she is satisfied with herself only for a short time. She has been satisfied as a poor girl with selling flowers. Before Eliza meets Higgins, she doesn't really see a need for a change. Added to those aspects, she also is a very hysterical, wild, and sensible person. But looking at her enormous temper and her unabashedly talking to the people she sells her flowers to, she is given more character than any insignificant little girl somewhere in the streets of London. On the one side, she seems not to have any certain personality or unique appearance. It needs washing rather badly, and her teeth need the service of a dentist. Her hair has a musty color and can hardly be natural. She is no doubt as clean as she can afford to be, but she is very dirty compared to 'ladies'. She wears a brown skirt with a coarse apron. Her shoddy black coat reaches nearly to her knees and is shaped to her waist. Most of the time, she wears a little sailor hat of black straw that has long been exposed to the dust and soot of London and seldom has, if ever, been brushed. Her age is assumed between eighteen or twenty but hardly older. Eliza's pronunciation of words and phrases is almost unintelligible to anyone unfamiliar with the particular London accent.Īlso, she is not an attractive woman. Her dialect puts her right into the category of the lower class. She is a typical working-class woman who would never find access to London's high society. The outcome of these attentions varies between the original play and the various adaptations.Įliza Doolittle is a "flower girl" who lives in poverty in a poor area of London. Her Cockney dialect includes words that are common among working-class Londoners, such as ain't "I ain't done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman" said Doolittle.ĭoolittle receives voice coaching and learns the rules of etiquette. Higgins goes along with it for the purposes of a wager: That he can turn her into the toast of elite London society. As a Cockney flower girl from Lisson Grove, London, Eliza comes to Professor Henry Higgins asking for elocution lessons, after a chance encounter at Covent Garden. "I ain't dirty! I washed my face and hands before I come, I did." SourceĮliza Doolittle is the main protagonist of the 1964 film My Fair Ladywho was portrayed by Audrey Hepburn. "Come on, Dover! Come on, Dover! Move your bloomin' arse!" "The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated."
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