Hey Ya’ll! Now doesn’t that tell you something. Southern. “Hello there” would be more proper or just “Hello” or “Greetings”. In Pygmalion, Higgins examined each person’s dialect and even spoke of their environment and social standing. He treats each person the same by his knowledge and intellect which set him up to be a little on the cynical side. The less educated or lower social classes are portrayed to have a lower self esteem. Each will be examined further from the Pygmalion point of view.
I can personal relate to Higgins sometimes. Higgins is a intelligent person. He seems to be a very educated and well studied person. He seems to talk for the sake of talking. Like Higgins, I also talk without understanding how I speak. I can say something, but I never thought about the other persons feelings. He has so much information whether useful or not to have in his mind set to change or transform a person for there own good. He feels that his knowledge is useful to those less educated or from a different region to speak properly or more pronounced to pass themselves off as something else or someone else. It is almost a game or adventure to see if he is successful. He has no real feelings involved or compassion. It seems as though he has only words in his life. Life seems to pass him by as his own mother seems to acknowledge in her allowance to see her on or at certain times. This too will tell you that the redundancy of his speeches or conversation can only be tolerated for limited times by his own mother. My mother also hates when I speak at times, because I speak about something inappropriate with saying a sorry or anything. I hear myself one way, they hear another.
Another theme that emerges is lower social morality. Liza comes to ask Higgins for lessons after he analyzes her and seems to belittle her because of her poor language. She wants to be more than a flower girl and move up to actually work in a flower shop or store to sell better goods. She offers to pay for his services to show she is a proud woman but soon her father comes on the scene to seem to lower her back to the low, lower class. Mr. Doolittle seems to “do little” He seems to scam for his money. He is not a proud man to provide for his family. He practically sells Liza for $5. Liza seems to want to improve her life but her father seems content to be as he is until some of the properness actually gets him married. He is actually frightened by this change.
In the end everyone seems to be surprised at their change and changes. Higgins still is going to be Higgins but can accept that he is attracted to Liza. His mother is happy that Higgins is someone else’s problem and that Liza is a strong person from humble lowly upbringing to handle the well educated, unemotional, highly intolerable Mr. Higgins.
