Pygmalion-How did Eliza change

Pygmalion-How did Eliza change

 In what ways does Eliza change in Pygmalion

Bernard Shaw chose the title Pygmalion because of a Greek story about a man who refused to fall in love but poured his heart and soul into making a perfect statue of a women. He, like professor Higgins, takes something rough and uneven and turns it into something beautiful and prefect in every aspect.


The first scene ,when Eliza is selling flowers, is set at the bus stop in Covent Garden. Eliza is an ordinary flower girl out of the gutter and she claims she is respectable and that she has every right to be there just like the others. She says “I'm a respectable girl , I am”. At the same time you can tell she's poor and she is lower class because of this line- “Buy a flower off me kind gentleman. I'm short for my lodging” .She is quite proud and doesn't let her poverty define her. She is independent and this scene shows that she can stand on her two feet especially in this quote when she says “Oh do buy a flower off me Captain. I can change half a crown. Take this for tuppence,” because she sounds as if she knows what she's doing. She also defies the class system when she stands up for herself in the scene where she asks Higgins for lessons. She says “You got no right to touch me”.

Eliza thinks that the only reason she can't be a lady in a flower shop or an upper class person is because of the way she speaks- “But they wont take me unless I can speak more gentle.” However, from how she reacts to the bath, ,you can tell it's not just that. Eliza comes from a poor community and has no idea of how the rich behave. When Mrs Pearce tries to bathe her she screams “It's not right; it's not decent,” and “You want to kill me don't you.”After being introduced to how the rich live she wants to leave her old ways behind. When her father arrives Eliza is disgusted by his 'free- and- easy- ways' as she trying to be someone she's not and the reminder of her old life isn't helping...

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