Pygmalion

Pygmalion is a delightful play depicting the transformation of a poor flower girl from gutter trash that sold dumpy flowers on a street corner, to a young woman who could pass for royalty in a King’s Court. The play begins with a diverse group of people seeking shelter from the rain in the portico of a church.

The play has three main personalities. Eliza, the main character, is a young woman who struggles to support herself by selling flowers since being turned out from her father’s home. The antagonist, Professor Henry Higgins, is an expert phonetician, who has a unique code of morals and rules of conduct. Colonel Pickering, a sidekick to Higgins, is a wealthy bachelor and an expert in Indian dialects.

During a chance encounter under the portico, these three meet. Higgins is intrigued with Eliza’s speech and begins taking phonetic notes. Soon after, Eliza believes he is a copper and that she will be arrested for prostitution. Narrowly avoiding a citizens’ riot, Professor Higgins explains that he is but a phonetician, studying their accents. The Professor then places where they grew up by simply listening to the words they speak.

Soon after this incident, the flower girl appears on the Professor’s doorstep, entering the main plot of the play. Eliza wants to hire Professor to provide her language lessons, claiming if she could speak properly she could open up her own flower shop, and be a real lady. However, the Colonel proposes a gentleman’s wager to the Professor, which is that if the Professor can pass Eliza off at the Royal Ball, that he would pay for all expenses of the schooling. This isn’t just a simple bet, because Liza faces death at the court’s hand if she is discovered as a fraud.

Although the play is quite humorous as Liza is exposed to the middle class lifestyle and begins her lessons with Professor, the true conflict begins after Liza has passed the final test and Professor has won the bet. Although foreshadowed by his housekeeper, “And what’s to become of her when you’ve