Pygmalion

Major Characters

Henry Higgins: Expert phonetician and spoiled eccentric. Stubbornly self-righteous and willful, Higgins demonstrates his ideals in his brazen disregard for the Victorian rules of conduct. On a bet, he takes on the flower girl, Eliza, as a student. But though he alters Eliza?s speech successfully, he cannot succeed in controlling her. He asserts that she is his creation, but she rebels, even threatening to teach others using his methods, at which point she gains his respect.

Eliza Doolittle: Poor flower girl turned linguistic prot?. Headstrong and coarse street urchin taken into Professor Higgins care on a bet that he cannot transform her into the verisimilitude of a duchess. Despite her rebellious nature, Eliza becomes fond of her teacher and is upset by his impartiality. She ends up marrying Freddy, a member of the middle class who worships her, and sets up a flower shop with him, successfully crossing class lines.

Colonel Pickering: A wealthy bachelor and expert in Indian dialects. Pickering comes to England from India to meet Higgins, and ends up staying in his home and becoming his good friend. When Eliza asks Higgins to teach her to speak proper English, Pickering bets him that he cannot make Liza pass for a duchess in six months time. Higgins takes the bet, and while he teaches her phonetics, Pickering imparts to her all the finer aspects of social conduct. Pickering also finances Eliza?s flower shop after she graduates from their finishing school game. He is the more sensitive and fatherly of the two linguists.

Mrs. Higgins: Higgins?s mother, and his ideal woman. Mrs. Higgins is a refined, independent woman, who repeatedly tries to reform her son?s wild social habits.

Higgins visits her often for her company and her advice.

Alfred Doolittle: Eliza?s father, a common dustman, who begs for change to spend at the pub. He convinces Higgins to give him five pounds for the use of his daughter by surprising and impressing him with his unconventional, compelling morals. Higgins mentions him to a philanthropist who dies and wills Doolittle three thousand pounds a year to lecture for his Moral Reform League. This catapults Doolittle into the middle class, causing him to marry his longtime lover and take on the responsibility of lending money to the people he used to beg from.

Minor Characters

Clara: Mrs. Eynsford Hill?s obnoxious daughter, who though failing to inherit the wealth of the privileged has inherited all its snobbery. She discovers that she can gain the respect and friendship of others by being honest with them rather than putting on airs after reading some H.G. Wells. Her discovery is a sort of accident, as her mother and the rest of her acquaintances never bother to point out her shallow insincerity.

Freddy: Mrs. Eynsford Hill?s son and Eliza?s lover. Freddy is accustomed to a middle class lifestyle but, like his sister, lacks a middle class education. He falls madly in love with Eliza and eventually marries her. They try to open a flower shop together, but do poorly until they take some classes in simple mathematics.

Mrs. Eynsford Hill: Clara and Freddy?s mother. A former member of the upper class, who now attempts to keep up appearances although she is in reduced circumstances. She is continuously bemoaning her situation and coddling her poorly educated children.

Mrs. Pearce: Higgins? maid, who disapproves of his poor manners and willful behavior but has become inured to them over time. She attempts to convince Higgins that his arrangement with Eliza cannot be taken lightly, but fails.

Nepomuuck: Higgins? former student, a translator, and self-proclaimed master linguist. At the Embassy party, where Higgins hopes Eliza will pass as a duchess, Nepommuck proclaims that she is a Hungarian of royal blood.

Ezra D. Wannafeller: Rich American philanthropist, who transforms Alfred Doolittle from a common dustman to a member of the middleclass by willing him three thousand pounds a year to lecture for the Wannafeller Moral Reform League.

Constables: Eliza and Freddy are interrupted while embracing three times by three separate constables during their amorous night walk through the streets of London. After reprimanding them, one of the constables reflects on the vanity of romantic human hopes.

Flowers: Eliza is a professional flower girl before she meets Higgins. He will not buy flowers from her but on a whim he gives her a generous handful of money. After her studies with Higgins, she returns to selling flowers but with Freddy?s help and in shop.

Pygmalion: Pygmalion is the main character of a famous Greek myth. He is a sculptor who disdaining real women, falls in love with a statue of a women that he has sculpted. He asks Venus to give life to his statue, she grants his wish, and the statue becomes the woman, Galatea. The two fall instantly in love in the romantic conclusion of the myth. The title, Pygmalion, is only mentioned once in Shaw?s play, at the very end. Shaw says that Eliza never loved Higgins; that his Galatea never loved her creator, Pygmalion.

Ring: Higgins buys Eliza a ring, which she gives back to him as an insult.

He is upset and hurls the ring into the fire. After he leaves, she retrieves the ring from the fireplace, but then casts it into the chocolate dish.

Chocolates: Higgins loves chocolates. He has a dish of them displayed prominently in his study. When trying to convince Eliza to play along with his bet, he lures her with promises of endless chocolates and just as she is about to reply to him he pops one in her mouth, silencing her. Eliza leaves a sentimental ring given to her by Higgins in the chocolate dish before leaving his house.

Slippers: Higgins often misplaces his slippers. Eliza gets into the habit of finding them for him. This saves him some annoyance, but he is not particularly grateful. In a fit of unappreciated desperation, Eliza throws the slippers at him on the final night before her departure.

Cabbage Leaf: Higgins repeatedly refers to Eliza as a bruised cabbage leaf. After he recreates her, he no longer uses the term.

Milton: Higgins speaks of Milton as if he were God in various instances in the book. He tells Eliza on their first meeting that she has