Eliza Doolittle, Changed?

In Bernard Shaw’s, “Pygmalion”, Henry Higgins takes on bet that he can pass off Eliza Doolitle, a lower class girl selling flowers on the street, as a noble lady.  “Yes, you squashed cabbage leaf,” he tells her, “you discrace to the noble architecture of these columns, you incarnat insult to the English language: I could pass you off as the Queen of Sheba,” (page 1013).  After six months of education in phonetics, fashion, and manners, Higgins wins his bet.  At a social gathering, an old student of Higgins is thoroughly convinced that Eliza is a Hungarian princess.  The title of the play suggests that Higgins is Pygmalion, and that he creates the new Eliza, his Galatea.  However, it is debatable just how much he created.  

Throughout the play, Eliza does not change.  How others perceive her changes.  In the first Act, Eliza encounters Freddy, Mrs. Eynsford Hill and Clara and tries to sell them flowers.  She is separated by her lowly station and strong, cockney accent.  Clara treats her with disdain.  Freddy is indifferent.  Mrs. Eynsford Hill has only pity and a bit of change.  Yet later, in the third Act, Eliza speaks better and is dressed more fashionably.  Nothing that she says really makes sense.  To cover for her, Higgins says, “Oh, that’s the new small talk.  To do a person in means to kill them,” (page 1037).  Yet, Mrs. Eyensford does not question Eliza’s station.  Clara says that, “I find the new small talk delightful and quite innocent,” (page 1039).  And Freddy is thoroughly enchanted with her, insisting that she does small talk, “awfully well,” and, “going out on the balcony to catch another glimpse of Eliza,” (page 1038) when she leaves.  

Eliza is very much the same before and after her six months with Higgins.  After overhearing Higgins discussing how the whole affair was boring and how he was glad to have it over, Eliza throws his slippers at him.  This is hardly the behavior of the lady Higgins claims to have created.  Additionally, her pride and sense of decency, right, and wrong, are constant throughout the play.  She insists on knowing what exactly belongs to her, “I want to know what I may take away with me.  I dont want to be accused of stealing,” (page 1049).  It’s said in a calmer tone, and with much better grammer, but it echoes her concerns at the beginning of the play when she believes she is in danger of being accused of prostitution.  “I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman.  I’ve a right to sell flowers if I keep off the kerb.  I’m a respectable girl: so help me.  I never spoke to him except to ask him to buy a flower off me,” (page 1010).  A lady in that society is not fit for anything except marriage.  Eliza does not consider herself to be such a lady, however, despite her education.  When discussing her marriage to Freddy with Higgins, she says, “I don’t want him to work: he wasnt brought up to it as I was.  I’ll go and be a teacher,” (page 1062).  Therefore, while her speech and fashion may have been tweaked, Eliza’s character remained constant.