Higgins and Pickering are not taken in by his nauseating suggestions, however, but they are delighted by Doolittle's poetic use of the English language, by his use of rhetoric that could only be used by a Welshman, and by his ingenuity as he tries one method after another until he assumes a philosophical pose in his resourceful rhetoric, he stoutly proclaims that too much charity has been directed at the "deserving poor." Now is it time for him to claim his equal share as a member of the "undeserving poor." An undeserving poor man, according to Doolittle, has as much right to go on a drunken binge as does a deserving poor man furthermore, if they will give him some money, he will promise to spend it all on a drunken binge immediately and will thus be broke and ready for work on Monday morning. When the ruse of the virtuous father fails, Doolittle quickly changes his pitch and becomes the ingratiating pimp as he tries to sell his own daughter to the men for almost any price they are willing to pay. In fact, the people in the neighborhood won't even let Doolittle have any of Eliza's belongings. When we first meet Doolittle, he comes to Professor Higgins' house in the hypocritical role of the "virtuous father" in order to rescue his "compromised daughter." It is soon discovered, however, that he threw his daughter out into the streets to earn her own living over two years ago, and, furthermore, he was never married to Eliza's mother. Whereas his daughter wants to become a member of the respectable middle class, Doolittle is delighted that his job as dustman is so low on the social class scale that it has absolutely no morals connected to it therefore, he is not subjected to "dreadful" middle-class morality - at least not until the last act. The comedy connected with Doolittle is his transformation during the course of the play. He is a dustman because that is easier for him than "real work." (A dustman was a person who simply collected the ashes that people put out by Shaw's time, refuse was added to the ashes, making Doolittle essentially a garbage collector.) (It is especially witty when Eliza points out to Higgins that the Professor's so-called equality in the way he treats people shows that he has the same manners as her father because Doolittle makes no class distinctions either: the analogy wounds Higgins because he has to acknowledge that it is essentially true.)Īs his name readily suggests, Doolittle does as little as possible to get through life. Through Doolittle, Shaw is able to make many satirical thrusts at middle-class morality and to make additional comments on class distinctions and on class manners. She was treated with much higher respect then she had been before.Doolittle is not so much a character as he is a vehicle which Shaw manipulates for his own dramatic purposes. When she"d do this everyone would become disgusted with her.īy the end of the movie, Eliza's speech was practically perfect.
She didn't always talk about the right things, and often would be very loud or yell.
She would talk well but get her words mixed up with proper English. Soon after she began to slightly improve her English, she began to notice positive changes in the way she was being treated.Īlthough Eliza was improving greatly, she still was not perfect with her speaking. Eliza then made the choice to start learning to speak better English because she wanted more respect from others and new that it would make her seem more intelligent. Those who did not speak very well were treated with very little or no respect at all.Įliza then met Colonel Piercing, who was a wealthy man who treated everyone with the same amount of respect. They were viewed as upper classmen to those who did not speak English well. In the movie, people treated those who spoke civilized English much better than those who didn't. Initially, Eliza talked with no class and was treated very differently then those that spoke in a classy manner. Those of an upper class treated her very poorly, although those who were also poor treated her with respect. Eliza Doolittle was very poor and acted like most poor people did.
At the beginning of the movie, My Fair Lady, the main character, Eliza Doolittle was an inelegant, obnoxious young woman.
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