Pygmalion: Act 2 Summary & Analysis

Pickering is impressed with Higgins' laboratory and his dedication to his study of speech. Both characters are highly educated, though Higgins is even more accomplished than Pickering in the realm of phonetics.

Mrs. Pearce identifies the flower girl as a commoner from her accent and appearance, and describes such characteristics as "dreadful". The wealthy see the ways in which the poor differ from them as being bad or shameful. Higgins is interested in her only as a subject of his academic study, not in any way as a person.

The flower girl hopes that by learning to speak differently, she can change her life and identity, finding a better job and moving up the social ladder.

Eliza is confused and worried by Higgins' reasoning about her proposed fee, which she doesn't understand. Higgins tells her not to wipe her eyes with her sleeve, because this would be neither ladylike nor in accordance with good manners.

Higgins agrees to help Eliza only for his own enjoyment and study, not because he feels any compassion for her. He and Pickering plan to fool the upper class by changing only Eliza's speech and outward appearance. They don't think of whether such exterior changes might involve actually changing who Eliza really is.

Higgins is so concerned with his own experiment that he doesn't stop to consider Eliza's own thoughts or feelings. His willingness to "walk over" Eliza has to do both with her lower-class status and her gender. Mrs. Pearce, who was willing to describe Eliza's accent as "dreadful" does see her as a person, and insists that as such she has a dignity and worth that Higgins must acknowledge in his treatment of her.

Higgins does not consider Eliza's own willingness or unwillingness to participate in his experiment. He assumes that all she could want is to have men courting her, and he sees her unwillingness to be in debt to him (by accepting clothes) as simple ungratefulness. Again, he treats her as a lesser being, not someone worthy of having pride or integrity.

Since Eliza is an uneducated, lower-class woman, Higgins, unlike Pickering, thinks of her only in terms of whether she can be of use to him. But Eliza shows her dignity and strength of will by asserting that not only does she have feelings but that they are the equal of anyone else's feelings. She asserts a level of commonality and equality between people that Higgins doesn't seem to recognize. It's worth noting that Higgins is far more extreme in his views than the other wealthy characters; even so, in being more extreme he makes explicit what other rich characters in the play seem to implicitly believe.

Higgins tries to tempt Eliza with thoughts of a wealthy, comfortable life, acting as if he can "buy" her interest with trifles like chocolate. In objecting to Higgins, Pickering calls Eliza "Miss Doolittle," a convention usually reserved for high-class ladies. It seems almost as if Higgins extreme rudeness in treating Eliza like a non-person—almost like a pet—pushes Pickering (unconsciously) to admit that Eliza is a person and in being so has a nobility by calling her by the address of a lady.

Higgins continues to order Eliza around, revealing his lack of empathy. He is excited by the prospect of fooling members of the upper class by merely changing Eliza's appearance and speech, while also displaying his own cleverness as a linguist and a teacher.

Higgins is revealed to be somewhat of a misogynist, thinking that women ruin everything. This partially explains his rudeness toward Eliza (his general rudeness toward everyone explains the rest).

Higgins claims that he cares about Eliza, though he seems only to care about her as a student, as the subject of his own academic study. Yet while he is upper-class, it is his housekeeper who must remind him of proper manners.

Mrs. Pearce has to remind the rude Higgins to set a good example for Eliza if she is to learn to act like a well-behaved lady. The play is constantly poking holes in the idea of the upper class and their own self-conception as naturally having good manners because they are upper class.

Whenever Higgins meets a new person, his first thought is to use the person for his own academic learning. He is easily able to identify where Doolittle is from based on his accent.

Higgins moves from just identifying where Doolittle is from to asserting that Doolittle's origins determine his character. Higgins believes he can change people's appearance by changing their speech, but he also believes that people can't actually change their deeper selves.

Higgins rudely disregards what Mr. Doolittle actually says. The destruction of Eliza's old clothes symbolizes the loss of her old identity. As her new clothes are not ready yet, she is caught between identities, not fully transformed yet.

Higgins and Pickering are shocked by Mr. Doolittle's willingness to sell his daughter, but to Mr. Doolittle such moralizing is a luxury for those who don't have to worry about money. And Higgins has no compunction about trying to "buy" Eliza with promises of chocolate and clothes.

From the beginning Mr. Doolittle criticizes the Victorian social hierarchy, not only for not letting lower-class people move up the hierarchy, but also for the assumption that being upper-class is necessarily better than being lower-class.

Even before Eliza has really transformed, the simple change of her appearance and clothing is enough to make her at first unrecognizable to her own father.

Eliza is excited by her new appearance and wants to show off to her old friends, though Higgins tells her that this kind of snobbishness would be ill-mannered. His claim that she has "risen in the world," suggests that Eliza is undergoing a real transformation, not just putting on a costume, though it is worth noting that having "risen" is a state dependent on how others see you, not any internal changes.

Moments after Higgins comments on how Eliza has "risen" based purely on her change in appearance, Eliza's decidedly un-classy exclamation indicates her lower-class upbringing, showing how far she has to go to transform into a noble lady.