How Is Eliza Doolittle Presented In Acts 1 and 2?

Eliza Doolittle is presented at the start of the play as a nobody-a poor flower girl, earning a small amount of money on the streets. She is portrayed as being very dirty, with her hair in need of a wash and being dressed in old, dirty clothes. Her boots need repairing and she needs the services of a dentist. At the start of the play, Freddy Hill knocks her flowers on the floor and she asks Mrs. Hill to pay for them. However, even though the mother is prepared to pay, Clara, the daughter does not want to because she sees the flower girl as being dirty and below herself. The stage directions explain ‘she is not a romantic figure. She is perhaps eighteen, perhaps twenty, slightly older’. It is here, when they are waiting for the rain to stop, that the flower girl talks to Colonel Pickering and meets Henry Higgins who is writing down the words that she is saying. Little did she know, the man was taking it down to study her accent, but the flower girl thought he was a police officer. The flower girl kept mumbling to herself ‘I’m a good girl I am’ because she believed that she was talking to a police officer.

It is here that Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering meet and Eliza keeps getting upset and eventually she drives off in a taxi,

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Eliza thinks of herself as a respectable young lady and tries to keep her dignity throughout Acts 1 and 2. Because of this, she often bursts out crying if someone threatens her, even if it is said sarcastically. She does not realize that he is just trying to make notes about her accent, from Lisson Grove. This is shown in part of the play, when she is snivelling in the corner and Higgins says to her, as an idle threat, ‘Somebody is going to ouch you with a broomstick if you don’t stop snivelling’ and Eliza suddenly bursts out crying. However, at the start, Higgins finds out that he has a very difficult task ahead of him, as soon as he asks her to repeat her alphabet she says ‘Ahyee, beyee, ceyee, deyee’. Colonel Pickering has a bet with Higgins, that in six months he could teach her well enough English to pass her off as a Duchess. However, when she realises that he is not a police officer she attempts to regain her dignity, unsuccessfully. Pearce sees Eliza as inferior and bosses her around a lot.

Bernard Shaw gives the impression that Eliza is very vulnerable as a young flower girl.

The audience see Eliza as a vulnerable girl who is defenceless on the streets reduced to selling flowers.

Eliza Doolittle speaks with quite a thick accent that the upper class, such as the Hills and Henry Higgins find very unpleasant. Pearce, opens the door and Eliza asks for speaking lessons. she makes it very clear that she is not a prostitute or anything along those lines, when, in the first act, she keeps repeating ‘I’m a good girl I am’ emphasizing that she does not have any loose habits such as drink either. Also, when Higgins taunts her she takes it in the wrong way, ‘She’s so deliciously low, horribly dirty,’ And again she reacts by crying.

Approximate Word count = 811
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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