In 20th century English culture, speech and choice of words were a decisive factor in one's social standing. The book Pygmalion illsturates this point by the speech and nature of the two main charaters, Mr. Higgins and Eliza. Pygmalion's satirical viewpoint of social classes is played through the slow movement of Eliza from a simple flower girl to a woman of class and stature.
The speech and word choice in Pygmalion play a large role in the plot movement of the play. When Eliza goes to Mr. Higgins for speech lessons, he regards her as a common begger or a person of a lower social class because of her speech and word choice.
"Liza: - But I aint got sixty pounds. Oh-"
"Mrs. Pearce: Don't cry, you silly girl. Sit down. Nobody is going to touch your money."
"Higgins: Somebody is going to touch you, with a broomstick, if you dont stop snivelling. Sit down."(Shaw 30)
Higgins, though regarded as a person of a high social class, shows direct change from normal "High Class" speech and word choice by publicly insulting Liza and not caring about her as a person nor as a human. As the play progresses, Higgins almost goes through a reversal of High class maners. As Liza becomes more cultured, Higgins uses more vulgar and more damaging language to all the other charaters in the play.
"Liza:(To Pickering) I should like you to call me Eliza, now, if you would."
"Pickering: Thank you, Eliza, of course."
"Liza: And I should like Professor Higgins to call me Miss Doolittle."
"Higgins: I'll see you damned first!"(Shaw, 100)
So as we can see from Higgins' response, he has lost his high class manners and is much more shrewed and ill-tempered than he lets on, thus showing that a person of a high social class cannot always act as a person of a higher class should, or would, under normal cirumstances.
In conclusion, Higgins and Liza represent a stark difference in backrounds and intelligence, but behave with a remarkable li...