Bernard Shaw’s Use of Eliza to Elevate The Lower Social Class and Women in Pygmalion

Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion depicts a self-willed lower class woman living in a capitalist society. At that time period, women and the lower class were viewed as unequal to men and the upper class and as a result, were left to find their own means of surviving. Many women were forced into prostitution as a result, and even that normally was not enough to survive. Eliza breaks free of social standards, proving herself to be superior to those in the upper class, and elevates the lower class and women as well. Eliza lives in a society that views her, other women and the lower class as dirty, ignorant and incompetent. 

One of the ways Shaw shows this perspective in the play is by deliberately making Eliza’s last name “Doolittle.” When broken up, it is seen that this word becomes “do little” and this gives the idea that Eliza and her family are lazy and “do little.” Even Higgins, although he comes to care for Eliza, still uses such terms in describing Eliza such as “squashed cabbage leaf”, “impudent slut”, and “horribly dirty”. Higgins, being an upperclassman, is a part of society that views the lower class and especially women as undeserving of any respect. Eliza is regarded as someone who does not have any emotions or opinions, not just by Higgins, but by her own father as well. When Eliza first arrives at Higgins’ home, he torments and intimidates her, saying that she does not have any feelings that they “need to worry about”. Later on, Alfred Doolittle declares that Eliza is “only a woman and dont know how to be happy anyhow” (Shaw 60). This is shocking seeing as these words are coming from the mouth of Eliza’s own father, who should be supporting her instead of degrading her. So Eliza is not only devalued because she is part of the lower class, but also because she is a woman. Contrary to upper-class opinion, Eliza proves herself to be superior to those higher up in society, and even though her transformation occurs on the exterior, she remains independent and headstrong. Prior to meeting Higgins and Pickering, Eliza is free and independent of any dominant male figure. She does not have to depend on anyone to make decisions for her or to provide her with money. She goes out every single day and makes her own living; nobody does it for her. The fact that she has made it this far without her parents around to support her is already proof of her superiority. Eliza lives on her own, makes her own choices, and does not let anybody tell her what she can and cannot do, and she is doing this all before she even turns twenty!

Throughout the play, Eliza does not receive the respect she deserves, constantly being insulted to the face by the people around her. Eliza however, does not take the abuse silently. Instead, she stands up for herself declaring that she has “feelings same as anyone else”. Throughout the play we can see Eliza becoming, on the exterior, less like the flower girl from Act One, with her speech and her appearance changing; however, the fiery spark inside of her remains there, as strong as it is in at the beginning of the play. Eliza has the courage to stand up to Higgins when he confronts her by telling him, “I dont care how you treat me. I dont mind your swearing at me…. But I refuse to be passed over”. She has tried so hard to do her best for Higgins, and what does she get? Nothing. Not even a single word of praise from the men. Eliza tries so hard to act like a lady, but Higgins does not treat her like one, and thus she realizes that: “...[speaking to Pickering] apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a flower girl and a lady is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me like a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me like a lady, and always will”. This means that “if a flower girl can to all appearances be made into a duchess in six months, the only things which distinguish a duchess are inherited social prestige and money, neither of which she has earned”. This shows that any lower class person is equal to anyone in the upper class. This capitalist society forces women into prostitution due to insufficient income; however, Eliza does not put herself into the situation, making her own choice and marrying Freddy instead of Higgins. For many women, prostitution was one of the only sufficient ways that they could make the money to support themselves. 

Many women around Eliza's age were forced into prostitution since it normally offered better pay than a woman's regular job. This takes away their independence since they are depending on other people to provide them with money, and also takes away their purity because they are selling themselves to another person. Eliza does not want to get involved in such situations, which is why she is out on the streets in poor conditions instead of making the money and having the physical security of prostitution. Shaw expressed these concerns by speaking through Higgins who observes that: “A working-class woman of Eliza’s age ‘looks a worn out drudge of fifty a year after she's married” and the same character’s graphic description of Eliza’s life should she return to the gutter: ‘Work til you are more a brute than human being; and then cuddle and squabble and drink til you fall asleep”. Further echoing Shaw, Higgins warns Eliza that marriage into the upper class is not the solution to her feelings of insecurity: ‘If youre going to be a lady, youll have to give up feeling neglected if the men you know dont spend half their time sniveling over you and the other half giving you black eyes’”. This is one of the reasons that Eliza does not want to marry Higgins since this would be legal prostitution and would only be to have the economic advantages anyways. Even though most girls usually do not have a choice about going into prostitution, Eliza finds a way to make it work, marrying Freddy and facing the economic problems instead of marrying Higgins and having all the money she wants. Bernard Shaw shows that women, especially those of the lower class, can only push the limits so far in a capitalist society; even Eliza, who has proven to be the ultimate woman, still needs financial support to finance her flower shop. Freddy, Eliza’s husband, is poor as well, and neither of them has a job of their own, and therefore have no way to support themselves. Even though Eliza has shown that she is strong and independent, that is not enough to get her a job, especially since she is a woman. Their answer is to turn to the two men that have money: Higgins and Pickering. They now have to depend on the two men to make ends meet; Eliza and Freddy “would have spent a penniless honeymoon but for a wedding present of £500 from the Colonel to Eliza” (Shaw 139). Higgins and Pickering now see Eliza as an equal, but the rest of society does not, which means that Eliza would most likely not be able to advance her career any further and will probably be stuck running a flower shop for the rest of her life. 

The problem of capitalism still exists in today’s society and is, in fact, even more prominent than it was at the time that Pygmalion was written; however, socialism has been breaking free of it's taboo and is starting to be recognized by more people as a way to counterattack capitalism. The goal of socialism is to achieve a distribution of wealth, which provide opportunities for women like Eliza and the lower class to get an education and receive basic necessities. In socialism, it is the workers in a business that own the company, and this would drastically change the economic standings of the working class people. In a capitalist society, a small group of people own the company, and therefore they will make the system work for them, giving them economic and political power. Professor Richard Wolff states that if the 62 richest people in the world give half their wealth away, they would still be the richest people. This, to many people, is obscene especially since those millionaires and billionaires normally do not earn what they make. If socialism was instilled in today’s capitalist society, many people like Eliza would have an opportunity to further improve the condition of society with more education as well as jobs, helping the country to prosper.