Pygmalion: Professor Henry Higgins

Pygmalion #9 Eliza and Professor Higgins meet in an awkward situation. Professor Higgins is studying people's language and he noticed that Eliza speaks quite unique. Eliza is a poor girl who is selling flowers wearing poor clothes. Higgins also meets Colonel (Col.) Pickering in the beginning. They both have great amount of money and they give very little to the flower girl Eliza when she asked for it. Eliza isn't stupid, but just in proverty. She over heard the time Higgins and Col. Pickering would meet and decided to go to Higgins house the next day. Her life changes as she accepts to be part of the bet made by Higgins and Col. Pickering.

Eliza is poor, not clean, and practically alone in the world. Any person in her situation would be delighted to accept this offer of teaching her how to speak properly, give her new clothes and a place to stay. Eliza's goal is to learn to speak better so she will be able to work in a flower shop. She has such a different character during the beginning compared to how she will be after the bet. She is not stubborn, but responsible and grown up. She wants to be pay for the lessons she is getting but Higgins doesn't allow that. It seems that she doesn't completely realize how this deal will affect her beside the fact that her language will get better.

Higgins seems to be blind to other people's feelings. From the beginning he treats Eliza as an instrument. He as this bet all planned out. He will teach Eliza and pass her off as a duchess. After this whole bet is over he will simply find Eliza a job and everything will be ok. Higgins has a language problem himself. He talks about Eliza badly from the start and uses bad words to describe her. He doesn't do this intentionally to put her down, but it's just his natural way of treating people lower then him. Col. Pickering treats Eliza like a lady from the start. Now that there is a bet involved and some excitement Pickering has no problem with spending money on Eliza. Unlike before