PYGMALION
Questions
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ACT 1 QUESTIONS
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1. WHAT PURPOSE DOES THE RAIN SHOWER
SERVE?
• All types and levels of society are force to
huddle to avoid the rain.
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2. THE NOTE TAKER IS ASSUMED TO BE OF WHAT
PROFESSION? WHAT ACTUALLY IS HIS PROFESSION?
• He is assumed to be a policeman or a spy for the police.
• He is actually a student of phonetics. His name is
Professor Higgins. His profession is teaching wealthy
people who aspire to climb the social ladder to speak
properly.
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3. WHAT DOES THE NOTE TAKER SAY ABOUT A
“WOMAN WHO UTTERS SUCH DEPRESSING AND
DISGUSTING SOUNDS”?
• Higgins constantly tells her to cease making these "detestable"
noises.
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THE NOTE TAKER BRAGS ABOUT WHAT HE COULD
DO FOR THE FLOWER GIRL WITHIN THREE MONTHS.
WHAT DOES HE CLAIM?
• He brags that "in three months I could pass that
girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's
garden party."
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5. WHO TAKES THE CAB FREDDY BRINGS?
WHY?
• Eliza, thanks to the sudden windfall of
money from Higgins, engages the cab
to take her home.
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6. WHAT DO HIGGINS AND PICKERING HAVE IN
COMMON?
• It turns out that Pickering came to England to
meet Higgins, and that Higgins was about to
embark on a journey to India to meet Pickering.
• They both study dialects.
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ACT 2 QUESTIONS
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1. WHEN HIGGINS RECOGNIZES THE FLOWER GIRL,
WHAT IS HIS REACTION?
When Higgins recognizes her, he orders her
away because he has already recorded
enough of her type of "Lisson Grove lingo."
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2. WHAT DOES ELIZA DOOLITTLE WANT?
She wants to obtain a job as a lady in a
flower shop, but she won't be hired unless she
can speak in a genteel, ladylike fashion; thus,
she has come to take speech lessons from
Higgins because last night, he bragged
about his ability to teach proper speech to
anyone.
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3. EVEN AFTER HE AGREES TO TEACH HER, WHAT IS
HIGGINS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS ELIZA?
• Higgins continues to be rude and insulting
towards Eliza. She is even willing to pay as much
as a shilling an hour (about twenty-five cents an
hour, an absurdly ridiculous sum — so absurdly
low, in fact, that it appeals to Higgins'
imagination). Higgins calculates that Eliza's offer is
a certain proportion of her daily income, and
therefore represents, for her, a large payment.
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4. DESCRIBE MRS. PEARCE’S ROLE.
Mrs. Pearce is a housekeeper. She's also, like
Pickering and Mrs. Higgins, a voice of reason.
Mrs. Pearce watches out for Eliza from the very
beginning; like Mrs. Higgins, she's used to dealing
with Henry Higgins, and she knows he can get
carried away with his little projects. After she
shows Eliza to the bathroom, she tells Higgins in no
uncertain terms: this scheme is ridiculous. She
wants to make sure Eliza doesn't get hurt.
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5. ELIZA DETERMINES TO LEAVE RATHER THAN TO BE
FURTHER INSULTED. HOW DOES HIGGINS PERSUADE
HER TO STAY?
Higgins tempts her with some chocolates and with
the thought of some young man wanting to marry
her.
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6. WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE BATH SCENE?
• The bath scene shows how Eliza has always
lived.
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7. MRS. PEARCE MAKES SOME SUGGESTIONS TO
HIGGINS. WHAT ARE THEY?
• She asks Higgins to watch his behaviour
around the young girl; that is, he should try
to cease swearing, use better table manners
and try to act more like a gentleman.
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8. WHY DID ALFRED DOOLITTLE COME TO SEE
PROFESSOR HIGGINS?
• He wants his daughter. We however realise
that he might be there to extort money.
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9. DOOLITTLE SAYS, “I’M UNDESERVING, AND I
MEAN TO GO ON BEING UNDESERVING.” WHY
DOES HE NOT WANT TO BETTER HIMSELF?
• Doolittle proclaims himself to be a member of the
"undeserving poor"; there has been too much attention
paid to the deserving poor, he says, and it is time for the
likes of him, who are undeserving, to reap some of the
benefits of money. "Undeserving Poverty" is his motto,
and if Higgins and Pickering give him five pounds, he
promises that he will not save it; by Monday, he will have
spent the entire five pounds on one single drunken spree
with his "missus."
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10. WHY DOES DOOLITTLE WANT ONLY FIVE POUNDS
INSTEAD OF THE TEN HE IS OFFERED?
Doolittle demurs, saying that ten pounds
might cause him to feel prudent,
whereas five pounds is just enough for a
spree.
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ACT 3
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1. WHO ARE MRS. AND MISS EYNSFORD HILL?
• They are the mother and daughter from the
rainstorm in Act One.
• They're a mother/daughter team of
reasonably wealthy ladies. They start the plot
going when they ask Eliza if and how she
knows Freddy. They represent everything that
Eliza is not: they're clean, well-dressed, and
well-spoken
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2. HENRY SAYS, “WE WANT TWO OR THREE PEOPLE.
YOU’LL DO AS WELL AS ANYBODY ELSE.” WHAT
DOES THE FACT THAT HE SAYS THAT TELL US?
• He is rude to everyone—not just
to Liza. He thinks only of his work
and himself.
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3. WHAT DOES LIZA DO WRONG AT MRS. HIGGINS’
HOME?
• She speaks perfectly but tells an odd story
of her aunt’s death using vulgar, though
well pronounced, language.
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4. WHAT DOES CLARA THINK OF ELIZA?
• Clara is very taken with Eliza. She wants
to use Liza’s new small-talk and to
imitate her.
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5. WHO IS NEPOMMUCK?
• He is a guest at the ambassador’s
reception, fluent in many languages,
and says he is an expert. He claims Eliza
is a fraud, that she is really a princess.
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6. IS ELIZA SUCCESSFUL AT THE
AMBASSADOR’S RECEPTION?
• Yes, she is very successful.
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ACT 4
1. WHY DID ELIZA THROW HIGGINS’ SLIPPERS AT
HIM?
• Higgins and Pickering had just carried on a whole
conversation as if she weren’t in the room. They were
rude and inconsiderate and treated her unfeelingly. In
talking about the lessons with her, Higgins said, “The
whole thing has been a bore.” “The whole thing has
been simple purgatory.” After ignoring her through the
whole conversation, Higgins has the nerve to ask her to
turn out the lights as he leaves the room. When he
comes back looking for his slippers, she throws them at
him in her anger.
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• 2. What is Higgins’ advice to Liza when he realises
she is upset (although he cannot understand why
she is upset)?
“It’s only imagination. Low spirits and nothing else.
Nobody’s hurting you. Nothing’s wrong. You go to
bed like a good girl and sleep it off. Have a little
cry and say your prayers: that will make you feel
comfortable.”
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• 3. Why does Liza wish Higgins had left her
where he had found her?
“[At the corner of Trottenham Court] I sold
flowers. I didn’t sell myself. Now you’ve made
a lady of me I’m not fit to sell anything else.”
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• 4. Why does Liza tell Freddy, “Don’t you
call me Miss Doolittle […] Liza is good
enough for me.”
• She feels like in many ways “Liza” in her old
ways was a better person than “Miss
Doolittle.”
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• 5. What was Freddy doing below Eliza’s
window?
• He has fallen in love with her and hangs
around the outside of the house hoping
to get a glimpse of her.
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ACT 5
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• 1. Why is Henry Higgins concerned about
Liza’s being gone?
• Her absence has affected him personally. He
misses her services; he can’t find anything
and doesn't know when his appointments
are.
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• 2. Why is Alfred Doolittle upset?
• He has unwillingly come into money
and now has the responsibilities of
being middle class instead of being
“undeserving poor.”
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• 3. Higgins says, “She behaved in the most
outrageous way. I never gave her the
slightest provocation.” Is he lying or not?
• No; he genuinely believes that he did
nothing. Higgins is blind to his own
insensitivities.
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• 4. What becomes of Eliza?
• She marries Freddy, stays friends with
Pickering, tolerates Higgins, and runs her
own flower shop.
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