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Colonel Pickering is one of the central characters in the play and, along with Higgins, responsible for helping transform Eliza from a flower girl into a lady. A phonetics expert himself, Pickering is renowned for being the author of Spoken Sanskrit, a book on Indian dialects. Unlike Higgins, however, his passion for phonetics is not as intense and singular, as seen in the opening of Act 2 when he reveals to Higgins that he is “tired of listening to sounds.” Pickering is part of the bourgeois, being identified by a bystander in the opening of the play as a gentleman due to his boots and clothing. Pickering’s initial interaction with Eliza when she asks him to buy flowers shows the division of class lines and highlights the dangerous presumption that the only reason a lowly flower girl would engage with a gentleman is to solicit sex from him. This instance also exemplifies the difference in character between Higgins and Pickering. Where Higgins is boorish and cold, Pickering is much more compassionate and understanding, emphasizing his genteel nature and courtesy. Indeed, buying the flowers from Eliza foreshadows his role in Eliza’s transformation as her monetary benefactor.
Pickering’s role in the play also sparks the plot as he proposes the bet with Higgins to transform Eliza. By offering to pay for the whole experiment if Higgins is successful, Pickering convinces Higgins to take on the challenge. Pickering’s compassionate nature furthermore comes out in Act 2 when he makes sure that Higgins will not take advantage of the situation in any unsavory way, showing in some way that he cares about Eliza. Indeed, at times Pickering berates Higgins for his callous behavior toward Eliza. Pickering’s kindness toward Eliza helps her to assume her sense of self-worth and self-assertion. Indeed, at the end of the play, Eliza claims that what truly began her education was when Pickering first referred to her as Miss Doolittle. Pickering considers Eliza as a lady worthy of respect, while Higgins is never able to truly consider her as such.
While Pickering is kinder and more considerate to Eliza, he still plays along with the experiment. He is not totally innocent in his responsibility regarding what will happen to Eliza once the trial is over, as evidenced by Mrs. Higgins calling both Higgins and Pickering “a pretty pair of babies, playing with [their] live doll.” Even in Act 4, after the garden party, Pickering, like Higgins, does not mention Eliza’s own role in her transformation of passing off as a lady, as he seems more interested in the success of the experiment than in Eliza herself. Later in Act 5 when Mrs. Higgins calls out Pickering and Higgins for their treatment of Eliza, Pickering asserts that they didn’t treat her “brutally.” However, unlike Higgins, after hearing what Eliza has to say, Pickering does apologize, and Eliza even thanks him for his hand in helping her transform. In this sense, Pickering depicts a willingness to admit when he has wronged someone, which solidifies his gentlemanly persona.
