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He’s no right to take away my character. My character is the same to me as any lady’s.
Eliza says these lines in Act 1 after noticing that Higgins has been writing down her words. Eliza makes a point to stand up for herself and her character early in the play. Even though she is from a lower working class background, Eliza possesses self-respect and is offended by the insinuation that she is acting inappropriately toward Pickering. Her assumption that Higgins is judging her, and her assertion that Higgins has no right to do so, makes apparent how people of different class statuses view others. Eliza’s declaration that she views herself as a lady suggests class identity is socially constructed. Eliza does not consider herself lesser because of her lack of social standing but she is acutely aware that others perceive her to be so, leading her to Higgins.
Because I wanted to smash your face. I’d like to kill you, you selfish brute. Why didn’t you leave me where you picked me out of—in the gutter? You thank God it’s all over, and that now you can throw me back again there, do you?
Eliza says these lines during her argument with Higgins in Act 4. She has won the bet for him and proven that Higgins can make her pass as a lady, yet the conversation that Higgins and Pickering have after the ambassador’s garden party revolves around their own efforts and speak nothing of Eliza’s own abilities and performance. Higgins shows little care for Eliza’s future. Indeed, earlier in the scene he is more concerned with his slippers than what is to become of Eliza now that the experiment is over. Her questions for Higgins are thus filled with resentment, both in regard to the position he has left her in and his apparent unawareness that he has done anything wrong.
You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated.
Eliza speaks these lines in Act 5, underscoring the ways in which class identity is a social construct. That is, Higgins continues to treat her as a flower girl even though, for all intents and purposes, she is now a lady, and Pickering treated her as a lady even when she was a flower girl. Anyone, Eliza explains, can learn the manners and wear the clothes befitting a higher social rank, but what truly cemented her transformation was being treated with respect. Because Pickering treated her as a lady, Eliza began to see herself as one.
It’s not because you paid for my dresses. I know you are generous to everybody with money. But it was from you that I learnt really nice manners; and that is what makes one a lady, isn’t it? You see it was so very difficult for me with the example of Professor Higgins always before me. I was brought up to be just like him, unable to control myself, and using bad language on the slightest provocation. And I should never have known that ladies and gentlemen didn’t behave like that if you hadn’t been there.
Eliza says this to Pickering in Act 5, confirming that Higgins was not solely responsible for her transformation. Eliza acknowledges that Pickering’s education in manners has also contributed to her change from flower girl to lady, which suggests language itself is not sufficient to make one pass as a member of the middle class. In this regard, manners also matter, and decorum is just as important as speaking well if one is to be perceived as being part of middle class society. Eliza’s acknowledgement of Pickering's role serves as a criticism of Higgins’ own inadequacy as a teacher and his aloofness in matters of social manners and decorum, thus highlighting his shortcomings. Without Pickering to teach Eliza how to interact with the middle class, Eliza would have received only a partial education.
Oh! if I only COULD go back to my flower basket! I should be independent of both you and father and all the world! Why did you take my independence from me? Why did I give it up? I’m a slave now, for all my fine clothes.
In Act 5, during her confrontation with Higgins in his mother’s home while he tries to convince her to return to Wimpole Street, Eliza expresses a sense of regret about her transformation, and reproaches Higgins for his lack of responsibility in regard to what such a change has done to her position in society. Eliza realizes that she has fallen into what her father calls “middle class morality” and is imprisoned by her newfound appearance and status. Through this exchange, Shaw emphasizes the ways in which being part of the middle class constricts one’s identity. Though ostensibly considered superior, the middle class, Eliza asserts, lacks the independence she possessed when she was able to support herself as a flower girl. Now she must perform a role and fit into the limitations that come with it. Eliza’s mention of being a slave to fancy clothes emphasizes how outward appearances do not actually bring joy, but obligation and the anxiety of presentation.
