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Oh, Lord knows! I suppose the woman wants to live her own life; and the man wants to live his; and each tries to drag the other on to the wrong track. One wants to go north and the other south; and the result is that both have to go east, though they both hate the east wind. [He sits down on the bench at the keyboard]. So here I am, a confirmed old bachelor, and likely to remain so.
This is Higgins’ response to Pickering when asked about his feelings toward women in Act 2. Though the subtitle of Pygmalion is “a Romance in Five Acts,” the play does not follow the traditional structure of a romance play. Higgins’ decision to remain an old bachelor subverts the expectations of the romance genre and goes against middle class sensibilities. For Higgins, women are a complication that he would prefer to avoid. Instead, Higgins is content with his studies and sees romance and relationships with women as a hindrance to scientific exploration. Higgins makes it clear that he believes any sort of relationship with women is to be avoided, not just for himself but for both parties.
You see, we’re all savages, more or less. We’re supposed to be civilized and cultured—to know all about poetry and philosophy and art and science, and so on; but how many of us know even the meanings of these names? [To Miss Hill] What do you know of poetry? [To Mrs. Hill] What do you know of science? [Indicating Freddy] What does he know of art or science or anything else? What the devil do you imagine I know of philosophy?
Higgins speaks these lines in Act 3 to Mrs. Eynsford Hill after he claims that if people said what they thought it would ruin the appearance of respectability that the middle class covets so strongly. Higgins understands that the subjects to which he refers are superficial cultural markers that separate the middle class from the lower class. By displaying a disregard for middle class performativity, Higgins suggests that what separates them from the lower class is all appearance and no substance.
But when I saw we were going to win hands down, I felt like a bear in a cage, hanging about doing nothing. The dinner was worse: sitting gorging there for over an hour, with nobody but a damned fool of a fashionable woman to talk to! I tell you, Pickering, never again for me. No more artificial duchesses. The whole thing has been simple purgatory.
Higgins says these lines in Act 4 to Pickering after returning home from the ambassador’s garden party. Having won his bet with Pickering to pass Eliza off as a duchess, Higgins proclaims his dissatisfaction with the whole experiment. Faced with the challenge of teaching Eliza how to speak properly, Higgins, convinced of his ability as a teacher, took the opportunity on with excitement. However, now that Eliza has learned how to speak like a lady, he finds his interest has waned, as he himself is not concerned with other aspects that mark one as being part of the middle class, such as obligatory social gatherings. He displays a callous disregard for Eliza here, as both he and Pickering speak about her rather than to her, referring to her as no more than an “artificial duchess” and their time together as “purgatory.”
The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.
These lines occur in Act 5. After Eliza reveals her dissatisfaction with Higgins' behavior toward her, Higgins argues that his behavior is not personal, but reflects how he treats everyone in society, regardless of their class status. He refuses to be a victim of middle class morality and insists he does not believe in changing his nature and manners for anyone. Higgins, however, exhibits a lack of self-awareness here, failing to consider that his treatment of Pickering and his mother, for example, is wholly different than his treatment of Eliza and even Mrs. Pearce.
I can do without anybody. I have my own soul: my own spark of divine fire. But [with sudden humility] I shall miss you, Eliza. [He sits down near her on the ottoman]. I have learnt something from your idiotic notions: I confess that humbly and gratefully. And I have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like them, rather.
Higgins speaks these lines to Eliza in Act 5, revealing in a rare moment his genuine feelings for Eliza. However, even if he has come to like her and even admits having learned from her, he still refers to her ideas as “idiotic.” So even though he admits that he would miss her, he undercuts these sentiments, proving that even though he has changed slightly, his internal brutish and callous nature remains the same.
