Pygmalion Case

In Pygmalion, the vivid portrait of the characters is one of the important factors that make the drama a success.

As the hero, Higgins was a linguist with confounded complacency. He gave such an image at the very beginning. From his words and singing performance at the gate of the theatre, we could see a very arrogant soul. From the beginning to the end, he was always acting as though Eliza did not matter at all. Especially after the embassy, when Eliza hit the happiness of being accepted and wanted to share it with him, he just acted indifferently to her and was indulged in his miraculous success of having trained such a elegant girl.

As the heroine, Eliza experienced the transition from a vulgar flower girl into a fair lady. She belonged to the lower class, and what she required was fairly simple: to jump out of it. So, at the moment she was accepted by the upper class, she felt on top of the world. But Higgins' behaviors almost let her go back to the Hell. She found her temperament and her real identity was still not unified, even though she had changed the image and temperament because she was still a neglected flower girl in Higgins' eye and was never respected. Even, she was just one of his booty. Her dismay and disappointment were well expressed by her body language and the facial expression. She stood just like a sculpture, depressed.

Another character, Colonel Pickering was also very important. He was just a contrast to Higgins in treating Eliza. He was a real gentleman and he acted as a gentleman do. In the play, Eliza said that "the difference between a flower girl and a lady is not what she behaves but she's treated". It was true that Colonel Pickering always treated her as a lady while Higgins never changed his mind that Eliza was a flower girl. The two men's sharp contrast was also a key to emphasize the theme of the drama.