“While it may seem that this is the act in which Eliza is exposed for what she is, just about all the other characters are shown up in the process. Pickering and Higgins are an example. After they have been shown to be the undoubted masters of their (phonetic) dominion, lording it over Eliza, here, in Mrs. Higgins' feminine environment, they come across more like over-enthusiastic, ineffective little boys than mature men of science. Mrs. Higgins repeatedly rebukes Higgins for his lack of manners, his surly behavior towards her guests, and for his klutzy habit of stumbling into furniture, and is very reluctant to have him in front of company. This act also reveals middle class civility for what it really is--something dull and uninspiring. Mrs. Higgins' at-home turns out to be an unexciting conversation determinedly choked full with "how do you do's" and "goodbye's," with barely anything interesting said in between. In fact, the only time something is said with any spirit is when Eliza forgets herself and slips back into her normal manner of speaking. Clara Eynsford Hill, for example, is shown to be a useless wannabe with no character of her own (quite in contrast to the feisty and opinionated Eliza). So unremarkable is the mother-son-daughter threesome of the Eynsford Hills that Higgins cannot recall where he has met them (at Covent Garden, in the first act) until halfway through this act. He can only tell that their voices are familiar, suggesting that all they have to recommend them is their accents, and nothing else. If staged well, this act can expose the clumsiness and vapidity of polite Victorian society, causing us to question if the making of a duchess out of a flower girl is really doing her a favor.”
“I am yet to read the script; I only watched the movie version of the play. Clever lines. Loved it.”
“I came across a copy of the script over the internet while I was researching about the Pygmalion effect also otherwise known as the self-fulfilling prophecy. The former so named after Pygmalion, the sculptor, who had Galatea - his own creation - as his wife. I enjoyed reading this one. =)”
“Do your members know GBS gave the rights of this play to the London Library and that institution has never had such an expensive donation from anybody else? This has been a play that has seldom been off the stage for any length of time.”
“you know, the play simply didn't come alive till the movie, for me....”
“it is said that Shaw put a little bit of himself in Henry Higgans! probably thats what made him so charming n loveable in spite of everything - it is also said that shaw was highly displeased with the end of the film - though i am sure the audience wasn't!!!!!”
