Bernard Shaw's wonderful drama, "Pygmalion", is a play that weaves such an intricate personal connection from one character to another that the reader is unknowingly drawn in from the very start. In the final two acts of this play, Shaw brings his tale of a poor, uneducated, common flower-girl and her transformation into a real lady of court thanks to the tedious training of Professor Higgins and the financial backing of Col. Pickering. In the end, the audience finally learns that Eliza, the flower-girl, does win the bet for Prof. Higgins, in that she tricked all the people at the ball into thinking that she was born into high society. This fact, however, does not serve as the climax of the play, as one would think. The ultimate climax is reached when Eliza realizes that Higgins does not truly care about her or her well being, because he so readily dismisses her and her future as no longer his concern now that his bet is won. At first, the reader might get the idea that Eliza is asking Higgins for his affectionate/romantic kindness, but we soon find that she just wants him to show that he has a heart, and has become as attached to her as a friend and companion as she has to him.
The fact that Eliza ends up marrying Freddy Eynsford Hill is both comical and fitting to me. I felt all along that Eliza would require a fanatical, unconditional love from the man she married, but the fact that she found it in timid, unassuming Freddy makes me laugh. Eliza is such a domineering and loud character that it makes perfect, and yet no sense that she falls for Freddy. It is almost too perfect, however, that Freddy and Eliza are able to get their flower shop up and running, and are finally able to make a profit from their dreams. These dreams would never have been reached if not for the support of Col. Pickering, again.
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