Eliza-Higgins Relationship in Pygmalion Thadani Deepa Vice Principal, St. Stephen's Senior Secondary School, Ajmer, Rajasthan, India, Email id: thadani.d@ststephensajmer.com Abstract Shaw subtitled Pygmalion as “A Romance in Five Acts” and the central theme is undoubtedly romantic. But as the play evolves, one notices that its romance is more social and spiritual than sexual. In the play, the education of Eliza in phonetics, her new environment and her training in middle-class manners and morality transform her from a flower girl to a duchess, which Higgins intended to make her. Higgins had picked her up as a guttersnipe girl and even when phonetics had refined her speech and improved her personal impression, he continued to treat her as a low-class flower girl. Driven by life force, this indifference is unacceptable to Eliza and in the absence of emotional fulfilment, she decides to marry Freddy. The “squashed cabbage leaf” becomes, as Higgins puts it, “consort battleship” as Eliza is fully human and engages with Higgins in warfare of wills. Higgins was a book-learned gentleman, a confirmed old bachelor and had no other passion in life than the study of the language of Shakespeare and Milton. Shaw's Pygmalion differs from the classical tale because Higgins harbours a degree of misogyny and that does not go out even when he has created an ideal in Eliza. Top Keywords Life force, Ideal, Warfare of wills, Shavian, Independence, Kindness, Slippers. Top |