Eliza Doolittle
In the beginning Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl from the slums of London. She is ignorant, dirty and full of terrible Cockney dialect which even the taxi driver can't understand. After six months this same girl becomes a young beautiful Duchess who charms everyone at the Ambassador's garden party.
Even in the first scene on the portico of St.Paul's church, on that rainy night we get the impression that Eliza is not just an ordinary flower girl. She is bold, confident and even a little impudent. There she confronts Freddy, the people standing there. She calls Higgins a man stuffed with nails. When Pickering and Higgins sing a song with various rhyming names she asks them not to be silly. Prof.Higgins develops her this self confidence and transforms her into a lady. But even then she can lose her temper and even throw his slippers at Higgins' face.
The girl who walked into the Wimpole Street was a poor nervous girl, but at the same time one who had determined to become a lady or at least an assistant in a flower shop. The fact that she was prepared to pay Higgins the fee for this work shows her individuality. In a short time Eliza becomes so indispensable that when she threatens to leave, Higgins complains that he can't find anything and can't remember his appointments. She becomes an efficient personal assistant to Higgins and Pickering.
Higgins training turns out to be a bitter battle for Eliza. Higgins was a severe master he bullied and hectored her. He threatened to drag her around the room three times by her hair if she made a mistake twice. Eliza was a keen intelligent student. She absorbed everything and was very sharp. She learned easily and made rapid progress. In fact for both Higgins and Eliza the process of teaching and learning was a hard task. Later on she confesses that while Higgins taught her how to speak it was Pickering who unknowingly taught her good manners. At Mrs.Higgins' house both the gentlemen are lavish in their praise of Eliza.
Happiness is an elusive thing for Eliza. as soon as she is big enough to earn her own living she is sent out of her home. As a flower girl she struggles to make a living. She lives in a dingy room in a dirty locality. Even after she becomes a lady she is far from being happy. She expected Higgins to like her and propose to her. But for Higgins she was only an object of an experiment.
Higgins' bullying reaches a point where Eliza in desperation hits back. This happens only after she suffers enough. Only Pickering's gentle attitude helps her to carry on. Even after she marries Freddy she depends on Pickering's financial support.
Eliza's relationship with Higgins seems unnatural. But Shaw made it intentionally so. After she becomes Higgin's pupil she comes to know that her master is too strong to be involved emotionally with her as a woman,as he told Pickering a pupil was only a block of wood for him. When she discovers that Higgins can never be a husband she is much chagrined. But she becomes strong enough to find love in Freddy who needed her more than she needed him. In the end Eliza earns the appreciation or even the admiration of Higgins himself. He had made a flower girl a duchess and then changed a duchess into a real woman.
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