Higgins, Pygmalion

A detailed Summary of Higgins, Pygmalion

Professor Higgins is seen throughout Pygmalion as a very rude man.

While one may expect a well educated man, such as Higgins, to be a gentleman, he

is far from it. Higgins believes that how you treated someone is not important,

as long as you treat everyone equally.

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or

any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human

souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-

class carriages, and one soul is as good as another. -Higgins, Act V Pygmalion.

Higgins presents this theory to Eliza, in hope of justifying his treatment of

her. This theory would be fine IF Higgins himself lived by it. Henry Higgins,

however, lives by a variety of variations of this philosophy.

It is easily seen how Higgins follows this theory. He is consistently

rude towards Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and his mother. His manner is the same to each

of them, in accordance to his philosophy. However the Higgins we see at the

parties and in good times with Pickering is well mannered. This ap

that Higgins has treated others better than Eliza. At the parties, for example,

together as a masterpiece that he respected.

Higgins wanders aimlessly around the parlor, irrationally moving from chair to

explain the variations in his philosophy. Try to imagine Higgins as a young

There are two possible translations of Higgins' philosophy. It can be

discrepancy between Higgins' actions and his word, may not exist, depending on

limited outlook. They treat everyone the same; depending on the situation they

Approximate Word count = 750
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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