English Literature books summary

Higgins only manages to teach Eliza pronunciations, it is Pickering's

thoughtful treatment towards Eliza that teaches her to respect herself.

Alfred Doolittle Alfred Doolittle is Eliza's father, an elderly but

vigorous dustman who has had at least six wives and who "seems equally free

from fear and conscience." When he learns that his daughter has entered the

home of Henry Higgins, he immediately pursues to see if he can get some

money out of the circumstance. His unique brand of rhetoric, an

unembarrassed, unhypocritical advocation of drink and pleasure (at other

people's expense), is amusing to Higgins. Through Higgins' joking

recommendation, Doolittle becomes a richly endowed lecturer to a moral

reform society, transforming him from lowly dustman to a picture of middle

class morality he becomes miserable. Throughout, Alfred is a scoundrel who

is willing to sell his daughter to make a few pounds, but he is one of the

few unaffected characters in the play, unmasked by appearance or language.

Though scandalous, his speeches are honest. At points, it even seems that

he might be Shaw's voice piece of social criticism (Alfred's proletariat

status, given Shaw's socialist leanings, makes the prospect all the more

likely).

Mrs. Higgins Professor Higgins' mother, Mrs. Higgins is a stately

lady in her sixties who sees the Eliza Doolittle experiment as idiocy, and

Higgins and Pickering as senseless children. She is the first and only

character to have any qualms about the whole affair. When her worries prove

true, it is to her that all the characters turn. Because no woman can match

up to his mother, Higgins claims, he has no interest in dallying with them.

To observe the mother of Pygmalion (Higgins), who completely understands

all of his failings and inadequacies, is a good contrast to the mythic

proportions to which Higgins builds himself in his self-estimations as a

scientist of phonetics and a creator of duchesses.

Freddy Eynsford Hill Higgins' surmise that Freddy is a fool is

probably accurate. In the opening scene he is a spineless and resourceless

lackey to his mother and sister. Later, he is comically bowled over by

Eliza, the half-baked duchess who still speaks cockney. He becomes lovesick

for Eliza, and courts her with letters. At the play's close, Freddy serves

as a young, viable marriage option for Eliza, making the possible path she

will follow unclear to the reader.

Summary

Two old gentlemen meet in the rain one night at Covent Garden. Professor

Higgins is a scientist of phonetics, and Colonel Pickering is a linguist of

Indian dialects. The first bets the other that he can, with his knowledge

of phonetics, convince high London society that, in a matter of months, he

will be able to transform the cockney speaking Covent Garden flower girl,

Eliza Doolittle, into a woman as poised and well-spoken as a duchess.

The next morning, the girl appears at his laboratory on Wimpole Street

to ask for speech lessons, offering to pay a shilling, so that she may

speak properly enough to work in a flower shop. Higgins makes merciless fun

of her, but is seduced by the idea of working his magic on her. Pickering

goads him on by agreeing to cover the costs of the experiment if Higgins

can pass Eliza off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. The

challenge is taken, and Higgins starts by having his housekeeper bathe

Eliza and give her new clothes. Then Eliza's father Alfred Doolittle comes

to demand the return of his daughter, though his real intention is to hit

Higgins up for some money.

The professor, amused by Doolittle's unusual rhetoric, gives him five

pounds. On his way out, the dustman fails to recognize the now clean,

pretty flower girl as his daughter.

For a number of months, Higgins trains Eliza to speak properly. Two trials

for Eliza follow. The first occurs at Higgins' mother's home, where Eliza

is introduced to the Eynsford Hills, a trio of mother, daughter, and son.

The son Freddy is very attracted to her, and further taken with what he

thinks is her affected "small talk" when she slips into cockney. Mrs.

Higgins worries that the experiment will lead to problems once it is ended,

but Higgins and Pickering are too absorbed in their game to take heed. A

second trial, which takes place some months later at an ambassador's party

(and which is not actually staged), is a resounding success. The wager is

definitely won, but Higgins and Pickering are now bored with the project,

which causes Eliza to be hurt. She throws Higgins' slippers at him in a

rage because she does not know what is to become of her, thereby

bewildering him. He suggests she marry somebody. She returns him the hired

jewelry, and he accuses her of ingratitude.

The following morning, Higgins rushes to his mother, in a panic

because Eliza has run away. On his tail is Eliza's father, now unhappily

rich from the trust of a deceased millionaire who took to heart Higgins'

recommendation that Doolittle was England's "most original moralist." Mrs.

Higgins, who has been hiding Eliza upstairs all along, chides the two of

them for playing with the girl's affections. When she enters, Eliza thanks

Pickering for always treating her like a lady, but threatens Higgins that

she will go work with his rival phonetician, Nepommuck. The outraged

Higgins cannot help but start to admire her. As Eliza leaves for her

father's wedding, Higgins shouts out a few errands for her to run, assuming

that she will return to him at Wimpole Street. Eliza, who has a lovelorn

sweetheart in Freddy, and the wherewithal to pass as a duchess, never makes

it clear whether she will or not.

Act I

A heavy late-night summer thunderstorm opens the play. Caught in the

unexpected downpour, passers-by from distinct strata of the London streets

are forced to seek shelter together under the portico of St Paul's church

in Covent Garden. The hapless Son is forced by his demanding sister and

mother to go out into the rain to find a taxi even though there is none to

be found. In his hurry, he knocks over the basket of a common Flower Girl,

who says to him, "Nah then, Freddy: look wh' y' gowin, deah." After Freddy

leaves, the mother gives the Flower Girl money to ask how she knew her

son's name, only to learn that "Freddy" is a common by-word the Flower Girl

would have used to address anyone.

An elderly military Gentleman enters from the rain, and the Flower

Girl tries to sell him a flower. He gives her some change, but a bystander

tells her to be careful, for it looks like there is a police informer

taking copious notes on her activities. This leads to hysterical

protestations on her part, that she is only a poor girl who has done no

wrong. The refugees from the rain crowd around her and the Note Taker, with

considerable hostility towards the latter, whom they believe to be an

undercover cop. However, each time someone speaks up, this mysterious man

has the amusing ability to determine where the person came from, simply by

listening to that person's speech, which turns him into something of a

sideshow.

The rain clears, leaving few other people than the Flower Girl, the

Note Taker, and the Gentleman. In response to a question from the

Gentleman, the Note Taker answers that his talent comes from "simply

phonetics...the science of speech." He goes on to brag that he can use

phonetics to make a duchess out of the Flower Girl. Through further

questioning, the Note Taker and the Gentleman reveal that they are Henry

Higgins and Colonel Pickering respectively, both scholars of dialects who

have been wanting to visit with each other. They decide to go for a supper,

but not until Higgins has been convinced by the Flower Girl to give her

some change. He generously throws her a half-crown, some florins, and a

half-sovereign. This allows the delighted girl to take a taxi home, the

same taxi that Freddy has brought back, only to find that his impatient

mother and sister have left without him.

Act II

The next day, Higgins and Pickering are just resting from a full

morning of discussion when Eliza Doolittle shows up at the door, to the

tremendous doubt of the discerning housekeeper Mrs. Pearce, and the

surprise of the two gentlemen. Prompted by his careless brag about making

her into a duchess the night before, she has come to take lessons from

Higgins, so that she may sound genteel enough to work in a flower shop

rather than sell at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. As the conversation

progresses, Higgins alternates between making fun of the poor girl and

threatening her with a broomstick beating, which only causes her to howl

and holler, upsetting Higgins' civilized company to a considerable degree.

Pickering is much kinder and considerate of her feelings, even going so far

as to call her "Miss Doolittle" and to offer her a seat. Pickering is

piqued by the prospect of helping Eliza, and bets Higgins that if Higgins

is able to pass Eliza o_ as a duchess at the Ambassador's garden party,

then he, Pickering, will cover the expenses of the experiment.

This act is made up mostly of a long and animated three-(sometimes

four-)way argument over the character and the potential of the indignant

Eliza.

At one point, incensed by Higgins' heartless insults, she threatens to

leave, but the clever professor lures her back by stuffing her mouth with a

chocolate, half of which he eats too to prove to her that it is not

poisoned. It is agreed upon that Eliza will live with Higgins for six

months, and be schooled in the speech and manners of a lady of high class.

Things get started when Mrs. Pearce takes her upstairs for a bath.

While Mrs. Pearce and Eliza are away, Pickering wants to be sure that

Higgins' intentions towards the girl are honorable, to which Higgins

replies that, to him, women "might as well be blocks of wood." Mrs. Pearce

enters to warn Higgins that he should be more careful with his swearing and

his forgetful table manners now that they have an impressionable young lady

with them, revealing that Higgins's own gentlemanly ways are somewhat

precarious. At this point, Alfred Doolittle, who has learned from a

neighbor of Eliza's that she has come to the professor's place, comes a-

knocking under the pretence of saving his daughter's honor. When Higgins

readily agrees that he should take his daughter away with him, Doolittle

reveals that he is really there to ask for five pounds, proudly claiming

that he will spend that money on immediate gratification and put none of it

to useless savings.

Amused by his blustering rhetoric, Higgins gives him the money. Eliza

enters, clean and pretty in a blue kimono, and everyone is amazed by the

difference. Even her father has failed to recognize her. Eliza is taken

with her transformation and wants to go back to her old neighborhood and

show o_, but she is warned against snobbery by Higgins. The act ends with

the two of them agreeing that they have taken on a difficult task.

Act III

It is Mrs. Higgins' at-home day, and she is greatly displeased when Henry

Higgins shows up suddenly, for she knows from experience that he is too

eccentric to be presentable in front of the sort of respectable company she

is expecting. He explains to her that he wants to bring the experiment

subject on whom he has been working for some months to her at-home, and

explains the bet that he has made with Pickering. Mrs. Higgins is not

pleased about this unsolicited visit from a common flower girl, but she has

no time to oppose before Mrs. and Miss Eynsford Hill (the mother and

daughter from the first scene) are shown into the parlor by the parlor-

maid. Colonel Pickering enters soon after, followed by Freddy Eynsford

Hill, the hapless son from Covent Garden.

Higgins is about to really offend the company with a theory that they

are all savages who know nothing about being civilized when Eliza is

announced. She makes quite an impact on everyone with her studied grace and

pedantic speech. Everything promises to go well until Mrs. Eynsford Hill

brings up the subject of influenza, which causes Eliza to launch into the

topic of her aunt, who supposedly died of influenza. In her excitement, her

old accent, along with shocking facts such as her father's alcoholism, slip

out. Freddy thinks that she is merely affecting "the new small talk," and

is dazzled by how well she does it. He is obviously infatuated with her.

When Eliza gets up to leave, he offers to walk her but she exclaims,

"Walk! Not bloody likely. I am going in a taxi." The Mrs. Eynsford Hill

leave immediately after. Clara, Miss Eynsford Hill, is taken with Eliza,

and tries to imitate her speech. After the guests leave, Mrs. Higgins

chides Higgins. She says there is no way Eliza will become presentable as

long as she lives with the constantly-swearing Higgins. She demands to know

the precise conditions under which Eliza is living with the two old

bachelors. She is prompted to say, "You certainly are a pretty pair of

babies, playing with your live doll," which is only the first of a series

of such criticisms she makes of Higgins and Pickering.

They assail her simultaneously with accounts of Eliza's improvement

until she must quiet them. She tries to explain to them that there will be

a problem of what to do with Eliza once everything is over, but the two men

pay no heed. They take their leave, and Mrs. Higgins is left exasperated by

the "infinite stupidity" of "men! men!! men!!!"

Act IV

The trio return to Higgins' Wimpole Street laboratory, exhausted from

the night's happenings. They talk about the evening and their great

success, though Higgins seems rather bored, more concerned with his

inability to find slippers. While he talks absentmindedly with Pickering,

Eliza slips out, returns with his slippers, and lays them on the floor

before him without a word. When he notices them, he thinks that they

appeared out of nowhere.

Higgins and Pickering begin to speak as if Eliza is not there with them,

saying how happy they are that the entire experiment is over, agreeing that

it had become rather boring in the last few months. The two of them then

leave the room to go to bed. Eliza is clearly hurt ("Eliza's beauty turns

murderous," say the stage directions), but Higgins and Pickering are

oblivious to her.

Higgins pops back in, once again mystified over what he has done with

his slippers, and Eliza promptly flings them in his face. Eliza is mad

enough to kill him; she thinks that she is no more important to him than

his slippers.

At Higgins' retort that she is presumptuous and ungrateful, she

answers that no one has treated her badly, but that she is still left

confused about what is to happen to her now that the bet has been won.

Higgins says that she can always get married or open that flower shop (both

of which she eventually does), but she replies by saying that she wishes

she had been left where she was before. She goes on to ask whether her

clothes belong to her, meaning what can she take away with her without

being accused of thievery. Higgins is genuinely hurt, something that does

not happen to him often. She returns him a ring he bought for her, but he

throws it into the _replace. After he leaves, she finds it again, but then

leaves it on the dessert stand and departs.

Act V

Higgins and Pickering show up the next day at Mrs. Higgins' home in a

state of distraction because Eliza has run away. They are interrupted by

Alfred Doolittle, who enters resplendently dressed, as if he were the

bridegroom of a very fashionable wedding. He has come to take issue with

Henry Higgins for destroying his happiness. It turns out that Higgins wrote

a letter to a millionaire jokingly recommending Doolittle as a most

original moralist, so that in his will the millionaire left Doolittle a

share in his trust, amounting to three thousand pounds a year, provided

that he lecture for the Wannafeller Moral Reform World League. Newfound

wealth has only brought him more pain than pleasure, as long lost relatives

emerge from the woodwork asking to be fed, not to mention that he is now no

longer free to behave in his casual, slovenly, dustman ways. He has been

damned by "middle class morality."

The talk degenerates into a squabble over who owns Eliza, Higgins or

her father (Higgins did give the latter five pounds for her after all). To

stop them, Mrs. Higgins sends for Eliza, who has been upstairs all along.

But first she tells Doolittle to step out on the balcony so that the she

will not be shocked by the story of his new fortune.

When she enters, Eliza takes care to behave very civilly. Pickering

tells her she must not think of herself as an experiment, and she expresses

her gratitude to him. She says that even though Higgins was the one who

trained the flower girl to become a duchess, Pickering always treated her

like a duchess, even when she was a flower girl. His treatment of her

taught her not phonetics, but self-respect. Higgins is speaking

incorrigibly harshly to her when her father reappears, surprising her

badly. He tells her that he is all dressed up because he is on his way to

get married to his woman. Pickering and Mrs. Higgins are asked to come

along. Higgins and Eliza are finally left alone while the rest go o_ to get

ready.

They proceed to quarrel. Higgins claims that while he may treat her

badly, he is at least fair in that he has never treated anyone else

differently. He tells her she should come back with him just for the fun of

flithe will adopt her as a daughter, or she can marry Pickering. She swings

around and cries that she won't even marry Higgins if he asks. She mentions

that Freddy has been writing her love letters, but Higgins immediately

dismisses him as a fool.

She says that she will marry Freddy, and that the two will support

themselves by taking Higgins' phonetic methods to his chief rival,

Nepommuck. Higgins is outraged but cannot help wondering at her character

he finds his defiance much more appealing than the submissiveness of the

slippers-fetcher. Mrs. Higgins comes in to tell Eliza it is time to leave.

As she is about to exit, Higgins tells her off handedly to fetch him some

gloves, ties, ham, and cheese while she is out. She replies ambivalently

and departs; we do not know if she will follow his orders. The play ends

with Higgins's roaring laughter as he says to his mother, "She's going to

marry Freddy. Ha! Freddy! Freddy!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!"

ТИХИЙ АМЕРИКАНЕЦ Роман

Олден Пайл — предстаитель экономического отдела американского посольства в

Сайгоне, антагонист Фаулера, другого героя романа. Будучи обобщенным

изображением вполне конкретных политических сил и методов борьбы на мировой

арене, фигура О. П. несет в себе и более глубокий и широкий смысл. Перед

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