Pygmalion Journal #2

     When Higgins and Pickering come in to see Mrs. Higgins in the last act, it seems as if they are actually worried about Eliza's well-being, and may be dynamic characters after all, changing from cold, heartless, and selfish to caring and worried about others. But my expectations were put in their place when Higgins continues to treat her as a lower being or a slave, calling her the "worthless creature we picked out of the mud" and "this thing", and insisting he has "created her". I realized he has not changed at all from the beginning when he took her in.

     I was surprised when Alfred Doolittle came in, furious about being turned into a middle-class moralist. This was normally something that poor people of the time would embrace wholeheartedly, yet  he is furious about his apparent bad luck. I think this encounter between Doolittle and Higgins shows us a glimpse at how the real world works; as a middle- class man, he has more stress, responsibilities, and people asking him for handouts. I think this shows how the middle and upper classes work even in this day and age.

     I was confused, however, at why the author made it unclear whether Eliza would come back to Higgins or go her own way. She made her feelings clear about him, saying that she thought he was horrible and worthless, once even threatening to go and work for his major competitor and rival. In the last act, they insulted each other every which way until I could no longer see any reason why either one of them would want to see the other again. But I did like the ending being questionable because it leaves the reader in the position to figure out what actually happened.