ISC Pygmalion Workbook Answer : Act 5

PLOT DEVELOPMENT

Eliza is Missing: The fifth and last Act opens in Mrs Higgins’s drawing room. Higgins and Pickering arrive in a frenzy as Eliza has run away from Higgins’s house. Higgins tells his mother that instead of going to bed last night, Eliza changed her clothes and left the house. Furthermore, she came in a cab before seven that morning and Mrs Pearce foolishly let her collect her things without telling him a word. Mrs Higgins questions their childish behaviour in looking for Eliza as if she were a lost umbrella.’ Mrs Higgins says that Eliza has the complete right to leave if she chooses to do so. At this moment, Higgins and Pickering have no idea that Mrs Higgins is secretly harbouring Eliza in a room upstairs.

Alfred Doolittle, the Gentleman: They are interrupted by Alfred Doolittle, who enters resplendently dressed from his hat to his patent leather shoes as if he were the bridegroom at a very fashionable wedding. Doolittle accuses Higgins of destroying his happiness. He charges Higgins of having delivered him into the hands of ‘middle class morality.’ Higgins denies any knowledge apart from giving him five pounds and having two conversations with him. It turns out that Higgins had written a letter to an American millionaire, Ezra D. Wannafeller and jokingly recommended Doolittle as the most original moralist. Consequently, the millionaire, in his will, has left Doolittle a share in his trust amounting to three thousand pounds a year, provided that he would lecture for the Wannafeller Moral Reform World League up to six times a year.

The Problems of New-found Wealth: Alfred Doolittle’s new-found wealth has only brought him more pain than pleasure. Now he is no longer free to behave in his casual slovenly dustman ways. He was happy as he was free during his lower class life but now he has to live for others and has to maintain a certain appearance of his newly acquired class. He requires Higgins to teach him proper English, which he assumes was his (Higgins’s) motive to begin with. Mr Doolittle does not have the courage to decline the inheritance money. He is stuck between the discomfort of being poor if he gives up the money and all the responsibilities of being wealthy if he keeps it.

Battle Over Who Owns’ Eliza: Mrs Higgins states that Doolittle’s fortune at least solves the problem of Eliza’s future since he can now provide for her. The conversation degenerates into a squabble over who ‘owns’ Eliza, Higgins or her father. Higgins says that Eliza belongs to him because he has paid five pounds for her.

Eliza is called: To stop them, Mrs Higgins sends for Eliza, who has been upstairs all along. Mrs Higgins tells them that Eliza had come to her that morning and complained of the brutal way in which Higgins treated her. Higgins claims that it was Eliza who behaved most outrageously and threw his slippers at his face. Mrs Higgins points out that instead of praising Eliza for her hard work they talked about how glad they were that the whole thing was over. Mrs Higgins further asks Higgins to behave properly and tells Doolittle to step out on the balcony and not cause the poor girl even more anxiety.

Eliza’s Entry as a Transformed Person: When Eliza enters, she greets everyone and is a paragon of manners and elegance. She is carrying a little basket and appears to be very much at home. She plays the gracious lady and after inquiring about their health, resumes her needlework. Eliza’s cold and indifferent attitude infuriates Higgins and he demeans her. He claims all the credit for this civilised version of her. While Mrs Higgins placates her son, Pickering tells Eliza that she must not think of herself as an experiment. Eliza ignores Higgins and expresses her gratitude to Pickering. She says that even though Higgins was the one who trained her to become a duchess, Pickering always treated her as being worthy of respect, even when she was a flower girl. His treatment of her did not teach her phonetics it was a lesson in self-respect. She says that she was just as short- tempered and foul-mouthed as Higgins, who set up a terrible example for her. Eliza’s condemnation offends Higgins.

The Father Appears Before His Daughter: Higgins is speaking harshly to Eliza when her father reappears. Eliza is surprised to see her father’s transformation and lets out a scream. Here it appears as if she has returned to her former self, which greatly delights Higgins. Alfred Doolittle tells her that he is all dressed up because he is on his way to get married to her stepmother. He also laments that he has become a victim of ‘middle class morality’. He then asks the Colonel to see him through the wedding. Mrs Higgins asks Doolittle if she could attend his wedding, she would feel sorry to miss his wedding. Doolittle replies that it would be an honour if she would come. The readers learn that Doolittle has not been married to Eliza’s mother but has refrained from telling her about it. Mrs Higgins tells that she shall accompany Eliza in the carriage to the church.

Eliza-Higgins Interaction: Higgins and Eliza are finally left alone while the rest go off to get ready. Higgins tells Eliza that if she comes back he will treat her just like he has always treated her. He declares that his manners are exactly the same as Colonel Pickering’s. Higgins believes that he is at least fair in that he has never treated anyone differently and is rude to everyone regardless of their social class. Eliza then compares Higgins to her father. Higgins accepts the comparison but not in its entirety. Higgins implores Eliza to return to Wimpole Street. He tells her that he has become rather used to having her around, and dependent on her for all sorts of little services, and that he will miss her if she goes away. Eliza retorts that he can always turn to his gramophone for her voice and to photographs for comfort since these objects do not have any feelings to hurt. He says that Eliza had taken on the position of a servant of her own accord. However, Eliza says that it was his lack of recognition of her as an individual that forced her into that role. His idea of an equal relationship is that: the two people do exactly as the other wants. Eliza regrets giving up her simpler life as a flower girl, loathing to be under the control of men. She realizes-“I am a slave now, for all my fine clothes.” He tells her that she should come back with him just for the sake of ‘good fellowship.’ He says he will adopt her as a daughter, or she can marry Pickering as a solution to her predicament. This infuriates Eliza who hotly replies that she would never marry Higgins even if he asks her, and even though he is nearer her age than Pickering is.

Eliza’s Intent to Marry Freddy: Eliza then reveals, much to Higgins’s surprise, that Freddy Hill loves her and has been writing love letters to her. He would probably make her happy. Higgins immediately dismisses him as a fool, and asks Eliza whether she expects him to be infatuated with her like Freddy. Eliza replies that all she wants is a little kindness and friendship. She says that she will marry Freddy and will support both of them by taking Higgins’s phonetic methods to his chief rival, Nepommuck. This suggestion infuriates Higgins. Eliza is thrilled to have found a way of tormenting him. She declares that she will advertise in the papers that Higgins’s duchess is only a common flower girl that he has taught, and that she will teach the same to anyone for a hundred guineas. Higgins is outraged but cannot help wondering at her character-he finds this defiance much more appealing than the submissiveness of the slippers-fetcher.

The Cliffhanger Ending: At this point, Mrs Higgins enters dressed for the wedding. She tells Eliza it is time to leave. As she is about to exit, Higgins tells Eliza to order for him some gloves, ties and cheese while she is out. Eliza takes her leave. As Mrs Higgins is about to depart, she remarks that her son had spoiled Eliza and that she should be uneasy about them if she were less fond of Colonel Pickering. Thus implying the possibility of her marrying Pickering. At this, Higgins laughs roaringly and says to his mother, “She’s going to marry Freddy. Ha ha! Freddy!….” Thus, the Play ends ambiguously.

Epilogue

The ambiguous ending of Act V makes readers question why Shaw is so insistent and abrupt in his conclusion. However, the dramatist does provide a resolution to the action in the Epilogue. In this account, Shaw not only scoffs at the craving for romance and its customary ‘happy endings’ but also repudiates the popular notion of the heroine marrying the hero of the romance. He has given a detailed and considered argument for why Eliza would never marry Higgins and vice versa. For one, Higgins is too attached to his mother to find any other woman even halfway comparable. Besides, he is very passionate about his work. Higgins would never be lonesome as Shaw says, “Had Mrs Higgins died, there would still have been Milton and the Universal Alphabet.”

Shaw considers Eliza’s refusal to marry Higgins to be a well-considered decision and not mere coquetry. Shaw holds that a woman’s decision regarding the choice of her spouse depends on whether she is really free to choose, and thereby on her age and income. A good-looking girl like Eliza does not feel any pressure to marry, and hence, can feel free to pick and choose. Her instinct tells her not to marry Higgins but it does not tell her to give him up. Undoubtedly, he shall remain one of the strongest influences in her life. In Shaw’s mind, if Eliza marries anyone at all, it must be Freddy-“And that is just what Eliza did. “The epilogue goes on to give a dreary account of their married life and faltering career as the owners of a flower and vegetable shop, in which Freddy and Eliza must take accounting and penmanship classes to really become useful members of the society. However, after initial troubles caused by their inexperience, their business flourished once they employed professionals to manage it.

The Epilogue further gives an account of an unexpected development in Clara. She began to read H.G. Wells and was deeply influenced by the Wellsian philosophy. Consequently, she lost her snobbery and began to make both friends and enemies. Instead of living in discontented idleness, she eventually decided to work and took up a job in an old furniture shop in Dover Street. Besides Clara, the fate of another character, i.e., Alfred Doolittle is also made clear. With the money he inherited from a millionaire, he became a success with the highest social classes.

The Epilogue ends by sketching a picture of a harmonious relationship between Eliza, the Colonel and Higgins. Shaw states that although Eliza has realised that Higgins does not need her, she also senses that his indifference is deeper and more profound than the infatuation of common souls. She harbours a private fantasy of having a romantic relationship with Higgins on a deserted island like any common man. But, this is mere fantasy. In real life, she likes Freddy and the Colonel and does not like Higgins and Doolittle. Shaw concludes that “Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relationship to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.”