What conflicts are suggested by details in Act I of Pygmalion?

Some conflicts that are foretold in Act I of Pygmalion are foreshadowed in Liza's hysterical encounter with Higgins, The Note Taker; her encounter with Pickering; her encounter with Freddy, Higgins encounter with Pickering; and Clara's encounter with ... herself. Liza and Higgins begin on a high pitched note and they stay there throughout the play. Higgins offers Liza a chance for a transformation of their relationship to one of "fellowship" but she doesn't believe him and their conflict persists throughout the Sequel.

Liza's encounter with Pickering of a different sort. She speaks civilly, not hysterically, with him and he responds in kind with returned civility. He then responds with courtesy and spare change when she asks him to buy a flower and he cannot. Contrast this to Higgins who responds with discourtesy but tosses her a fistful of considerable money, enough money for her to treat herself to two taxi rides and language lessons (or so she thought ...).

Liza's encounter with Freddy shows a conflict of a different kind. she tells his mother that she called him "Freddy" just like anyone would do wanted to speak pleasantly to a stranger. When Freddy falls in love with Liza, his love isn't fervently returned, which presents a conflict of a different sort for Liza and for Freddy. However, Liza marries him anyway, which is the fulfillment of her "pleasant" feelings for him foretold in Act I.

Higgins' and Pickering's encounter establishes from the very start that Higgins is a bachelor and will remain a bachelor because he wants to be a bachelor and because he won't change his nature or his manners for anyone. This introduces the central conflict between Liza and Higgins: She may not be romantically in love with Higgins--or she may have taught herself not to be (there is some ambiguity in her behavior in Act V)--but she wants to be treated like a lady and with kindness. Higgins counters with the idea that he may not treat her the way Pickering does, but the real question is whether he treats anyone better than he treats her.

And Clara--well--the Sequel makes it clear that all throughout the time period of the play, Clara has been in conflict with most people and with most elements of society. Her mother could not manage to buy her an education, as the Sequel says, and so she is not intellectually or culturally at one with the social groups she thinks she ought to belong to. One day, she chances upon H.G. Wells, has the good fortune to meet him, and has her own life transformed (more of Shaw's belief in Life force) and new avenues of possibility opened up to her.

What are some conflicts in Pygmalion?

Pygmalion explores class conflicts: conflicts between an ideology that believes class attributes are in-born (nature) versus Higgins's belief that he can teach class to Eliza (nurture) and pass her off as a lady. By creating a character in Eliza who quickly learns to speak and act like a higher class woman (though not without some comic blunders), Shaw punctures the idea that one class is naturally superior to another.

A second conflict occurs in class values: when Eliza's father comes into money, he finds the shift in expectations burdensome. He had adapted to a set of values in which he wasn't expected to marry, nor was he expected to take responsibility for other people. Once he has money, he complains of being expected to marry his partner and help out poorer relatives, as well as to look and behave respectably by middle class norms.

Finally, Eliza's self-supporting, if meager independence as a flower seller comes into conflict with middle class expectations that women be ornamental but largely useless. She attains the attributes of a middle class woman without the income, which means she will be destitute if she doesn't marry. Shaw shows that lower class people can rise up the class ladder but at the same time questions the advantages of becoming middle or upper class and explores the conflicts that changing one's social class can cause.

What are some conflicts in Pygmalion?

There are several conflicts worth mentioning in this play. First, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering have a playful "bet" that Higgins can't make a common flower girl speak and act like a duchess.  There is the issue of language, pronunciation, and what we actually hear and say as opposed to what we think we hear and say.

There is the issue that Eliza Doolittle does want to improve her situation in life, but is rather stuck in her position as flower girl since her income fluctuates and her education is limited.

There is the issue of what to do with Eliza once she learns to speak and act properly.  She can't go back to selling flowers, yet she has no real place among the aristocratic society she has been trained to infiltrate.

There is the conflict with Higgins and everyone else--including his mother--since he considerably rude, late, and isn't really the ideal role model for Eliza's "proper" education.

There is also the minor conflict of Eliza's father, who has come into some money himself and is struggling about his impending marriage and adjusting to suddenly becoming "a gentleman".

There is also the conflict of Eliza's romantic feelings for Higgins and for Freddy whom she meets at one of the outings to test her ability to fool others into thinking that she is high society.

What is the message of Shaw's Pygmalion?

Shaw's socialism is also relevant here. In the figure of Eliza Dolittle, he wants us to see how the working classes are so often cynically exploited by the social elite, as exemplified by the manipulative Sir Henry Higgins. The likes of Higgins don't see the lower orders as real people in their own right. They're little more than objects, who, if they're not being exploited economically, are used as guinea pigs in social science experiments.

However, Eliza is able to break free from this cycle of exploitation and assert herself as the dignified human being she always was, which she was never given the chance to do by a society in which wealth and appearance are everything. Indeed, it says a lot about this society, which Shaw so witheringly critiques in Pygmalion, that it can only accept Eliza once she's been outwardly transformed into a lady of quality.

What is the message of Shaw's Pygmalion?

Shaw's Pygmalion is a comedy. To a certain degree, Shaw's purpose in writing it was to entertain people. Shaw, however, even at his most entertaining, does have a polemical streak and tends to return to certain central ideas and themes across all his plays. Shaw's ideas are clearly expressed in the Prefaces to his plays, which are well worth reading carefully. 

First, Shaw was very concerned about reforming and simplifying English spelling. As you read the play, you will note several idiosyncratic elements in spelling and word usage; these are not accidental but part of Shaw's theory of language. The sheer importance of language as a tool of reasoning is also a consistent theme of the play. Shaw argues that if you cannot express yourself adequately, you cannot think rationally. That reforming the study of language and the way it was intertwined with the English class system, was the main point of the play is stated at the beginning of the Preface:

The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it sounds like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.

Next, as is discussed in the afterword, Shaw argues for his own rather peculiar form of feminism in his portrayal of the character of Eliza and his insistence that, irrespective of gender, strong people seek weaker mates and that strong women, rather than wishing to be dominated, choose weak husbands.

What is the message of Shaw's Pygmalion?

Pygmalion offers a critique of the Victorian English society, specifically the distinction between the upper and lower classes. Though English society of the time had a rigid social structure, Shaw demonstrates the foolishness in upper-class feelings of superiority: for one thing, Eliza Doolittle, a flower girl, is able to perfectly imitate and pass for a member of the wealthy elite. For another, some members of the upper classes, such as Higgins, are shown to be lacking in morality. Estimations of a person, Shaw implies, should be based not on money or clothing—or even accent, as Higgins seems to believe—but on kindness and goodness.

Another important message of the play is actually more psychological and has to do with the Pygmalion effect. The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon that explains how one's expectations can influence one's performance. Eliza says to Pickering that she's thankful to him for always treating her like a lady, even when she clearly wasn't, because that was the main reason why she began to respect herself and have more confidence. In fact, his belief in her was what motivated her to really learn how to behave and how to properly express herself.

But do you know what began my real education? ...Your calling me Miss Doolittle that day when I first came to Wimpole Street. That was the beginning of self-respect for me. And there were a hundred little things you never noticed, because they came naturally to you. Things about standing up and taking off your hat and opening doors ...

You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady, and always will.

Thus, Shaw reminds the readers to always give people a chance and to believe in their potential to become someone better, as this will help them achieve their goals.

What is the main point of Pygmalion?

Shaw, who was a Fabian socialist, wanted to illustrate the point that social class is based on opportunity, not genetics. Many people at the time—1913—believed that working-class people were poor because they were genetically inferior, not because they were systematically denied education and opportunity. Shaw uses comedy to show that class is based on outward packaging, not innate intelligence or ability, in order to argue that working-class people deserve the same chances in life as others.

Shaw uses Eliza Doolittle to make his point. She has spent her life in poverty, with a heavy Cockney accent and a job selling flowers on the street. She is in great need of a bath and lives in an unheated room. Nevertheless, Higgins bets that he can turn her into a lady who can pass as upper-class in the highest echelons of society.

Higgins achieves his goal by having Eliza bathed and redressed, then teaching her to speak with an upper-class accent. Higgins believes the key to her success is her accent. Once she sounds like an upper-class woman, many people accept her as such, even when she makes social blunders, such as saying the word "bloody" at one of Mrs. Higgins's afternoon teas. Freddy is taken with Eliza and Clara imitates her, though Mrs. Eynsford Hill is appalled by this behavior.

By the end of the play, Eliza speaks to Higgins as an equal, realizing his position is no higher than hers and that she herself could become a teacher of phonetics, ultimately stealing business from him. This turns out to be merely a threat, though Eliza does eventually marry Freddy, a member of the upper class, and the two go on to open their own flower shop.

What is the main theme of the play Pygmalion?

There is another way of interpreting Eliza Doolittle’s transformation by Professor Higgins.

After she passes Higgins’s test, the Professor and his partner Pickering treat her coldly, not even bothering to congratulate or thank her. Offended, Eliza disappears without saying anything to the two men. When they discover she is in Mrs. Higgins’s home, the Professor is irritated that she is not more grateful for making Eliza into a proper lady.

He sulks and pouts, annoyed that Eliza would expect gratitude after what he sees as the hard work he had to put into changing her ways so that she could play the part of a convincing lady. He continues to mock her, joking about her suggestion that she will marry Freddy and hand over Higgins’s phonetic techniques to his rival. The play ends ambiguously with no clear indication as to what is going to happen to these characters.

Rather than exalting the ability of the lower classes to fit in with the upper classes through hard work, Shaw is making a comment about the frivolity and emptiness of English high society. Eliza thanks Pickering for always treating her like a duchess, even when she is still a lowly flower girl. She says that his treatment of her is what allowed her to really embody a lady. She gained self-respect and belief that she never had before because of Pickering’s kindness and gentility.

Contrary to what Higgins believes, his experiment was successful in spite of him—not because of it. As he walks offstage in the final act, Higgins laughs hysterically about Freddy. The lack of seriousness with which he treats Eliza, a member of the lower class, is indicative of his prejudice and shallowness. Regardless of how much training and education she receives, Higgins will never see Eliza as anything more than a flower girl.

Of course, Shaw fills in the ambiguous ending with a lengthy epilogue that confirms Eliza’s marriage to Freddy and Higgins’s continued judgment.

What is the main theme of the play Pygmalion?

Shaw wanted to puncture the idea that genetics or a person's family background "naturally" fitted them to be upper- or lower-class. He believed that people from any class could be born with brains and talent and rise to the top if given the opportunity.

To highlight his idea that lower-class people in England could get ahead if they were given the right education, Shaw centered his play on a lower-class Cockney woman from the slums of east London. Eliza Doolittle has little education, never has had a full bath, wears terrible clothes, and speaks with a Cockney accent. Professor Higgins bets that if he cleans her up, teaches her how to behave, and trains her to speak English with an upper-class accent, he can pass her off in any social group, no matter how grand.

The plan works. With the right accent, manners, and clothes, Eliza Doolittle passes muster among royals and aristocrats. Shaw thus shows that denying lower-class people the opportunity to improve themselves is wrong.

What is the main conflict of Pygmalion?

The tense relationship between Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins is the basis of Pygmalion's central conflict. Initially, this does not appear to be so: Higgins makes a bet that he can pass Eliza off as a duchess by teaching her upper-class English, and so the two have to work together to achieve this goal. However, once Higgins wins his bet, he does not acknowledge Eliza's role in the success and does not seem to consider how his games affect her.

Eliza comes to resent Higgins's treatment of her. She feels her hard work deserves to be acknowledged. She also feels Higgins is callous in not considering how her social role has been changed by the bet: she now no longer fits wholly into the lower or upper classes. Higgins is offended by Eliza's hurt reaction, calling her a "heartless guttersnipe" when she returns the ring he'd given her. He seems unable or unwilling to consider her reaction as anything other than histrionics.

The conflict resolves when Eliza chooses to leave Higgins. She decides she will marry Freddy and perhaps even teach others how to speak the way that Higgins has taught her. She has become fully independent. Ironically, Higgins likes Eliza's newfound fire and credits himself for its existence, but the ending scene strongly implies she has no interest in returning to him.

In Pygmalion, how is the major conflict resolved?

The ending of this excellent play has puzzled many over the years, who find it very ambivalent. Although this play promises to be a romance, we are given no romantic ending between Eliza and Higgins. Instead, the conclusion of their relationship is left very open at the end. However, the central theme of the play revolves around social standing and how it is gained. Eliza has successfully moved from being a poor flower-girl to acting like "a duchess," yet as Eliza says herself in a very perspicacious comment, "the difference between a lady and a flower-girl is not how she behaves, but how she is treated." Self-respect is the key to transformation, and from the moment that Pickering referred to her as "Miss Doolittle," Eliza's process of transformation had begun. Respectability, as modelled by the other ladies in the play, is what Higgins has taught Eliza, and is shown as something that can be taught. Yet self-respect is something more intrinsic and leads to the development of a free-thinking character that is able to grow. Eliza by the end of the play has learnt the difference between the two states, and having learnt both of them, is able to judge between them. Self-respect is shown to be much more important than respectability, as Eliza's new found confidence demonstrates.

What is the main cause of the tragedy in "Pygmalion"?

Henry Higgins' ambition and arrogance are the reasons behind the tragedy of Pygmalion.  He is completely wrapped up in the success of his experiment--to teach Eliza Doolittle, a common flower girl, to speak and act as though she were a duchess.  His language skills are superb, but he fails to realize that the experiment isn't just about him and his success as a linguist.  Eliza Doolittle is a person.  She must live after the experiment has ceased.  Henry does not consider that she will no longer fit in her previous position of flower girl, yet she does not have income or means to support her new "duchess" lifestyle. 

What are the themes of Shaw's play "Pygmalion"?

There are several themes in Pygmalion:

appearance vs. reality
social snobbery
social transformation
phonetics and language education
the marginalization of women
the inadequacy of myth

The main theme, and one to which the others relate, is that of appearances versus reality. This theme of appearances is developed primarily through the characterization of Eliza Doolittle, but the others also come into play. For instance, as Professor Higgins works on his experiment with the flower girl from Lisson Grove, he instructs Eliza in elocution, and she learns how to speak as he does and to conduct herself as a lady [theme of education]. Then, with the proper clothes and expressions, Higgins plans to introduce her to society and observe whether anyone notices that she gives only the appearance of a lady of refinement and breeding [appearance vs. reality]. When Eliza attends a parlor party, Higgins's experiment is a success, even when Eliza unknowingly speaks of her aunt's death and her father's drinking because she speaks with such finesse [language education and appearances vs. reality] that Freddy, who gave her no audience in the beginning as she was but a flower girl, is now fascinated, believing that she is using the latest "small talk." However, before she departs, in the most famous line of the play blurts out, "Not bloody likely." This expletive shocks her listeners into reality.

Eliza's father also acquires a new appearance: that of a higher economic status since a wealthy American has left Mr. Doolittle enough money that the dustman can become a man of the middle class. [socio-economic transformation] However, he has not acquired the language skills that his daughter has, so that the reality of his beginnings is yet apparent. Still, he moves into a better class as he marries Eliza's mother.

In the Act IV of Shaw's play, there is an examination of the position of women in the Victorian society. Certainly, Eliza has been marginalized as she has been treated as a mere experiment and not a person with feelings. For, after Higgins returns home and Higgins congratulates him on winning his bet. When Higgins asks Eliza to find his slippers, she hurls them at him.

HIGGINS. What on earth--...Anything wrong?
ELIZA. [breathless] Nothing wrong--with you. I've won your bet for you, havn't [sic] ....I don't matter, I suppose.
HIGGINS. You won my bet! You! Presumptuous insect! I won it. What did you throw those slippers at me for?
ELIZA. ....I'd like to kill you, you selfish brute....You thank God it's all over, and that now you can throw me back again there, do you?....
HIGGINS. Ah! would you?....How dare you shew [sic]your temper to me?
ELIZA. ....Whats [sic] to become of me? Whats [sic] to become of me?
HIGGINS. How the devil do I know....What does it matter what becomes of you?

Further in this act, Higgins is cruel and uncaring, as well. In the final act, Act V, Eliza informs Higgins that she is leaving him to marry Freddy. Higgins scoffs at this. But, in the Epilogue, Shaw narrates that Eliza does, indeed, marry Freddy. 

These confrontations between Eliza and Higgins illustrate not only the theme of the marginalization of women, but they also depict the inadequacy of myth. Like the story of Pygmalion, Higgins forms a beautiful woman, but because his is real flesh and blood, conflicts occur and perfection is not reached as there are problems that must be addressed, such as what is Eliza to do with the rest of her life after the bet is won.

What is the concept of the play Pygmalion?

Shaw's basic concept is to show that social class, which is very important in a hierarchical society like England's, is not inherited genetically but learned. In other words, social class is a product of nurture, not nature. Many upper class people at the time (1913) thought that superior genes were passed down through parents and grandparents and that people of lower-class "stock" were genetically inferior to them. The poor quite simply were born, to their minds, unable to acquire the attributes of middle- or upper-class people and must accept their lowly status in life. Shaw wanted to puncture and ridicule this myth.

To do this, he has Henry Higgins, an upper-middle class linguist, enter into a bet that he can transform lower-class Cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle into a person who can be passed off as a lady in the highest echelons of society. He does this with stunning success by having Eliza bathed, dressing her in good clothes, teaching her upper-class manners, and most importantly, teaching her to speak with an upper-class accent. By the end of the experiment, even dukes and other aristocrats are convinced she is of their class. This proves that class is learned, not inborn.

What is the concept of the play Pygmalion?

The title and basic concept of Shaw's play Pygmalion are taken from an ancient legend most famously recounted by Ovid, the story of Pygmalion and Galatea. In this story, Pygmalion was a Greek sculptor who created the statue of a beautiful woman and fell in love with the statue. He prayed to the Greek goddess Aphrodite to make the statue come alive. Aphrodite granted his wish.

The concept behind this is the idea of a man, unsatisfied with real women, molding his own ideal female. Higgins, although a confirmed bachelor, attempts to mold Eliza Doolittle into an ideal upper class woman. In one sense, Eliza, due to her superb ear and facility for imitation is the perfect subject for this experiment. However, unlike the marble sculpture, she has ideas, emotions, and a will of her own. Even though she does an outstanding job of learning how to pass as an upper class lady, she is not a purely passive receptacle of Higgins' creativity. 

What are the themes of Pygmalion?

One of the themes you might like to consider is the fluidity of identity. On the face of it, it would appear that Eliza Dolittle's identity is fixed. She's a humble Cockney flower seller who looks set to remain in this lowly condition for the rest of her days. And yet Eliza, as a result of Higgins's experiment, is able to morph into a lady of quality and is able to take her place among the upper echelons of society without arousing the least soupçon of suspicion.

This stunning transformation would appear to suggest that identity is anything but fixed. On the contrary, Eliza's experience shows how it's possible for someone to put on a new identity and leave behind one's former self in the past. It's by no means an easy task, to be sure, and there are lots of bumps in the road along the way. But the very fact that someone from Eliza's humble background can become, to the outside world, a lady of refinement, bears eloquent testimony to the fluidity of identity in a society where appearance is everything.

What are the themes of Pygmalion?

I have linked below to the many themes of Pygmalion discussed on eNotes, including beauty, identity, appearance versus reality, and sexism. I will, however, talk about class, since that seems to me the most important theme of this play. Shaw was a Fabian, a kind of socialist who thought socialism could be brought about through reform, not by revolution. In the play, he attacks the British class system, in which the opportunities people had were based primarily on who their parents were—in other words, on the accident of birth. A class ideology or belief system insisted that people of higher class parents were genetically or innately superior to those of the lower classes, who were often thought to be born inferior or with a genetic predisposition to crime or immorality. In Pygmalion, Shaw explodes this myth of class by showing that Eliza, an impoverished flower seller, could, with a little training in how to speak and act like a lady, outshine the born aristocrats and become fit to marry a Duke (though she doesn't). Shaw also shows, in the depiction of Eliza's father, Mr. Doolittle, who comes into money, that it is economics, not birth, that determines who behaves morally according to middle-class norms.

What was Pygmalion's conflict? 

Pygmalion explores class conflict. In a class-bound society like England, a conflict raged: was social class inborn or socially constructed? In other words, were people from the lower classes genetically inferior, incapable of learning the gracious behavior of upper class people, or had they been held down and "coarsened" by their lack of economic opportunities? Were they naturally "depraved" or had they been made that way? 

Henry Higgins sets out to prove that he can pass off a lower-class Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as an aristocratic lady by teaching her to speak proper English, instructing her in manners, and dressing her as an upper-class woman. 

Higgins succeeds, perhaps beyond his dreams, and in the process, upends popular misconceptions in 1913 about social class, showing that it is nurture (or lack thereof), not nature, that keeps people down. Upper class people are not innately superior. Higgins, however, can never quite get over his class prejudices, or his sexism, and thus can never treat Eliza fully as a human being. Shaw's play, therefore,  not only upsets the idea that the upper classes are naturally (genetically) superior but calls into the question the careless and often destructive way women and lower-class people were treated. 

Pygmalion's conflict at the end of the play that Eliza is caught between marriage, the only role she is fitted for now that she is a lady, and her own desire for independence and autonomy.

Discuss the themes of social snobbery, transformation, creation, education, and appearance versus reality in Pygmalion.

Since you mention several themes, you might want to point out that some of them are interrelated and can be discussed together. For example, the theme of social snobbery is tied in with the theme of "appearance versus reality." Social snobbery usually refers to the way society looks down on people due to the circumstances beyond their control—how much money they have, their looks, their background. In other words, social snobbery is all about appearance rather than reality. There are many incidents in Pygmalion where people are judged solely upon their appearance.

The theme of social transformation is likewise related to the theme of education and the theme of creation. Higgins sets out originally to merely "educate" Eliza. (He does have some social transformation in mind, but he thinks it will be merely superfluous and temporary.) However, due to the process of education, Eliza actually becomes someone else—she is unable to go back to her old self and old life—and Higgins, in essence, has created a new person. It is important to mention here the transformation and education of Higgins himself (has he learned from the experience?) along with the experience of the other characters, namely, Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father. 

Discuss the themes of social snobbery, transformation, creation, education, and appearance versus reality in Pygmalion.

The first thing you should probably do is to remember that this play originally comes from the ancient world. The fullest rendering of the poem comes from Ovid. So, if you look at Ovid's take on the myth and compare it with Shaw's version, then there would be great room for discussion. Second, the whole story is about transformation. So, you can take this theme and talk about the internal transformation of Pygmalion or even the transformation of the reader as he or she reads the story. Remember Orpheus, the greatest bard, is telling the story in Ovid. His music is supposed to transform people! You can also talk about what "seems to be" and "is." this is a classic discussion among the ancients. What is the difference? What are the similarities? What role does art play into this discussion, especially as art seeks to imitate nature?

What is the specific theme being expressed in the play "Pygmalion"?

At the risk of sounding like Bill Clinton, what specifically do you mean by the word "specific"? (If you're too young to get that joke, check out the link below.)

Unless our name is George Bernard Shaw, we can only attempt to say what is the theme of "Pygmalion."  

In my humble opinion, there are two main themes in "Pygmalion."

a) Distinctions of class (upper class, lower class, etc.) are artificial.  If a "guttersnipe" like Liza Doolittle can be trained to the point that she can be the star of a high-society ball, then what real difference is there between the guttersnipe and the princess?

b) Education can modify our behavior and our attitudes, but only up to a point.  At the end of the play, Liza chooses to marry Freddy and run a flower shop rather than live the high-life with Higgins.  She would be utterly incapable of returning to the gutter--but she is just as incapable of dealing full-time with Higgins's snobbery, intellectualism, and occassional forays into high society.

Remember: theme is a matter of opinion.  Your opinion must be reasonable and well-supported by the text, but it is still your opinion.

How is the idea of making the best of life portrayed in Shaw's Pygmalion?

Shaw loved to poke fun at society and its prejudices. Pygmalion, loosely based on the myth of Pygmalion (Book Ten of Ovid's Metamorphosis), demonstrates that social class is not necessarily permanent, and that rich or poor, people are people.

The idea that individuals have to just accept their lots in life is opposite of Shaw's theme. Eliza was a poor flower-girl whose accent kept her from getting a proper education and a real job. British society would keep her there, saying that she must make the best of her circumstances, but there is no way to break out of that class. Professor Higgins proved otherwise by teaching Eliza a more upper class way of speaking--and she was accepted by the upper class as one of their own. Eliza was not "stuck" in the lower classes of London, but could (and did) work her way up.

The same is true in modern culture. Just because someone is born into bad circumstances does not mean that he or she has to stay that way. Hard work and commitment can give any individual the possibility of great success.