(47-82) Act 2

HIGGINS. Come back to business. How much do you propose to pay me for the lessons?
LIZA. Oh, I know what’s right. A lady friend of mine gets French lessons for eighteenpence an hour from a real French gentleman. Well, you wouldn’t have the face to ask me the same for teaching me my own language as you would for French; so I wont give more than a shilling. Take it or leave it. Tone Shift 1 ================================================================
HIGGINS [walking up and down the room, rattling his keys and his cash in his pockets] You know, Pickering, if you consider a shilling, not as a simple shilling, but as a percentage of this girl's income, it works out as fully equivalent to sixty or seventy guineas from a millionaire.
PICKERING. How so?	50
HIGGINS. Figure it out. A millionaire has about £150 a day. She earns about half-a-crown.
LIZA [haughtily] Who told you I only—
HIGGINS. [continuing] She offers me two-fifths of her day's income for a lesson. Two-fifths of a millionaire's income for a day would be somewhere about £60. It's handsome. By George, it's enormous! it's the biggest offer I ever had.
LIZA [rising, terrified] Sixty pounds! What are you talking about? I never offered you sixty pounds. Where would I get—
Tone Shift 2 ================================================================ HIGGINS. Hold your tongue.	55
LIZA [weeping] But I ain’t got sixty pounds. Oh—
MRS. PEARCE. don't cry, you silly girl. Sit down. Nobody is going to touch your money.
HIGGINS. Somebody is going to touch you, with a broomstick, if you don't stop snivelling. Sit down.
LIZA [obeying slowly] Ah-ah-ah-ow-oo-o! One would think you was my father.
HIGGINS. If I decide to teach you, I'll be worse than two fathers to you. Here [he offers her his silk handkerchief]!	60
LIZA. What’s this for?
HIGGINS. To wipe your eyes. To wipe any part of your face that feels moist. Remember: that’s your handkerchief; and that’s your sleeve. don't mistake the one for the other if you wish to become a lady in a shop. Liza, utterly bewildered, stares helplessly at him.
MRS. PEARCE. It's no use talking to her like that, Mr. Higgins: she doesn’t understand you. Besides, you’re quite wrong: she doesn’t do it that way at all [she takes the handkerchief].
LIZA [snatching it] Here! You give me that handkerchief. He give it to me, not to you.
Tone Shift 3============================================================= PICKERING [laughing] He did. I think it must be regarded as her property, Mrs. Pearce.	65
MRS. PEARCE [resigning herself] Serve you right, Mr. Higgins.
PICKERING. Higgins: I'm interested. What about the ambassador's garden party? I'll say you’re the greatest teacher alive if you make that good. I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiment you can’t do it. And I'll pay for the lessons.
LIZA. Oh, you are real good. Thank you, Captain. Tone Shift 4================================================================
HIGGINS [tempted, looking at her] It's almost irresistible. She’s so deliciously low—so horribly dirty—
LIZA [protesting extremely] Ah-ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo-oo!!! I ain’t dirty: I washed my face and hands afore I come, I did.	70
PICKERING. You’re certainly not going to turn her head with flattery, Higgins.
MRS. PEARCE [uneasy] Oh, don't say that, sir: there’s more ways than one of turning a girl's head; and nobody can do it better than Mr. Higgins, though he may not always mean it. I do hope, sir, you won’t encourage him to do anything foolish.
HIGGINS [becoming excited as the idea grows on him] What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day. I shall make a duchess of this draggle-tailed guttersnipe.
LIZA [strongly deprecating this view of her] Ah-ah-ah-ow-ow-oo!
HIGGINS [carried away] Yes: in six months—in three if she has a good ear and a quick tongue—I'll take her anywhere and pass her off as anything. Tone Shift 5================================================================ We'll start today: now! this moment! Take her away and clean her, Mrs. Pearce. Monkey Brand, if it won’t come off any other way. Is there a good fire in the kitchen?	75
MRS. PEARCE [protesting]. Yes; but—
HIGGINS [storming on] Take all her clothes off and burn them. Ring up Whiteley or somebody for new ones. Wrap her up in brown paper til they come.
LIZA. You’re no gentleman, you’re not, to talk of such things. I'm a good girl, I am; and I know what the like of you are, I do.
HIGGINS. We want none of your Lisson Grove prudery here, young woman. You’ve got to learn to behave like a duchess. Take her away, Mrs. Pearce. If she gives you any trouble wallop her.
LIZA [springing up and running between Pickering and Mrs. Pearce for protection] No! I'll call the police, I will.	80
MRS. PEARCE. But I’ve no place to put her.	5
HIGGINS. Put her in the dustbin.

Tone Shift Analysis Chart

Task:

Title and Author of the Piece: “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw
Topic: Satire of long-standing British social classes, and the journey of a deprived girl from a life on the streets as a flower girl, to an independent and powerful woman with a different personality.
Task to Accomplish: Analyze how Shaw utilizes changes in tone and dialogue to wittily chronicle the transformation of Eliza Dolittle into a lady, using humor along the way.

Opening Shot:

What is happening in the first few lines?

Eliza presents her offer to pay Higgins for lessons.

What is your first impression of the speaker’s TONE?

Confident

What is your evidence from the text?

Selection of Detail:

A lady friend of mine gets French lessons for eighteenpence an hour from a real French gentleman. Well, you wouldn’t have the face to ask me the same for teaching me my own language as you would for French; so I wont give more than a shilling.

Diction:

Take it or leave it.

What are your observations about the speaker/situation based on TONE and evidence?

Eliza believes she is speaking to the others on the same playing field. While she presents a triumphant proposal, she doesn’t know that Higgins and Mrs. Pearce are looking down on her as naive.

Shift (1):

Describe the shift in FOCUS, TONE, or BOTH

Tone: Mock celebration

Techniques/ devices used to achieve this shift:

Tone: Higgins’ sarcastic tone feigns sincere joy but subtly mocks Eliza for her naivete.
Analogy: Higgins uses a paradoxical analogy to convey his disdain for Eliza’s reasoning

Evidence:

Analogy:

She offers me two-fifths of her day's income for a lesson. Two-fifths of a millionaire's income for a day would be somewhere about £60.

Tone:

It's handsome. By George, it's enormous! it's the biggest offer I ever had.

Observations

Just as he doesn’t take Eliza’s offer seriously, Higgins doesn’t take Eliza seriously. He treats her not only as a commoner ignorant of his status, but as a child lacking common sense and reason. His tone betrays his hidden disgust with Eliza.

Shift (2):

Describe the shift in FOCUS, TONE, or BOTH

Openly condescending

Techniques/ devices used to achieve this shift:

Wordplay: Higgins twists Mrs. Pearce’s words to put Eliza down, revealing his unfettered repulsion by Eliza

Tone: Mrs. Pearce no longer disguises her low opinion of Eliza as an intruder into the domain of the wealthy

Evidence:

Wordplay:

HIGGINS. Somebody is going to touch you, with a broomstick, if you don't stop snivelling. Sit down.

Tone:

It's no use talking to her like that, Mr. Higgins: she doesn’t understand you. Besides, you’re quite wrong: she doesn’t do it that way at all

Observations:

After teasing her, Higgins finds no more reason to conceal his deep-seated dislike of Eliza’s manner. He condescends to her cruelly through witty wordplay. Pearce joins in with an unforgiving tone. Both of these reveal the deep disdain with lower class citizens among the elite.

Shift (3):

Describe the shift in FOCUS, TONE, or BOTH

Tone: Sympathetic

Techniques/ devices used to achieve this shift:

Selection of detail: Pickering chooses to remind Higgins of his bet and Pearce of the facts, in order to defend Eliza and help her case.

Evidence:

Selection of detail:

PICKERING [laughing] He did. I think it must be regarded as her property, Mrs. Pearce.

PICKERING. Higgins: I'm interested. What about the ambassador's garden party? I'll say you’re the greatest teacher alive if you make that good. I'll bet you all the expenses of the experiment you can’t do it. And I'll pay for the lessons.

Observations:

Pickering, unlike the others, regards Eliza as an equal, and treats her as such. He defends her from Pearce’s rebuke and from Higgins’ rejection. Here, there is a stark contrast between Higgins and Pickering. Although both are gentlemen, Shaw makes it clear that they are not the same. He suggests that besides wealth, there might be other ingredients to true gentility.

Shift (4):

Describe the shift in FOCUS, TONE, or BOTH

Tone: Greedily ambitious

Techniques/ devices used to achieve this shift:

Aphorism: Higgins’ abstract language reveal his pride and arrogance.
Hyperbole: Higgins’ overconfidence reveals that his motivations for helping Eliza are not benign. They’re more for his prestige than for Eliza’s betterment.

Evidence:

Aphorism:

HIGGINS [becoming excited as the idea grows on him] What is life but a series of inspired follies? The difficulty is to find them to do. Never lose a chance: it doesn’t come every day.

Hyperbole:

HIGGINS [carried away] Yes: in six months—in three if she has a good ear and a quick tongue—I'll take her anywhere and pass her off as anything.

Observations:

In this scene, Higgins’ character becomes quite transparent. It’s obvious that he doesn’t respect Eliza as a human. He treats the projects as if he were molding clay, not a woman. This could prove a mixed blessing for Eliza, since Higgins is in for the wrong reasons.

Shift (5):

Describe the shift in FOCUS, TONE, or BOTH

Tone: Forceful

Techniques/ devices used to achieve this shift:

Diction: Higgins aggressively pursues his new experiment to make a duchess of Eliza
Imagery: Higgins discusses Eliza either as an object or a child, issuing Mrs. Pearce orders to act against Eliza’s consent.

Evidence:

Imagery:

HIGGINS [storming on] Take all her clothes off and burn them. Ring up Whiteley or somebody for new ones. Wrap her up in brown paper til they come.

Diction:

HIGGINS. We want none of your Lisson Grove prudery here, young woman. You’ve got to learn to behave like a duchess. Take her away, Mrs. Pearce. If she gives you any trouble wallop her.

Observations:

In this scene, the mockery of English structures becomes apparent, as within society there is a belief that something other than wealth, a sort of refinement, separates the poor and the rich. Here however, comes this argument and full conviction that it’s possible to put on a farce and prove to people that wealth of character, and not material wealth, is what should divide people, through disguising Eliza as one of the upper class citizens and leading everyone to believe that she is one of them, when in reality, everything is fake (just like society at that time). Higgins, who treats Eliza like an object or child that only serves his curiosity, reveals the character flaws of the wealthy, so much so that even Pearce disapproves.