How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Act.Line). Every time a character talks counts as one line, even if what they say turns into a long monologue.
Quote #1
THE NOTE TAKER. Simply phonetics. The science of speech. That's my profession; also my hobby. Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby! You can spot an Irishman or a Yorkshireman by his brogue. I can place any man within six miles. I can place him within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets. (1.118)
Here, Higgins shows that speech can be regarded as a science and used as a tool.
Quote #2
THE NOTE TAKER. A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespear and Milton and The Bible; and don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon. (1.125)
Here, however, he invests speech with spiritual and cultural implications; English should be respected, he argues, is important because it is the language of great artists, and a gift from God.
Quote #3
THE NOTE TAKER. You see this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter to the end of her days. Well, sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party. I could even get her a place as lady's maid or shop assistant, which requires better English. That's the sort of thing I do for commercial millionaires. And on the profits of it I do genuine scientific work in phonetics, and a little as a poet on Miltonic lines. (1.129)
Again, Higgins displays a sort of ambivalence about language. He treats it as a tool for social advancement, a suitable subject for scientific inquiry, and a medium for artistic expression.
Quote #4
HIGGINS [confidently] Oh no: I think not. If there's any trouble he shall have it with me, not I with him. And we are sure to get something interesting out of him.
PICKERING. About the girl?
HIGGINS. No. I mean his dialect. (2.206-9)
Higgins's understanding of language leads him to treat certain people less as human beings than as test subjects
Quote #5
[To Freddy, who is in convulsions of suppressed laughter] Here! what are you sniggering at?
FREDDY. The new small talk. You do it so awfully well.
LIZA. If I was doing it proper, what was you laughing at? [To Higgins] Have I said anything I oughtn't? (3.122)
Here, Shaw demonstrates how easily language can be misinterpreted. What would seem like normal speech on the corner of Tottenham Court Road becomes novel and humorous in a new context.
Quote #6
HIGGINS. As if I ever stop thinking about the girl and her confounded vowels and consonants. I'm worn out, thinking about her, and watching her lips and her teeth and her tongue, not to mention her soul, which is the quaintest of the lot. (3.221)
Just as he does in Act 1, Higgins associates the act of speech with the soul, the uniquely human spirit. Here, however, he also seems to make little distinction between the physical parts used in the act of speaking and the soul.
Quote #7
LIZA. I can't. I could have done it once; but now I can't go back to it. Last night, when I was wandering about, a girl spoke to me; and I tried to get back into the old way with her; but it was no use. You told me, you know, that when a child is brought to a foreign country, it picks up the language in a few weeks, and forgets its own. Well, I am a child in your country. I have forgotten my own language, and can speak nothing but yours. That's the real break-off with the corner of Tottenham Court Road. Leaving Wimpole Street finishes it. (5.152)
Throughout Pygmalion, "correct" language is portrayed as a unifying force. Here, Eliza demonstrates that it can also be divisive.
Quote #8
PICKERING. He's incorrigible, Eliza. You won't relapse, will you?
LIZA. No: Not now. Never again. I have learnt my lesson. I don't believe I could utter one of the old sounds if I tried. [Doolittle touches her on her left shoulder. She drops her work, losing her self-possession utterly at the spectacle of her father's splendor] A—a—a—a—a—ah—ow—ooh! (5.156-57)
Although she has been taught to speak properly, Eliza's "old ways" seem to linger on some deeper level, associated with emotion rather than intellect.
Quote #9
HIGGINS. And I have grown accustomed to your voice and appearance. I like them, rather.
LIZA. Well, you have both of them on your gramophone and in your book of photographs. When you feel lonely without me, you can turn the machine on. It's got no feelings to hurt.
HIGGINS. I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you can take away the voice and the face. They are not you. (5.209-11)
It seems strange that Higgins should say this, given that he associates the soul so closely with speech.
Quote #10
LIZA [looking fiercely round at him] I wouldn't marry YOU if you asked me; and you're nearer my age than what he is.
HIGGINS [gently] Than he is: not "than what he is."
LIZA [losing her temper and rising] I'll talk as I like. You're not my teacher now. (5.232-34)
By using incorrect English, by rebelling against the standards of English grammar, Eliza is able to rebel against Higgins as well.