Quote 1
MRS. HIGGINS. Be quiet, Henry. Colonel Pickering: don't you realize that when Eliza walked into Wimpole Street, something walked in with her?
[…]
PICKERING. But what?
MRS. HIGGINS [unconsciously dating herself by the word] A problem. […]
MRS. HIGGINS. No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures: the problem of what is to be done with her afterwards.
HIGGINS. I don't see anything in that. She can go her own way, with all the advantages I have given her. (3.248-255)
Mrs. Higgins is concerned that her son and Pickering have been short-sighted, and failed to acknowledge the full extent of their task. Eliza's problems, like her personality, are multifaceted.
Quote 2
MRS. HIGGINS. You silly boy, of course she's not presentable. She's a triumph of your art and of her dressmaker's; but if you suppose for a moment that she doesn't give herself away in every sentence she utters, you must be perfectly cracked about her. (3.203)
Mrs. Higgins, like Mrs. Pearce, seems to agree that Higgins can get carried where his "art" is concerned. He seems unable to acknowledge how artificial Eliza's behavior is.
Quote 3
MRS. HIGGINS. You certainly are a pretty pair of babies, playing with your live doll.
HIGGINS. Playing! The hardest job I ever tackled: make no mistake about that, mother. But you have no idea how frightfully interesting it is to take a human being and change her into a quite different human being by creating a new speech for her. It's filling up the deepest gulf that separates class from class and soul from soul. (3.223-224)
Higgins considers his teaching to be a kind of social work. The inability to communicate, he suggests, is at the bottom of man's social issues.
Quote 4
MRS. HIGGINS. No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures: the problem of what is to be done with her afterwards.
HIGGINS. I don't see anything in that. She can go her own way, with all the advantages I have given her.
MRS. HIGGINS. The advantages of that poor woman who was here just now! The manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own living without giving her a fine lady's income! Is that what you mean? (3.4-6)
Mrs. Higgins understands one of the more paradoxical aspects of class: those skills that put a woman of Eliza's stature on the same level as a woman from high society only prevent her from actually sustaining herself, from keeping herself out of poverty.
Quote 5
MRS. HIGGINS. Well, you never fall in love with anyone under forty-five. When will you discover that there are some rather nice-looking young women about?
HIGGINS. Oh, I can't be bothered with young women. My idea of a loveable woman is something as like you as possible. I shall never get into the way of seriously liking young women: some habits lie too deep to be changed. [Rising abruptly and walking about, jingling his money and his keys in his trouser pockets] Besides, they're all idiots. (3.22-23)
Higgins has said previously that women "upset everything"; now, even as he admits to preferring older women, he tells his mother that all women are idiots. Not exactly a nice thing to say to your own mother.
Quote 6
MRS. HIGGINS. No, you two infinitely stupid male creatures: the problem of what is to be done with her afterwards.
HIGGINS. I don't see anything in that. She can go her own way, with all the advantages I have given her.
MRS. HIGGINS. The advantages of that poor woman who was here just now! The manners and habits that disqualify a fine lady from earning her own living without giving her a fine lady's income! Is that what you mean? (3.4-6)
Higgins seems totally unaware of the place of women in society. Eliza herself will confront him and ask him what she is to do with herself after having been given such "advantages."
Quote 7
MRS. HIGGINS. But what has my son done to you, Mr. Doolittle?
DOOLITTLE. Done to me! Ruined me. Destroyed my happiness. Tied me up and delivered me into the hands of middle class morality. (5.54-55)
Doolittle, like his daughter, seems uninterested in the usual kinds of success. Higgins has ruined him by getting him a job as a lecturer and a huge income. He was happier being poor and "undeserving."