Pygmalion

“Theres menners f’yer! Tǝ-oo banches o voylets trod into the mad.”

Eliza’s first line illustrates her accent and also foreshadows the play’s thematic concerns with manners and class. Shaw’s use of phonetic language reinforces the importance of dialects in the play, as it ensures that readers and actors produce the desired sounds. Eliza’s criticism of Freddy’s manners foreshadows Shaw’s argument that class and manners are not synonymous.

“It's aw rawt: e's a gentleman: look at his bǝ-oots. [Explaining to the note taker] She thought you was a copper's nark, sir.”

The bystander’s observation about Higgins’s shoes demonstrates the importance of clothes in determining class and manners. By looking at his boots, the bystander can tell that he is not a police informant. The use of sir suggests that Higgins appears of a higher class than an informant and the bystander.

“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 Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and dont sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.”

Higgins imagines speech as having spiritual and cultural implications such that language is tied to the soul. As English is used by great artists and God, English should be respected and not corrupted by lower-class dialects. His criticism of Eliza reflects his inability to apply his linguistic philosophy and teaching empathetically. Because all can choose to use articulate language, their misuse, to Higgins, is an affront worthy of death.