From Flower Girl to Lady

716 Words2 Pages

"You can take the girl out of the honky tonk, but you can’t take the honky tonk out of the girl.” To some this is a quote and to others it may remind them of a song, but no matter which it reminds a person of the meaning is the same: one may change a person, but they will always have that part of them deep down inside. In this play two men are appalled by how un-ladylike a young flower girl is. The men intrigue the flower girl, which then causes her to approach the men, and take them up on their offer to change her. Over time the men work on turning the flower girl into a true lady. In succeeding such a passion for love develops and causes issues between the lady and one of the men. The issues that were brought up show that even though Professor Higgins changed Eliza’s outward appearance in Pygmalion, he never could change her true character.
Topic sentence. “Ow, eez, yə-ooa san, is e? Wal, fewd dan y’ d-ooty bawmz a mather should, eed now bettern to spawl a pore gel’s flahzrn than ran awy athaht pyin. Will ye-oo py me f’them” (1. 11)? This is a word for word sentence of what Eliza, the flower girl sounded like at the beginning of Pygmalion. She had no grammar and her English was hideous to the higher social class people, but Higgins believed he could take this challenge and succeed with it. Higgins never had a doubt in his mind that he would not succeed in changing Eliza from a flower girl to a lady, no matter what obstacles were brought into play. "I couldnt. I dursnt. Its not natural: it would kill me. I’ve never had a bath in my life: not what youd call a proper one” (2. 43). Here the readers are beginning to learn more about Eliza and see what her life truly was like. She says here that she has never had a real bath. She has ...

... middle of paper ...

... her true self begins to come out for the first time in months. She starts talking and acting like the flower girl she used to be instead of Eliza, the girl Higgins made her.
Even though one's physical appearance may change over time, deep down inside that person will always be the same. In Pygmalion, Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering met a young flower girl whose character was appalling to the men. Pickering said he would pay for all expenses if Higgins could pass Eliza, the flower girl off as a lady. With much work Higgins won the bet. He passed the flower girl off as a lady in the public eye, but even though he “changed” Eliza she was still the same flower girl she used to be. Because no two people are the same, no one should try to be changed into someone they are not.

Works Cited
Shaw, George Bernard. Pygmalion. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 1997. Print.

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