This is an interesting question, because I would want to
argue that the biggest change that is evident in Eliza by the end of this excellent play
is actually internal. It is easy to focus on the success of Higgins's experiment, and
the way that he is able to pass Eliza off as a upper-class lady, and certainly we see
that Eliza is treated very differently by all concerned compared to when she was a
caterwauling cockney flower seller. However, at the same time, the biggest and most
enduring change comes with the epiphany that Eliza experiences after her success and the
way that she is treated with complete indifference by Higgins, who has given no thought
at all to her future. The way that she is treated by Pickering, by contrast, who has
always been kind and polite to her from the beginning, even when she was a flower girl,
teaches her this important truth:
You see, really and truly, apart from the things
anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the
difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she's
treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats
me as a flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you
always treat me as a lady, and always
will.
The enduring change
that is produced in Eliza is therefore not in her outward appearance, how she looks and
speaks, but in the knowledge that the true indication of a person's worth is not to be
discovered in such outer trappings.
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