Throughout reading Shaw's play, Pygmalion, I could not help but acknowledge the different types of affection Eliza receives from the other characters in the story. In the beginning of the play, Eliza's character was introduced as the type of character who was too independent to care about other people besides herself. As the play progresses, I learned that Eliza has a compassionate personality.
The play reveals that through the difficult obstacles Eliza faces, those mishaps lead her to surpass as an independent person. Before Eliza studied under the wings of Professor Higgins, she was alone. Eliza was abandoned by her mother and father causing her to have parental issues. Eliza's parents are not as much involved in her life that she mentions in the beginning of the play that she does not have any parents when begging Higgins to educate her. Eliza does not have any parental influence to care for her well being; therefore, her actions are not entirely her fault.
When Eliza asked Higgins to teach her phonetics, it represented a cry for help. "Eliza may be haunted not by the early trauma of abandonment and rejection by her parents but, rather, by the as-yet-unknown new person she senses that she could be" (Wang 70). This cry for help to explore a new identity and to improve herself for society to accept her. The abandonment and rejection of Eliza's parents can be seen as a determination to prove them wrong. Maybe Eliza wanted to prove that she is better than what they thought of her? Maybe that was the reason why she asked Higgins to educate her and improve herself?
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