At the beginning of Act III, Higgins tells
his mother that he has "A phonetic job" for her. When Mrs. Higgins protests that she
doesn't understand phonetics, he immediately tells her that it isn't a phonetic job after all,
then qualifies this by telling her that her part of the job is not phonetic.
The job Higgins actually has for his mother is to introduce Liza to her guests as a
member of their own social class so that Higgins can observe the effects of his phonetic
coaching. Although he admits that she does not sound or act like a lady, in spite of her perfect
pronunciation, Higgins has no real idea of what is missing from Liza's education or even the
practical difficulties of passing her off as a member of the upper middle class. It is Mrs.
Higgins who understands (and teaches Liza) that the classes are separated by more than merely
their accents and that she will have to learn to view the world and herself quite differently if
she is to succeed. When Higgins asks, after the guests have departed, if Liza is presentable,
Mrs. Higgins replies:
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.
She further observes that Liza will
have to be removed from Higgins's influence if she is ever to learn manners. The task he has set
himself, and now her, is far from being purely, or even predominantly, a phonetic job, and is
much more difficult than he can imagine.
No comments:
Post a Comment