hole-heartedly agree. However, the poor English that Eliza spoke was never considered as becoming a legal language in England. The play begins off on a rainy night on the streets, with a lady and her daughter waiting for a cab. In this first act, Eliza asks them to buy a flower from her, with the response from the daughter, “Do nothing of the sort, mother. The idea!” When the mother gives her some change, the daughter again exclaims, “Make her give you the change. These things are only a penny a bunch … ……sixpence thrown away! Really, mamma, you might have spared Freddy that.” She then retreats disgusted and unable to believe that her mother had actually given in to the poor flower girl. Another example is when Eliza goes to get in the taxi and the driver is trying to keep her out, assuming that she has no money to pay for the ride. When Higgins meets Eliza, he comes across as very rude, saying: “Woman; cease the detestable boohooing instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship……A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere – no right to live…. this creature with her kerbstone English: the English that will keep her in the gutter till the end of her days…Well sir, in three months I could pass that girl off as a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party…..”He then goes on to call her names like “squashed cabbage leaf” ; “disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns” and an “incarnate insult to the English language”. With obviously no respect for the poor girl, he would say anything that he wants to her, with no spare to her feelings at all. An example related to this scenario can be compared to “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, by Peggy McIntosh. In this article, she describes how gender, race and sexual preferen...
