Eliza thinks Pickering not Higgins taught her the difference between how a gentleman treats a lady vs how a cad treats a guttersnipe... I suppose that's what Pickering is there for in Shaw's play, as well as serving as a Watson-like foil to draw out Higgins' outrageousness. For some reason I was really focusing on Pickering in this production, maybe because I really like the actor who played him.
Has Doolittle enslaved his daughter? I'm not sure, she seems pretty wise to his excesses and desirous of something better, and even towards the end, forgiving of his selfishness. Eliza, like people who can pass as different races and can personally move back and forth through the boundaries of racial segregation, is granted a deeper understanding of how strong the walls are that keep people in their separate social spheres. And I suppose we in the audience can share in that understanding if we want to. |
