"Isn’t the real 'villain' of the piece Eliza’s father? An alcoholic absentee baby-daddy of the first order, a man has never valued his daughter for anything except for what money she can give him and then, later, is excited that he may profit from her as a prostitutable commodity."
Good points. I would say Alfie Doolittle is presented in MFL and in PYGMALION as largely a comic character, sort of an outrageous but lovable rogue. But if you look at his relationship with and treatment of Eliza on a more serious level, it's really quite sad and disturbing. And you didn't even mention the fact that, according to Doolittle himself, corporal punishment was also very much a part of the picture; at one point, Alfie says to Higgins re Eliza, "If you have any trouble with 'er, give 'er a few licks o' the strap. That's the way to improve 'er mind." Interesting how the subject of physical abuse of women has been and continues to be such a huge flash point in CAROUSEL and is hardly even mentioned in the discussion of MFL, but I'm sure that's mostly a question of dramatic focus. |
