Pygmalion has to be one of the best plays I have ever read, filled constantly with a misanthropic humor that looks down on the prideful arrogance and constantly straying machinations of humanity in all classes. It condenses everything there is to say about selfish people scoffing at a selfish world in the little story of a girl who is set free (imprisoned?) in the middle class on a bet between to wealthy men.

When Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering accidentally meet after a long correspondence, there mutual admiration is confirmed in person. In the same instance, they come across the boisterous flower girl Eliza and land upon a bet that Higgins can pass her off as a lady in no time flat. Higgins is a gentleman scientist who has studied language and humanity under a microscope. He finds the language fascinating and the humans detestable. Even so, his disgust at humanity doesn’t put him above a childish bullying attitude that gets him his way in most circumstances. As time goes on, Eliza proves that she’s as intelligent and strong as Higgins could have hoped, bringing his whole speculation together entirely. In doing so, she feels crippled by his condescending nature and by her own requirement to fend for herself in an entirely new social arena. She sees Pickering as a gentleman because he treats every flower girl with the respect others reserve for a lady, while Higgins treats even the highest born lady like she might be subhuman if she proves to be an obstacle.

This summary barely scratches the surface with everything touched upon in this play. Throughout, intelligent men are acting like children while complaining about humanity, upper class people disdain or pity the poor while the poor pity anyone with so many burdens as a middle class morality requires, and the concepts of romance and social position are turned and examined at every facet. There is a semester’s worth of content to chew over in this tiny, fast paced play.