Eliza Doolittle | |
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Pygmalion character | |
First appearance | Pygmalion |
Created by | George Bernard Shaw |
Portrayed by |
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In-universe information | |
Alias | Liza |
Nickname | "The Flower Girl" (Act I) |
Gender | Female |
Occupation | Flower girl |
Family | Alfred P. Doolittle (father) |
Spouse | Freddy Eynsford-Hill |
Nationality | English |
Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, My Fair Lady.
Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower seller, who comes to Professor Henry Higgins asking for elocution lessons, after a chance encounter at Covent Garden. Higgins goes along with it for the purposes of a wager: That he can turn her into the toast of elite London society. Her Cockney dialect includes words that are common among working class Londoners, such as ain't; "I ain't done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman" said Doolittle.[1]
Doolittle receives voice coaching and learns the rules of etiquette. The outcome of these attentions varies between the original play and the various adaptations (see the Pygmalion article).