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Comparing My Fair Lady Linguistics And The Relation To Class, Gender

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Literature essay #2 Carter Semancik Emily Butler April 21, 2017 My Fair Lady linguistics and the Relation to Class, Gender, and other aspects Language can tell a lot about people in society, especially during the film, My Fair Lady and in the play Pygmalion. One of the main characters, Eliza Doolittle, represents one of the best examples of how language reflects social class. Henry Higgins is another main character in this play/film, who is the main reason for Eliza's transformation from a woman of a low social class to a respected figure. Throughout this essay I will be giving examples of how Eliza changes and how that affects her social status. The film is a bit different from the play but I will be referring to both. This film …show more content…

She sells flowers on the streets to make money and her dad works a lot as well to support the family. Her speech is obviously flawed as indicated in her use of slang terms. Her accent is considered “cockney”. She cannot pronounce many words correctly either. She has other problems with speech such as rhyming slang, replacing r’s with w’s, vowel differences and many others. In the United Kingdom during the late 1900s, people who spoke like this were most likely part of a low social class like Eliza. Higgins one day runs across her and hears the way she speaks and starts taking notes on her. She then …show more content…

The role of correct and proper language impacts Eliza’s life in such a positive way. Mainly and most importantly, it allows her social class to be at its highest potential. It also shows how women can be more highly respected when they use proper language. Additionally, proper language and speech can translate to being highly educated in most cases, which back in the early 1900s was not the norm. Women were typically viewed as the man's possession, but over time and with the help of smart educated women, that norm slowly changed. Even Eliza is represented as a strong independent woman when she decides to make a statement of her own dignity against Higgins after the ambassador’s party. At this point Higgins realizes she is not a duchess nor a mill around his neck, but something that is worthy of his attention. It is even more important during this time period because identity meant everything. For example, the way one talked determined their social class or social standing. Whereas today someone who has a broken southern accent can still prosper which was definitely not the case back in the early 1900s. Overall, proper linguistic habits positively affect people especially Eliza. She is looked at in a whole new way after her language transformation. She goes from a low class women, to a high class, proper women who is

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