Pygmalion, perhaps Shaw’s best-loved play, tells of Professor
Henry Higgins’ attempts to transform the poor, Cockney
flowergirl, Eliza Doolittle, into a lady by changing her speech.
Higgins hears her speaking one night as she sells flowers, and
he says that, within three months, he can change her speech so
dramatically that she will be accepted in the highest society.
The next morning, she shows up at his door, offering to pay for
lessons because she wants to run her own flower shop. The
lessons go remarkably well, and indeed Eliza does pass for a
duchess at a ball. What Higgins has not considered is what will
happen to her then. He has taught her to act like a lady, but
she wants love and companionship, something he is not able to
give.