Status Updates From Pygmalion

Act III and Act IV are such a stark contrast to each other. In Act III, I was happy for Eliza, but in Act IV, I felt genuinely sorry for her. Higgins really doesn’t seem to have even the slightest shred of morality.

PICKERING. Have you no morals, man?
DOOLITTLE [unabashed] Can’t afford them, Governor. Neither could you if you was as poor as me.
How awful...

In England, accent is closely tied to social class, education, and opportunity. Is a person’s social standing really determined by their abilities or by the way they speak, their accent, their appearance, and their social manners? If a person’s social position can be transformed simply by changing their accent, how natural is the social class system we take for granted?