Educating My Fair Lady

Educate, Don’t Exasperate

 “Words, words, words--I’m so sick of words! I get words all day through, first from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?” -- Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady

Really? More rain in Spain?

The above quote is taken from the opening of Eliza’s song “Show Me”, about halfway through the play. She is exasperated by Higgins, because nothing she does or says seems to please him. Further complicating her mood is Freddy, a young man of society who is hopelessly infatuated with her, despite only having met her briefly. Freddy seems convinced that she is a goddess incarnate and expresses his love for her in the most flowery of poetic terms. These showers of unfounded praise serve only to frustrate Eliza further, prompting the ranting in “Show Me”. I find three key principles of communication in this song, and today I'd like to address the first.

The professor bombarded Eliza with words: how to dress, how to eat, how to sit, how to speak.  Not only did he lecture at length about these things, but he also assigned her words and phrases to iterate as exercises in correct pronunciation.  These word exercises were then followed by verbal feedback--mostly critical and derisive.  “You always ____.”  “If you would just _____.”  “Why must you be so______?” Professor Higgins glossed over any progress she was making with a cursory remark of satisfaction to spend the majority of the time focusing on what she was doing wrong, so that he showed little appreciation at all for her effort.

My Fair Lady's Words

 “Words, words, words--I’m so sick of words! I get words all day through, first from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do?” -- Eliza Doolittle, My Fair Lady

I enjoy musicals an awful lot--as far as stage productions go, they generally rank highest in my book. I have not seen as many shows as some theatergoers, but I appreciate those which I have seen, and they stick with me long after the curtain falls. One of my favorites is My Fair Lady. At the opening of the play you meet Eliza, a young woman with a thick Cockney accent who makes her living selling flowers in the market. She runs into one young Professor Higgins, who is a specialist in phonetics, and he takes her in as a sort of linguistic experiment. He intends to prove that as much as “clothes make the man”, so too do words. In addition to dressing Eliza in the clothes of a proper lady and introducing her to polite society, he subjects her to rigorous lessons in elocution and conversation. In the end, she turns out as the very picture of a society lady (with the notable exception of her fiery demeanor). Her spirit endears her to the professor, who finds that he can’t do without her, and the play ends with the two of them falling oddly in love. The whole play is a witty exploration of the importance of language, which is part of why it is one of my favorites.