What is the crisis in Act 4 Pygmalion?

What is the crisis in Act 4 Pygmalion?

The crisis comes when Eliza gives vent to her anger and frustration, finally standing up to Higgins in the face of his insensitivity. Fear floods her at the thought that, having no further use for her, he will abandon her, throwing her into the street—just as her father and stepmother had done.

Why is Higgins upset at the end of Act 4?

Higgins tries to talk her down, suggests she get married, become a florist, etc., but Eliza doesn’t listen. All she wants to do is get out of there, telling Higgins that he can keep all the clothing and jewelry he bought her. This gets Higgins super angry and now he nearly pulls an Incredible Hulk and hits Eliza.

What does Eliza say to shock and hurt Higgins Act 4?

LIZA [taking a ring off] This ring isn’t the jeweler’s: it’s the one you bought me in Brighton. I don’t want it now. [Higgins dashes the ring violently into the fireplace, and turns on her so threateningly that she crouches over the piano with her hands over her face, and exclaims] Don’t you hit me.

How does Act 4 End Pygmalion?

Eliza has finally had enough of being treated like an experiment and stands up to Higgins. Despite his academic intelligence, Higgins lacks the emotional or social intelligence to consider Eliza’s own feelings. He doesn’t see her hard work in having won the bet, only his own.

What does Shaw mean by At Home Day?

The “At Home” day was a social custom in Victorian Britain, where women of gentle status would receive visitors on a specific day of the week.

What reason does Higgins give for deciding to take on the experiment with Liza?

What reason does Higgins give for deciding to take on the experiment with Liza? Because life is but a series of inspired follies, and one must never lose a chance to commit one.

What is Higgins opinion of Liza?

Higgins argues that he didn’t treat Liza poorly because she was a flower girl but because he treats everyone the same. He defends his behavior by attacking traditional social graces as absurd: “You call me a brute because you couldn’t buy a claim on me by fetching my slippers,” he says.

What is it that Eliza wants and why does she need Higgins help?

She wants to adopt middle-class manners that both Higgins and her father despise. Eliza’s ideal is to become a member of the respectable middle class, and in order to do so, she must learn proper pronunciation and manners. And whereas Higgins can get along without anyone, Eliza and Freddy need each other.

What does Higgins train Eliza do?

Henry Higgins, fictional character, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet that he can teach Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle how to speak proper English, in George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion (performed 1913).

How does Eliza wound Higgins to the heart?

She turns on Higgins and tries to wound him emotionally as he has wounded her, and she succeeds. How does Eliza “wound Higgins to the heart”? She accuses him of simply experimenting with her and implies that she does not want anything that either he or Pickering has given her.

What social class is Shaw criticizing in this act note lines that are examples of character flaws of this class?

In his play Pygmalion, Shaw criticizes the British class system by depicting situations that show that it is nurture, not nature, that influences the worth of a person.