Language in literature - Research Paper Example

Behavior, which is also a language, will provide clues to ‘breeding’, something that despite its insinuation is actually a learned set of behaviors based upon structures of social learning defined by the classes in which one has been born. Higgins rightly proposes that any person can learn to behave and speak in a manner that will insinuate social class. Through his ‘creation’ that is formed from educating the flower girl, he designs an experiment in which to study his theories about social class.

The initial interaction that takes place between Higgins, Pickering, and the Flower Girl, in concern with learning to speak with a more sophisticated nature, takes place through the initiated advance of the girl. She wishes to be able to speak in a manner that is more genteel, her ambitions along those lines intending to get her a job in a flower shop. Therefore, the whole of the play is dependent upon the distinctions of social class and the perceptions of such in regard to personal success.

Furthermore, a discussion of the value of a human being in regard to social life is explored during this first meeting. Higgins treats the girl as if she has no will nor say in how she will be treated nor how she can structure her immediate life. He instructs her when to sit, that her clothes will be burned, and that Mrs. Pierce will ’clean her up’, suggesting that she no longer has the right to her own sense of existence. He is clear that her current social class does not afford her the luxury of courtesy (Shaw).

It is the language that he uses towards her that places her in this predicament. His authoritative and dismissive tone places her in a dilemma whereby she either gets what she needs out of the arrangement, or defies him and gets nothing. As much as a social contract is put into place, it is not created on equal terms. Her lack of social grace makes her appear to be