Does Manners Determine Social Class?
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Jevonne Davis
Ms. Medina
A.P English Literature
18 March 2016
Does Manners Determine Social Class?
We typically use peoples manners to determine how classy or low one is. In Pygmalion, manners are very important to the time period. It is how you can tell who is rich and who is poor. However, there are examples that show that the lower class is more respectable than the upper class. In addition, there are upper class people who are more respectable than other upper class people. The main divide between the rich and poor is their money. Flower girls are poor because they do not make enough money selling flowers. Manners do not determine social class but money does.
When Liza goes to meet Mr. Higgins for lessons we see how disrespectful Higgins is towards her, “Pickering: shall we ask this baggage to sit down or shall we throw her out the window.” Mr. Higgins in the book is clearly the richest man in town but also the most disrespectful. He refers to Liza as baggage which in other words is trash or junk. With Liza being a flower girl he probably treats her like this on purpose but Pickering his friend treats her with respect. This shows the differences between two men who are both rich. This is why manners does not determine social class because everyone’s manners are different. In act 4, Liza and Mr. Higgins have a huge fight over what is to be done with her and Higgins insults her, “You! Presumptuous insect! I won it…The Creature IS nervous, after all.” Like before, he disrespects Liza again. He has been around Liza for some months now to be able to have gain respect for her. This just goes to show not only does he have poor manners but he does not like her her at all. If manners determine social class then Liza will be in the upper class and Higgins in the lower class. We see in the book that Liza has respected Higgins no matter what but he still treats her poorly because she is not rich as him.
One of the more respectful people than Higgins is Mrs. Pearce. She is his maid who is part of the middle class. Mrs. Pearce assures Mr. Higgins that he must watch his mouth around liza, “___________________________________.”