This is a very good quote to select to consider the
character of Higgins in this play. Note the context of this quote is the way in which
Eliza protests that Pickering "treats a flower girl as if she were a duchess." Pickering
has shown her that the outer transformation of people is not important. Thus, the way
she talks and dresses is insignificant in terms of changing her. What is important, and
what secures the transformation, is how a person is treated by others. Note Eliza's
complaint:
I
shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a
flower girl, and always will; but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always
treat me as a lady, and always
will.
In response to this
charge, Higgins protests that actually this is unfair. He treats everybody the same,
regardless of their appearance or position in life. Higgins summarises the way he treats
everyone in the following pithy comment:
...in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven,
where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as
another.
Thus we can see that
Higgins is presented as an irrascible, arrogant and provocative individual, who has
treated Eliza badly, as she observes. However, the real question is asked by
Higgins:
The
question is not whether I treat you rudely, but whether you ever heard me treat anyone
else better.
Higgins looks
upon everybody else with equal annoyance and arrogance. Eliza is no exception. The only
reason he manages to get away with this is that he is at his core a good and harmless
individual.
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