| Eliza Doolittle | |
|---|---|
| Pygmalion character | |
 Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle meets Rex Harrison as Henry Higgins in the 1956 stage musical, My Fair Lady | |
| First appearance | Pygmalion |
| Created by | George Bernard Shaw |
| Portrayed by |
|
| In-universe information | |
| Alias | Liza |
| Nickname | "The Flower Girl" (Act I) |
| Gender | Female |
| Occupation | Flower girl |
| Family | Alfred P. Doolittle (father) |
| Spouse | Freddy Eynsford-Hill |
| Nationality | English |
Eliza Doolittle is a fictional character and the protagonist in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion (1913) and its 1956 musical adaptation, My Fair Lady.
Eliza (from Lisson Grove, London) is a Cockney flower seller, who comes to Professor Henry Higgins asking for elocution lessons, after a chance encounter at Covent Garden. Higgins goes along with it for the purposes of a wager: That he can turn her into the toast of elite London society. Her Cockney dialect includes words that are common among working class Londoners, such as ain't; "I ain't done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentleman" said Doolittle.[1]
Doolittle receives voice coaching and learns the rules of etiquette. The outcome of these attentions varies between the original play and the various adaptations (see the Pygmalion article).
- ^ Shaw, George Bernard. "Pygmalion/Act I". Retrieved 19 June 2016 – via Wikisource.