How do you explain to your daughters... - My Fair Lady (1964) Discussion

[–] Cooly_44 10 years ago

Very easily. It was the era. Eliza was not going to become a doctor, lawyer or lobbyist. Marriage was basically the only career choice for women back then. At least with Henry he wasn't going to touch her physically. She could live there, have a nice room and good food and pleasant conversation.

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[–] TheGuyWithTheFeet 10 years ago

Well, no. He built her up, she made a decision that he was a douche to her, she left, he came crawling back to her, she gave him the finger, he realized that he was a douche and she realized that he had something she needed.

So, I don't see it as a misogynistic thing at all. She was ready to stand on her own two feet and went back to him of her own accord. She didn't do it out of necessity.

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[–] mathknapp 10 years ago

But ... what did Higgins have that Eliza needed? A sharp tongue?

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[–] TheGuyWithTheFeet 10 years ago

Ooooo-KAY. This is a family board. None of that.

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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

marriage was not the only career choice for women. Many women worked for a living, and with her new accent, Eliza could have got a job in a flower shop for instance, or with her improved accent as a telephonist (you had to have a good speaking voice for that) or even taught elocution. It is true few women were doctors or lawyers - but how many wome are actually going to be doctors or lawyers nowadays? far more women will be working in shops or offices or doing other jobs that are not so glamorous. Eliza went back to higgins because she loved him, not because she had no other options.

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[–] Franco_Zed 10 years ago

"So exactly how do we justify this movie as a "happy" ending?"

I don't see their relationship as being romantic. I see him as being like an uncle for her -- or possibly a teacher, or employer.

The idea of the 2 of them getting married, makes me want to violently barf -- and then afterwards violently barf, again.

_______
How was your day, Paul?
Yes, I also had a pleasant day.
I went working and shopping.

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[–] MyMovieTVRomance 10 years ago

I don't see their relationship as being romantic. I see him as being like an uncle for her -- or possibly a teacher, or employer.

The idea of the 2 of them getting married, makes me want to violently barf -- and then afterwards violently barf, again.

Well, I can see how your thoughts might have something to do with their age-difference, which didn't really exist in the 1938 non-musical version. Still, I think they are a fantastic couple (in both versions), because they had a true, tender affection for each-other that was wrapped up in fuzzy pride. And, oh how lovely, when revealed! I love that kind of slow-burning care.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

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[–] Franco_Zed 10 years ago

The age difference is a factor, but it is not nearly as big a problem as the fact that he treated her terribly.

_________

Boba Fett survived the Sarlaac Pit and married a woman named Smur.

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[–] cmashieldscapting 9 years ago

Um, have them read the original play?

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[–] servo-spiked-the-punch 9 years ago

"So exactly how do we justify this movie as a "happy" ending?"

I don't see their relationship as being romantic. I see him as being like an uncle for her -- or possibly a teacher, or employer.

The idea of the 2 of them getting married, makes me want to violently barf -- and then afterwards violently barf, again.

I too don't see the ending as romantic in the least. I do believe Eliza develops a sort of infatuation for the man who plucked her out of the gutter [as cruel as he was and is.] but by the end of the movie [and book/play], Eliza is supposed to have grown out of it and is left with a bittersweet affection.

As for Henry Higgins, he is depicted in all versions as having a bit of a mother-complex, in that all woman are forever vastly inferior to his mother. He has never and will never be physically interested in a female, let alone romantically and that suits him just fine. His affection for Eliza is one of familiar comfort and that of an egotistical creator who wishes to possess and admire his work for purely selfish gratification, forgoing the feelings of said 'creation'.

The fact that this went over to the head of so many people from the start is baffling to me, because I saw the complexity clear as day, but apparently not many others did or have.

G.B. Shaw was left no choice but to write a sequel of sorts and tack it on to the end of the published work a few years after it's release. He explains why such a thing as a romantic or living relationship between Eliza and Higgins would never work and should never be and then says what happens to the characters after the events of the play in a couple of short sentences.

He ends with, "Eliza is still a part of Wimpole Street and she is still interested vaguely in Higgins, but she keeps him at a distance and holds his derisions of Freddy to a minimum. She is also very much beloved by Colonel Pickering, and she returns his love. In Shaw's words, Eliza "likes Freddy and she likes the Colonel; and she does not like Higgins and Mr. Doolittle. Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable."

[basically, if she loves anyone she loves colonel pickering, so stick that in ur pipe and smoke it. :b]

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[–] texastreasure517 10 years ago

This is a typical "Hollywood ending". The trivia section has great information about the original intent of the author and how the ending was changed without authorization. Perhaps you could read the original play with them or at least see the movie "Pygmalion" together.

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[–] Trax-3 10 years ago

The movie Pygmalion ends exactly the same way as My Fair Lady.

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[–] bradford-1 10 years ago

Waitaminit! Higgins offered to advance her the cash to open a flower shop, didn't he? Assuming she made a go of it, that meant she could have an independent income, something most women of that period didn't have.
"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

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[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

a lot of women did have independent incomes. women worked in shops, factories, offices, as teachers, nurses, etc. I had two geeat aunts who were music teachers in this era for example, and my grandmother was apprenticed to a milliner. many women had to work.

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[–] asgard-5 9 years ago

I watched it just now for the first time, the first musical I ever sat all the way through. The ending is an absolute shocker straight out of a horror movie.

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[–] Valentino55 9 years ago

Regarding the ending - I think it's fairly safe to assume that Higgins is not going to mistreat Eliza - either emotionally or physically. By the end of the movie he realizes just how much he cares for her, and it's as much a shock to him as it is to anyone. A large part of his behavior during that devastating post-ball scene is because he's experiencing feelings he doesn't know how to deal with. It's not that he's a bad guy (despite his prickly demeanor), it's just that he's lived a very quiet, ordered life and is trying to cope with this new development. Like he says to Eliza, it's not that he treats her badly, but whether she's every seen him treat anyone else better.

As to whether or not they end up together, Alan J. Lerner wrote a forward at the beginning of the script: "For the published version of Pygmalion, Shaw wrote a preface and an epilogue which he called a sequel. I have omitted the preface because the information contained therein is less pertinent to My Fair Lady than it is to Pygmalion. I have omitted the sequel because in it Shaw explains how Eliza ends not with Higgins but with Freddy and - Shaw and Heaven forgive me! - I am not certain he is right.

And here are the stage directions at the end when Eliza returns to Higgins:

Eliza (gently): I washed my face and hands before I come, I did.
(Higgins straightens up. If he could but let himself, his face would radiate unmistakable relief and joy. If he could but let himself, he would run to her. Instead, he leans back with a contented sigh pushing his hat forward till it almost covers his face)
Higgins (softly): Eliza? Where the devil are my slippers?
(There are tears in Eliza's eyes. She understands)
The curtain falls slowly.

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[–] katydb65 9 years ago

You simply tell them they are lucky they now have the ability to make F U money especially if they work for me!

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[–] bedrock1960 9 years ago

You could start by telling them that the story was written in 1914, and that "kick ass grrrrls" simply did not exist then.

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[–] servo-spiked-the-punch 8 years ago

It has nothing to do with that, God, what an ignorant statement.

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[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

There were plenty of independent women in 1914, and Eliza could certainly be one if she wanted to. She came back to Higgins because she loved him.

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[–] snelling 7 years ago

Try explaining women in porno films and degrading sex online first.

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Simpsonzzzzzz--" - Frank Grimes

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[–] Stratego (29239) 6 years ago

Shaw's postscript essay ''What Happened Afterwards'' in which he argued against Eliza and Higgins getting together is pretty funny. Reminds me of authors responding to fan criticism on social media nowadays.

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[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

It's quite literally a "Hollywood Ending", as the original play had Eliza leaving Higgins, marrying the good-natured boob Freddy, and taking Higgins up on his original promise to fund a flower shop and get her off the streets. But that wasn't a happy enough ending for the movies, so they had to have Eliza come back to Higgins even though she had no desire to be one of "three old bachelors together" (so gay), and wasn't the sort of person to cave in like that. But they wanted something that could pass as "romantic", no matter how implausible or disappointing.

Although I can't say that Shaw's original ending was all that great either, he had her walk out, and in his postscript rant he said Eliza married Freddy and they opened a flower shop with Higgins's help. Now I can't see a man like Freddy being happy to have married down and assist in his wife's shop instead of having the sort of career he'd hoped for, but then I don't think Shaw ever understood heterosexuals terribly well. Frankly, this is a story that's doomed to have a weak ending no matter what they did, but I think the best possible way to wrap it up would be for Eliza to leave Higgins with her dignity intact, thereby winning Higgins's respect, and to open up her flower shop on her own and say she wasn't going to marry anyone until she found a man who bloody well suited her.

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[–] marktayloruk (2378) a year ago

Freddy hadn't known what he wanted to do before- just hoped that something would turn up!

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[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Yeah, in the play Shaw said that Freddie had no prospects, except for vaguely hoping that someone would give him a job through his family connections. In the meantime, he seemed to be dependent on his mother, and Shaw planned a future of being dependent on his wife for him.

Shaw didn't seem to understand how a life of being useless and dependent would corrode a man's soul over time, or how it would affect his relationship with a wife who'd end up doing all the work. No, Shaw really should have had her end the play as a single woman looking forward to opening her shop.

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[–] strntz (10797) a year ago

No, Shaw really should have had her end the play as a single woman looking forward to opening her shop.

Agree, although as a close second I would accept Henry Higgins finally emoting his true feelings for Eliza (something he always had but hid under a steaming pile of bullshit) and accepting her as an equal participant in a relationship. It always seemed out of sorts for Eliza to push so hard, gain so much, then hand it all back in the last 10 seconds of the film.

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[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

I'm sticking with my desire for Liza to have a life as a shopkeeper, who's single until a better option than Freddie or Higgins comes along!

Because I really don't think Higgins was capable of the kind of equal, loving, and mutually supportive relationship Eliza deserved, and BTW I'm not even convinced he's straight. So even if he swore to treat her as an equal she'd still be financially dependent on him, and as long as he'd lived he'd never have been able to stop treating her as an intellectual inferior, not that he's in the habit of treating anyone at all as an equal. Seriously, he's a guy who treated everyone in the world as an inferior, except his mother, and there's another obvious issue right there. No, Higgins is a brilliant, self-absorbed, thoughtless, bad-tempered man, a person who should never marry unless he's fortunate to find someone endlessly patient and supportive. Like, you know, Pickering...

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[–] strntz (10797) a year ago

Yeah, but Pickering enjoyed port, so I'm kind of with him on that..

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[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

I wonder if Pickering ever moved out, after the Eliza Experiment wrapped up...

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[–] strntz (10797) a year ago

The remake script purportedly had Higgins proposing to Pickering.

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[–] Otter (24464) a year ago

Was that the Emma Thompson version that was kicking around Development Hell for years?

She'd go there, all right...