Pygmalion: Act 1 Summary & Analysis

Late one rainy night in Covent Garden, London, a variety of pedestrians seek shelter under the portico of a church, including a wealthy woman and her daughter, Clara. The mother and daughter are waiting impatiently for Freddy, Clara's brother, to get a taxi. A bystander informs them that there probably won't be any taxis available. Freddy suddenly rushes under the portico and tells the two women that he can't find a single cab.

Freddy says he has looked all over for a taxi, but the mother and daughter are insensitive to his efforts and tell him to go look again and not come back until he has found a cab. Freddy protests but then finally goes. As he leaves, he bumps into a flower girl, who calls him Freddy. The mother asks the lower-class flower girl how she knows her son's name.

The flower-girl says that she'll tell the mother in exchange for some money. The mother agrees and gives her six-pence. The flower-girl says that she just called the man Freddy because that is how she would refer to any random person she doesn't know. Clara is exasperated at the waste of money. An elderly gentleman comes under the portico for shelter.

The flower-girl asks the gentleman to buy a flower, but he says he doesn't have any change. He rummages in his pockets and finally finds some small coins, which he gives to her. A bystander tells the girl to be sure to give the gentleman a flower for the money, because there's someone standing at the back of the portico watching and taking notes.

The flower-girl worries that she is in trouble but the man taking notes steps forward and asks what the matter is. A bystander tells him the flower-girl thought he was a "copper's nark," (a police informant). The man doesn't understand the slang. He reads his notes, which copy down exactly what the girl said previously in her lower-class dialect.

Some of the bystanders think the man is a policeman and tell him not to worry about the flower-girl. One bystander says the man isn't a cop, but rather a "blooming busybody," and the man asks him how his people at Selsey are. The bystander is shocked that the man knows where he's from. The man then guesses correctly where the flower-girl is from. Still thinking she is in trouble, the flower-girl insists that she is "a good girl."

The note-taking man continues to guess where everyone is from, to all the bystanders' surprise. The rain begins to stop and Clara and her mother wonder where Freddy is. The man guesses where both of them are from. He then offers to whistle for a taxi. Clara tells him not to speak to her. As people notice that the rain has stopped, the crowd under the portico disperses.

The gentleman asks the note-taker how he knows where everyone is from, and he answers that he studies phonetics. The flower-girl tells the man to mind his own business, and the man gets angry with her, telling her that someone who speaks with "such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere—no right to live."

The note-taking man then says to the gentleman that the flower-girl's accent and dialect will keep her in the lower class, but that he could teach her to speak so well in three months that she would pass for a noble lady. He explains that this is his main job, teaching people to speak well.

The gentleman says that he himself is "a student of Indian dialects." He introduces himself as Colonel Pickering, and the note-taker introduces himself as Henry Higgins. The two are already familiar with each other's work in linguistics.

Higgins and Pickering leave to get dinner together. Higgins reluctantly gives the flower-girl some money. Freddy finally returns with a cab, only to find that his mother and sister have left him to walk to a bus. The flower-girl takes the cab he has brought, leaving Freddy alone.