George Bernard Shaw's comedy follows Henry Higgins, an arrogant phonetics professor, as he wagers his colleague Colonel Pickering that he can transform Eliza Doolittle, a rough-spoken Cockney flower girl, into a woman who can pass for a duchess simply by teaching her to speak proper English. As the lessons progress, Eliza's transformation becomes as much about self-respect and independence as it is about vowels and diction, and she ultimately outgrows the men who set out to remake her. The play is a sharp, witty satire of British class snobbery and the assumptions people make based on accent and appearance. Shaw resisted a conventional romantic ending, insisting the story was about personal growth rather than a love match, a choice that gives the comedy real bite beneath its charm. The work later became the basis for the musical My Fair Lady.

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