Eliza as a Strong, Assertive Woman in Pygmalion . Professor Higgins offers his friend Colonel Pickering a bet that he can take a common peddler and turn her into royalty. Eliza Doolittle is the pawn of the bet. But little does Higgins know that the change will go far beyond her expectations: Eliza goes from a defensive and insecure girl to a fully confident, strong and independent woman. When the audience first meets Eliza Doolittle, she is a flower girl selling flowers at 11 p.m. outside St. Paul's Church. The audience's first impression is one of sympathy because she is dressed in rags and the pedestrians are not nice to her. Higgins calls Eliza "you have crushed a cabbage leaf, you dishonor the noble architecture of these columns, you embody the insult to the English language". (p. 21) The audience's sympathy intensifies when we see Eliza's miserable accommodation. These accommodations contrast greatly with those of Higgins at Wimploe S...

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