Why Can’t the English Speak?
Based on Pygmalion, My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins from her point of view. Eliza begins as a lowly flower seller, mocked by Higgins, a phonetics professor, for her terrible English. Higgins bets that he can teach Doolittle to speak correctly with the proper education.
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Higgins wonders why the English can’t teach their children how to speak and believes that Eliza’s cockney accent is the reason she is poor. He proceeds to give her an education and a makeover, so much so that she is able to pass as an upper-class lady.