Shaw's aim
in the play is to use humor to skewer middle-class theater-goer's pretensions about being
middle-class.
One misconception Shaw wishes to upend is the idea that class
is inborn and genetic. This was used to deny lower class people opportunities to advance, by
arguing it was impossible for them do to so because they were innately inferior. Shaw uses Eliza
Doolittle, the lower class flower seller, to show that all it takes is the right accent and
clothes for a person to ascend to the middle class.
Shaw employs a comedic
approach in doing this. For example, when Eliza is sufficiently advanced in her accent and
deportment, Henry Higgins takes her to his mother's and introduces her to his mother's guests as
a middle-class lady. Because of her perfect accent and good clothes, the other women accept
her...
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