Character Analysis Of The Film 'My Fair Lady'

My First Lady – Scene analysis
The film My Fair Lady is a great example that illustrates Sociolinguistic factors on the screen. The movie is about how a professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins, helps a poor flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, transform into a lady who can move into the high society by simply changing her speech. In the film, language plays a central role in the distinction of social classes and it helps us identify the main characteristics of each social group – the low and the high social class. The first scene of the film My Fair Lady, in which Professor Henry Higgins sings the song “Why can’t the English?” is going to be analysed from a sociolinguistic point of view. This part of the movie portrays the relationship among concepts such as dialects, social stratification, stereotypes and Standard language.

This is connected to the concept of dialects which determine people’s regional background. For instance, he is able to spot Eliza’s hometown by listening to the way she speaks while he takes down notes about her pronunciation. The movie highlights the inherent connection between regional dialects and social status. In the film, Standard English is viewed as the proper and accepted approach to pronunciation and grammar in England. According to Professor Higgins, the way a person speaks is what separates him from belonging to a certain social class. His belief is exemplified in the song “Why can’t the English?” which he sings when he meets Eliza for the first time. During the song, he points out that if Colonel Pickering spoke as the flower girl did, he might be selling flowers