It's often said of British people that they are very aware of each other's social rank. Britons can usually work out a fellow countryman's background from the way they speak or dress, and may even treat them differently based on this. But although this may have been truer in the past than it is today, visitors to Britain say that they still notice it. The comic play Pygmalion by the Irish man George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), is a famous exploration of the importance of social rank in British society.
The main story of the play concerns a working class girl, Eliza Doolittle, a flower seller from London. Two upper class gentlemen try to see if they can get Doolittle to appear like an upper class lady after sending her for elocution lessons. Professor Henry Higgins, a language expert, says it can be done; his friend Colonel Pickering says that it's impossible. Even so, Higgins sets out to teach Eliza how to" speak properly".
Of course Eliza isn't a lump of clay; she has her own will. She can see that it's in her best interest to go along with Higgin's plan to" improve herself". She wants to be able to sell flowers in a shop rather than on the street. Still, Eliza's willfulness means that it's a bumpy（坎坷的）ride for everyone.
At the beginning of fourth act, the characters are at home after a ball（舞会）, at which Eliza proved that a flower girl can pass herself off as a lady after all. She was a triumph at the ball, and Higgins has won his bet.
But what happens next? Eliza has her future to worry about. She may be able to fool the upper class into thinking she's one of them, but she isn't really one of them.
Shaw seems to be telling us that social rank is about more than the way someone talks—it's about wealth and privilege. The whole experiment proves the idea that accents and classes are very superficial. The way one speaks and dresses are only markers of class. The class system itself, however, is something completely different.
