Shaw has often been criticized for his inability to create well-developed, round characters. His characters are generally seen as mere puppets propelled by the crisis of the plot or as spokespeople for his socialist point of view. However, in Pygmalion, Shaw justifies these accusations by creating rounded and realistic characters such as Higgins and Eliza. Obviously, these are not authors' stooges. They have a special quality that leaves a lasting imprint on the reader's memory. But there is some truth to the accusation that Shaw created a mouthpiece for his own ideas and the character of Alfred Doolittle is a good example. While Doolittle is undoubtedly a compelling comic book character, he is contrived and flat. Doolittle is there for a purpose: it meets Shaw's educational needs. As such, it is in the exaggerated vein of Dickens. The character of Doolittle is drawn with the sole purpose of ridiculing the Victorian philosophy of the “undeserving poor”. We cannot imagine that such a character exists in real life. Overall though, Pygmalion is populated with imaginative and lively characters. Although Higgins and Eliza are excellent, even the minor characters are well drawn. Henry Higgins Higgins is an extremely interesting character and the life of the play. Although the obvious concern of the play is the metamorphosis of an ordinary bridesmaid into a duchess, the development of Higgins' character is also important. The play is not just Eliza's story. We also detect changes in Higgins or, to be more precise, he appears to the reader in a new light at the end. This is seen when he tells Eliza that he has gotten used to seeing her face and hearing her voice. It's not really a sensitive display of emotion but it's quite different...... middle of paper...... compared to Higgins' character. It is evident that Higgins's manners are little better than those of the Covent Garden flower girl. In fact, Higgins comes off much worse due to the fact that he has enjoyed all the civilizing benefits of wealth and education, but he is rude to the point of being crude and ill-mannered, is prone to frequent incendiary outbursts and has abominable table manners. The fact that such an ill-bred person is accepted by society as a "gentleman" gives Shaw the opportunity to denounce the superficiality and hypocrisy of such a society. Shaw thus critiques a society that considers wealth and the ability to express oneself properly as the constitutive criteria of a normative gentleman. It is one of Shaw's master ironies to make such a crude and crude selfish tyrant the primary agent in transforming an ordinary bridesmaid into a lady..