Pygmalion - Higgins' Philosophy Professor Higgins is seen throughout Pygmalion as a very rude man. While you might expect an educated man, like Higgins, to be a gentleman, he is actually anything but. Higgins believes that how you treat someone is not important, as long as you treat everyone the same. The great secret, Eliza, is not to have bad manners, nor good manners, nor any other particular manners, but to have the same manner for all human souls: in short, to behave as if one were in Heaven, where there are no third-class people. carriages, and one soul is as good as another. -Higgins, Act V Pygmalion. Higgins presents this theory to Eliza, hoping to justify his treatment of her. This theory would be fine IF Higgins himself followed it. Henry Higgins, however, lives by a variety of variations of this philosophy. It is easy to see how Higgins follows this theory. He is constantly rude to Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, and her mother. His ways are the same for each of them, according to his philosophy. However, the Higgins we see at parties and in good times with Pickering is well mannered. This apparent discrepancy between Higgins' actions and his words may not exist, depending on one's interpretation of this theory. There are two possible translations of Higgins' philosophy. It can be seen as treating everyone the same all the time or treating everyone the same at a particular time. It is obvious that Higgins does not treat everyone the same all the time, as evidenced by his actions when he is in "one of his states" (as Mrs. Higgins's maid calls it). The Higgins we see in Mrs. Higgins's living room is not the same Higgins we see at parties. When in the "state" Henry Higgins wanders aimlessly around the living room, moving irrationally from chair to chair, very different from the calm Professor Higgins we see at the ball. Higgins does not believe that a person should always have the same behavior towards everyone, but that a person should treat everyone the same at a given time (or in a given situation). When he is in "one of those states" his ways are the same towards everyone; he is equally rude and disrespectful to everyone. Yet when he pays attention to his manners, as he does at parties, he knows how to be a gentleman. If you take the second meaning of Higgins's theory as philosophy, namely that he treats everyone the same at any given time, you find a major flaw. Higgins never respects Eliza, no matter who is around. In Act V of Pygmalion, Eliza confronts him about his ways towards her. “He (Pickering) treats a flower girl like a duchess.” Higgins, replying to Eliza: "And I treat a duchess like a flower girl." In an attempt to justify this Higgins replies "The question is not whether I treat you unkindly, but whether you have ever heard me treat anyone else better". Eliza does not answer this question but the reader knows that Higgins has treated others better than Eliza. At parties, for example, Higgins is a gentleman to the hosts and other guests, but still treats Eliza as his "experiment." Higgins would never get to see the "new" Eliza. Higgins saw only the dirty flower girl who had become his "experiment". Just as an author never sees a finished work, Higgins could not see Eliza as a lady or duchess. Since Higgins knew where Eliza was coming from, it was difficult for him to fit her parts together into a masterpiece that he respected. Part of Higgins' problem in recognizing the "new" Eliza is her immaturity. He doesn't see her for what she is, he just sees her for what she was. This immaturity is representative of Higgins' childish tendencies that the reader can see throughout the play. The actions.