501 Critical Reading Questions

a.
In these lines Higgins threatens Liza and 
lays hands on her
, thus
proving that he is a bully.
270.
c.
Higgins refers to Liza as 
my masterpiece
, indicating that he thinks
of Liza as his creation—that he made her what she is today.
271.
b.
The excerpt opens with Higgins telling Liza “
If you’re going to be a
lady
” and comparing her past—the 
life of the gutter
—with her pres-
ent—a cultured life of literature and art. We also know that Hig-
gins taught Liza phonetics (line 40) and that Liza was once 
only a
flower girl
but is now a duchess (lines 55–56). Thus, we can con-
clude that Higgins taught Liza how to speak and act like someone
from the upper class.
272.
d.
Higgins realizes that Liza—with the knowledge that he gave
her—now has the power to stand up to him, that she will not just
let herself be 
trampled on and called names
(line 59). He realizes that
she has other options and she is indifferent to his 
bullying and big
talk
(line 55).
273.
c.
Liza’s final lines express her joy at realizing that she has the power
to change her situation and that she is not Higgins’ inferior but
his equal; she can’t believe that 
all the time I had only to lift up my
finger to be as good as you
(lines 59–60). She realizes that she can be
an assistant to someone else, that she doesn’t have to be depend-
ent on Higgins.
274.
d.
In the first few lines, the narrator states that Miss Temple was the
superintendent of the seminary
and that she received both 
instruction
and 
friendship
from Miss Temple, who was also like a mother to
her 
she had stood me in the stead of mother
.
275.
a.
The narrator states that with Miss Temple, 
I had given in allegiance
to duty and order; I was quiet; I believed I was content
(lines 12–13).
276.