Acts 3 and 4

Higgins is ridiculous! I understand the times and the context but the way he treats Eliza and talks about her is unbelievable. I think it's funny that so much importance is placed in class and social rank and people judge so harshly, but then on the other hand that it's so easy to elevate someone from one class level to another-- with a few speech improvements and wardrobe touch-ups, Eliza becomes something to admire rather than something to frown upon and judge and treat as though she were an inanimate object (something that Higgins said is pretty much all women are worth anyway. Or something along those lines). I feel like he kind of gains respect for her in a weird way, or maybe respect isn't the word--but at the end of scene four, he seems hurt by her words after the experiment is over and they have a somewhat passionate exchange, with the slippers and the ring and everything. I think maybe Higgins is regretting the way he's acted in the past few months, like maybe he has begun to respect Eliza. But does he just respect the woman he's turned her into? Or would he have grown to respect her regardless of class after getting to know her? I think the answer to that kind of determines what kind of man Higgins is, and he hasn't really proven himself a very upstanding human being thus far.