> I suppose I'm just wondering if, in a play that follows mostly the same course but ends very differently, does your argument hold for that version as well?

Unfortunately, I haven't seen any adaptation of Pygmalion, so I can't comment on whether the Pygmalion stage play is right or wrong. It's possible the ending is every bit as appropriate, depending on how the events leading up to it are different from the musical as well.

But I'm aware of how Shaw rewrote the ending for the screenplay he wrote, adapting his own play as a movie, and that's a pretty important point. The suggestion to me is that ultimately Shaw himself realized his original ending was a mistake and sought to correct it.

I do agree very much, though, with Shaw's essay: an ending where the two get *married* would be entirely wrong. I honestly don't think that's being implied by the musical, or by Shaw's Pygmalion screenplay. There's just some kind of reconciliation there. The relationship is not left horribly broken. I don't know what happens after the end. I just know that the characters have each gotten over themselves, so to speak, and allowed themselves to admit to each other that they need each other in some way, or at least are better off having that relationship in their lives.

Eliza running off to marry Freddy, to me, is no kind of ending at all. Eliza isn't the kind of character to be happy with such a witless fop as Freddy. She doesn't even really like him. Clearly her agreeing to marry Freddy would be a rebound move, a way of running away from Higgins and sticking it to him. I mean, that would fit with her character, but it wouldn't be the end of the story. She'd realize her mistake in time, and she'd need to see Higgins again sooner or later, to at least put some kind of actual closure to that relationship.

So I think Shaw eventually got it right. He decided he needed to correct his original ending, but still avoid the pitfalls he warned stage directors against earlier on. The ambiguous ending puts closure to the insecurities Eliza wrestles against through the whole story, but shies away from committing to either of the problematic romantic relationships. Nicely done.