Doolittle is not so much a
character as he is a vehicle which Shaw manipulates for his own dramatic
purposes. Through Doolittle, Shaw is able to make many satirical thrusts at
middle-class morality and to make additional comments on class distinctions and
on class manners. (It is especially witty when Eliza points out to Higgins that
the Professor's so-called equality in the way he treats people shows that he
has the same manners as her father because Doolittle makes no class
distinctions either: the analogy wounds Higgins because he has to acknowledge
that it is essentially true.)
As his name readily suggests,
Doolittle does as little as possible to get through life. He is a dustman
because that is easier for him than "real work." (A dustman was a
person who simply collected the ashes that people put out; by Shaw's time,
refuse was added to the ashes, making Doolittle essentially a garbage
collector.)
The comedy connected with Doolittle
is his transformation during the course of the play. Whereas his daughter wants
to become a member of the respectable middle class, Doolittle is delighted that
his job as dustman is so low on the social class scale that it has absolutely
no morals connected to it; therefore, he is not subjected to
"dreadful" middle-class morality — at least not until the last act.
