* DeathOfTheAuthor: Shaw's original intent for the ending has been mostly ignored for decades by people (including the original cast) who saw all the subtext and thought that Eliza and Higgins were meant to have a happily ever after ending with each other instead of Eliza becoming an independent woman. Shaw was incensed by this, especially when the performer for Higgins in the opening production essentially told him to shut up and be happy with the money he's making:
--> '''Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree''': My ending makes money; you ought to be grateful.
--> '''George Bernard Shaw''': Your ending is damnable; you ought to be shot.
** However, from the 90s onward, as Higgins' treatment of Eliza appears increasingly problematic, Shaw's original ending seems more relevant.
* FanPreferredCouple: Creator/GeorgeBernardShaw actually expressed annoyance with so many people shipping Eliza with Henry Higgins. He added an essay to the 1916 print edition, "What Happened Afterwards" (Eliza married Freddy and they opened a flower shop) where he describes why Eliza and Higgins will never get together.
* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: When Higgins and Pickering are talking to Mrs. Higgins about Eliza, Higgins sounds like a man talking about a useful animal or tool. Pickering sounds more like a proud father gushing about his daughter.
* MisaimedFandom: Very famously. Relates to FanPreferredCouple -- Higgins treats Eliza like a tool and has close to zero respect for her well-being or agency. She's supposed to grow beyond him, and get a happy ending as a self-made woman. Since the play's inception, audiences read their relationship as BelligerentSexualTension -- and it's very easy when their relationship literally defines the play, and when Eliza's canon love interest, Freddy, is as bland as pudding. That said, Higgins's treatment of Eliza is not a good basis for any romantic relationship unless he ''seriously'' changes his act after the curtain falls.
* OlderThanTheyThink: The 1938 film version introduced many new scenes and story elements that became more famous when incorporated into ''Theatre/MyFairLady'', including Eliza reciting "The rain in Spain," the Embassy ball sequence, and the more upbeat ending.
* ValuesDissonance: Eliza's exclamation of "Not bloody likely!" at an elegant tea party was a shocking PrecisionFStrike by 1913 standards. But by 1956, the year ''Theatre/MyFairLady'' premiered on Broadway, the word "bloody" had lost much of its power to shock, so instead, the musical's Eliza shouts "Move your bloomin' arse!" at a racehorse.
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