45 pages • 1 hour read
Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick LoeweMy Fair Lady
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act II, Scenes 1-7Act Summaries & Analyses
Act II, Scene 1 Summary
It’s three in the morning, and Higgins’s servants are dozing in his study. Abruptly, Higgins, Pickering, and Eliza burst through the door. Pickering is visibly excited, while Higgins is attempting to appear unaffected. Eliza, however, looks downcast. Pickering commends Higgins, and the two men sing “You Did It,” congratulating themselves as if Eliza isn’t there.
They recount what happened with Karpathy to Mrs. Pearce, adding a dramatic flair that makes the moment even larger than it was in the previous scene. After dancing with Eliza, Karpathy revealed before the hostess that “she was a fraud!” (90). He determined that she must be foreign, as her English was too perfect, declaring that Eliza was not only Hungarian, but a Hungarian princess. The servants join in the song, praising and congratulating Higgins.
Afterward, Higgins exclaims that he’s just happy it’s over. The servants exit, followed by Pickering. Alone with Eliza, Higgins remembers that he forgot to ask Mrs. Pearce for coffee with breakfast, asking Eliza to leave a note. Then, Higgins wonders aloud where he left his slippers, which Eliza picks up and hurls at him, wishing him terrible luck with them. Higgins is perplexed, not having noticed her dark 
