When Alfred Doolittle is introduced in Act 2 and Act 5, his character is used as comic relief through the obscure way he phrases his statements, which hides the truth behind his words. In Act 2, Doolittle is described as being “…free from fear and conscience. He has a remarkably expressive voice the result of a habit of giving vent to his feelings without reserve. His present pose is that of wounded honor and stern resolution.” These characteristics give Alfred the ability to serve his two roles of comic relief and social commentary because he does not think before he talks and choose careful wording, thus serving the humor, and his wounded honor and stern resolution give way for his deep thoughts and opinions of life.
When Alfred arrives at Higgins’s household to find Eliza, Higgins classified his accent and the typical personality that is accompanied with it – Welsh origins which tend to belong to people who are “dishonest”. This allows Higgins to play around with Alfred’s arrival by using reverse psychology and therefore exemplifying the exaggerated expressions of Alfred in the situation. Alfred realizes that Higgins can see right through his intentions and desperately ties to redeem himself in all the traps Higgins caught him in, which is amusing. He just wanted to make profit from Eliza’s possible new occupation with Higgins (he thought that Eliza was Higgins’s prostitute), and did not actually want to be involved in her affairs to be a father figure. Higgins knew that Alfred came for money, but Alfred did not want Higgins and Pickering to know that until he made his point, so it comical to read Alfred covering his tracks every time Higgins uncovered it. In Act 5 when Alfred walks into the house very distressed, it is amusing to see his much exaggerated agony for his new wealth and his blame on Higgins for his “burden”.
Alfred’s character is used to make comments about the life of the lower class. In Act 2, Alfred was willing to sell his daughter for five pounds, which Higgins and Pickering thought was absolutely insane. Alfred then explains how he is an “undeserving poor man” because he only works enough to just barely get by. He does not want to do actual work because that means he will earn more money and become part of the middle class, which means that he will have to follow the middle class morals. He states how the undeserving poor deserves as much as the deserving to go drink, listen to music, eat, and get charity from others – he points out that when you live in poverty, you cannot afford to have morals. The middle class never helps the undeserving people because of their “morals”; he also points out how flawed the social hierarchy is because it is hard to move from the bottom to the top since it isn’t a flexible hierarchy. He makes fun of those who think that being in an upper class is better because “it’s a dog’s life anyway you look at it.” Wealth and class does not mean a good life, and each class comes with its perks and cons; Alfred prefers the lower class because of its lack of morals. He isn’t even married to his lover because if they got married, it would mean Alfred would stop pampering her (this is a lower class pleasure- to not be shamed for not being married). In Act 5, Alfred is angry at Higgins for moving him up to the middle class because he now lost his privileges for now having many morals. He is now bound to the middle class morals, which include dressing well, being clean, being married, and speaking properly. He hates the discomforts of the middle class, but appreciates the wealth, and that is why he could not deny the chance to move up in the social hierarchy. The money was worth giving up his comforts, even though he gave it up with a hard heart. The middle class came with new and more responsibilities.