Question

Which line from the passage best shows that Higgins is unsympathetic to Liza's distress?
excerpt adapted from Pygmalion
by Bernard Shaw


CHARACTERS:
HIGGINS
PICKERING
LIZA


Stage Set: Summer, midnight, at the laboratory.


HIGGINS: [calling to Pickering] Pick, lock up, I won't be going out again.
PICKERING: Right.
Liza opens the door and is seen in an elegant evening dress, diamonds and accessories; she walks to the hearth, listless, and with an expression that is almost tragic. She sits down on the bench brooding.
HIGGINS: [yawning] Oh, what an extraordinary evening!
PICKERING: [stretching] Well I feel a bit tired, it's been a long day, but you've won your bet, Higgins, Liza did the trick, eh?
HIGGINS: [fervently] Thank goodness it's over!
Liza flinches but they do not acknowledge her.
PICKERING: I shall turn in, it's been a momentous occasion and a triumph for you, good-night.
HIGGINS: [following him] Good-night, [over his shoulder] put out the lights, Liza [he leaves].
Liza tries to control herself as she goes to switch off the lights, feeling like screaming, but instead sits down and holds on tightly to the arms of a chair before finally flinging herself furiously onto the floor.
HIGGINS: [outside] Where are my slippers? [He appears at the door]
LIZA: [snatching up the slippers and hurling them at him] There are your slippers, and there, take them!
HIGGINS: [astounded] What on earth—! What's the matter?
LIZA: Nothing wrong with YOU, because I've won your bet for you and that's enough, I don't matter I suppose.
HIGGINS: YOU won my bet, I won it!
LIZA: Why didn't you leave me where you found me—in the gutter? You're glad it's over so you can throw me back there like a piece of trash, aren't you? I know you don't care, that I'm nothing to you—not so much as them slippers. What am I fit for, where am I to go, what am I to do—what's to become of me?
HIGGINS: How do I know what's to become of you, what does it matter, and why should I even care?

Answer 1

"How do I know what's to become of you, what does it matter, and why should I even care?"

This line directly shows Higgins's lack of sympathy — he dismisses Liza's future and feelings and openly states he doesn't care.