This portrays her as having very little wealth and a low socio-economic status as she is not able to dress like or look like a lady.
Vivian's apparel also conveys her social standing and to a greater extent her profession as a prostitute. On Hollywood Boulevarde, where she sells her "wares", Vivian fits in with the other "working girls" with her revealing clothes, heavy make-up and her "boots held up by a safety pin". She keeps her boots black by using a black permanent marker to erase any wear and tear on them, instead of, perhaps, buying a new pair. Vivian though, we know, is not wealthy. She cannot afford to pay her rent money for her small, run down, apartment and prefers to escape seeing her landlord by using the fire escape ladder. As she searches for her room-mate Kit, on Hollywood Boulevard, the viewer can see that the area is accustomed to prostitutes, drug-dealers and, as Vivian happens to stumble on, dead bodies. .
As she later relates the discovery of seeing "a girl pulled out of a dumpster" to Kit, she asks afterwards "Don't you want to get out of here?", obviously indicating that she dreams of a better life for herself. This aspiration is also shared by Eliza, for even before contemplating the idea to visit Professor Higgins for elocution lessons to become a flower-girl, she returns home to her squalid lodgings, "dreaming and planning" what to do with her "new riches" to better her life. Pinned up on the wall of Eliza's small room is a portrait of a popular actor and a fashion plate of ladies dresses torn from newspapers, an example of Eliza wanting articles to aspire for to decorate her life.
Henry and Edward share the same viewpoint of women's positioning in their life. Both have had bad experiences towards women, with the former having an almost misogynistic viewpoint of the "fairer sex". Edward has had troubled relationships, what with having an ex-wife and an ex-girlfriend.
