My Fair Lady is based on a play called Pygmalion, by the British writer George Bernard Shaw. When Shaw wrote Pygmalion, he was trying to convince the English public that they should have more respect for their language. He was saying to them, "The way you speak not only reflects but determines your station in life." This point of view is expressed by the hero of his play, Professor Henry Higgins, who bears a strong resemblance to Shaw himself. Professor Higgins is a scientist who studies speech sounds. In the play, he proves his point by passing off a flower seller as a duchess after teaching her to speak with an upper-class accent.

When Pygmalion scored a great success, Shaw assumed that the reason for its popularity was that audiences liked to be taught lessons. He thought that they were impressed with the importance of speaking correctly. Today, Shaw's idea seems mistaken.

Q. The author feels that Shaw was a poor judge of his own success. Underline a sentence which proves this.