The Presence of My Fair Lady in Baker's The Mezzanine

  On page 82 of The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, our narrator, Howie, finds himself in the bathroom, whistling the first line sung by Eliza Doolittle in the song “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” from the 1964 musical My Fair Lady: “All I want is a room somewhere.” Right after starting, however, Howie cuts himself off, out of the self consciousness caused by interrupting his coworker’s whistled rendition of “I’m a Yankey Doodle Dandy” and we do not hear any more of his song. This instance, however, is not the first time Howie brought reference to the musical throughout the duration of the novel, as seen on page 67 where he draws a personal connection to the production by calling the record: “one of [his family’s] oldest records.” This is to say, I would like to investigate the connections between his internal conflict throughout the story, fitting into the world as an adult (and feeling as if you don’t), and the threads of the plot of  “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly,” where Eliza Doolittle dreams of fitting into a society life filled with comfort. So if you’re ready for a little bit of song analysis, existentialism, and the ramblings of a theater nerd, buckle up— this is gonna be fun.

Throughout the novel, Howie faces a lot of internal shame from his self-perceived “not-being-adult-enough-ness,” as seen in his cookie scenario, in which he feels as if he looks out of place being a business man and eating a lunch of cookie, milk, a hotdog, and popcorn, and his insistence on maintaining “adult thoughts” over “childish” ones. As discussed in class, all of that could be an entire essay by itself, so we’re not going to go into too much detail about Howie’s fears about adulthood here. But we do get the sense that he feels as though he doesn’t fit into the archetype of “serious businessman” despite how much he wants to, hence his insistence on having “adult thoughts” and leaving his nostalgia for his childhood behind.

For those of you who do not know the plot of My Fair Lady, the musical follows Eliza Doolittle, a young woman, about twenty (though it is never specified), who finds herself as a “project” of phoneticist Henry Higgins who has the ultimate goal of being able to pass her, a cockney flower girl, as a proper lady in proper British society. Throughout the musical, hijinks, mayhem, and hilarity ensue, usually fitting around Eliza’s unfamiliarity with proper etiquette and speech, her mannerisms and temperament seen as “childish” and her way of speech seen as harsh and unruly. Ultimately, this musical follows her transformation from this “childish” and “ill-mannered” common girl to a mature and proper lady, though a majority of the plot sees her struggling to conform to proper societal conventions and feeling as though she is simply not fit for the life of a society lady. Is this sounding familiar? I think it is. The song “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” in particular functions majorly as Eliza’s “I want” song, in which she dreams of a better life where she can fit in and be comfortable in herself and her surroundings, much like Howie’s desire to “fit in” to convention of the “serious adult businessman.” A key example from the song of fitting into the roles expected of us and doing it well and “right” lives in the chorus where Eliza sings: “Someone’s head resting on my knee, warm and tender as he can be, who takes good care of me, oh wouldn’t it be loverly?” Which speaks to her desire particularly to fit into those societal norms of what is expected of her as a woman in the same way Howie’s inner monologue a la “I am a business man, I am an adult, I don’t have kid thoughts because I am an adult, and I DEFINENTLY should NOT have cookies for lunch because I am an ADULT” does.

So yeah, in the end I think Baker chose this musical in particular because of the narrative parallels of the internal conflicts in both protagonists and this song as a way to indirectly vocalize that internal conflict living inside Howie. But maybe I too am blinded by the nostalgia of my first Uni High musical and am just reading way too far into this— but with the intentionality of everything else in this novel, I refuse to believe that this similarity is unintentional. And if you haven’t listened to this cheery song, give it a try, it is sure to brighten your day.