Homer's epic narrative "The Odyssey" revolves around the journey that Odysseus and his men undertook to get back home to Ithaca. The journey lasted more then two decades after which Odysseus got safely back to his family and home.
In Book XIX we find Odysseus arriving back to Ithaca but disguised as a beggar. His son Telemachus knows him but then the rest of the people doesn't even recognize him, not even his own wife. Later on, he and Penelope talked of his journey and Penelope asked him lots of questions, testing him if he really had been with Odysseus. In return, Odysseus told her that he had been with him, describing him in ways that will make her believe his story. Then, he also told her that her husband is still alive and that he will eventually return. This is his way of testing her whether she had been faithful to him all these years or not, and also to see her reaction to the possibility of his return.
Henry Higgins suggests that he is living in a time when dreams can come true, when rags-to-riches stories are, well, more than just stories. At the same time, he acknowledges that the movement from Kentish Town to Park Lane is not only a matter of making a fortune.
