GOVERNMENT ARTS AND SCIENCE COLLEGE VALPARAI

SEMESTER II

DRAMA-I

UNIT:1 DR. FAUSTUS - CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE

UNIT:2 SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER – OLIVER GOLDSMITH

UNIT:3 THE ALCHEMIST – BEN JONSON

UNIT:4 THE RIVALS – R.B.SHERIDAN

UNIT:5 STRIFE - JOHN GALSWORTHY

UNIT-1

DOCTOR FAUSTUS (MARLOWE) STUDY GUIDE Marlowe lived in a time of great transformation for Western Europe. New advances in science were overturning ancient ideas about astronomy and physics. The discovery of the Americas had transformed the European conception of the world. Increasingly available translations of classical texts were a powerful influence on English literature and art. Christian and pagan worldviews interacted with each other in rich and often paradoxical ways, and signs of that complicated interaction are present in many of Marlowe's works. England, having endured centuries of civil war, was in the middle of a long period of stability and peace.

Not least of the great changes of Marlowe's time was England's dramatic rise to world power. When Queen Elizabeth came to power in 1558, six years before Marlowe's birth, England was a weak and unstable nation. Torn by internal strife between Catholics and Protestants, an economy in tatters, and unstable leadership, England was vulnerable to invasion by her stronger rivals on the continent. By the time of Elizabeth's death in 1603, she had turned the weakling of Western Europe into a power of the first rank, poised to become the mightiest nation in the world. When the young Marlowe came to London looking to make a life in the theatre, England's capitol was an important center of trade, learning, and art. As time passed, the city's financial, intellectual, and artistic importance became still greater, as London continued its transformation from unremarkable center of a backwater nation to one of the world's most exciting metropolises. Drama was entering a golden age, to be crowned by the glory of Shakespeare. Marlowe was a great innovator of blank verse, unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. The richness of his dramatic verse anticipates Shakespeare, and some argue that Shakespeare's achievements owed considerable debt to Marlowe's influence.

Like the earlier play, Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus is a play of deep questions concerning morality, religion, and man's relationship to both. England was a Protestant country since the time of Queen Elizabeth I's father, Henry VIII. Although theological and doctrinal differences existed between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, the former still inherited a wealth of culture, thought and tradition from the latter. Christianity was a mix of divergent and often contradictory influences, including the religious traditions of the Near East, the heritage of classical Greco-Roman thought and institutions, mystery religions, and north European superstition and magic. Sorcery and magic were part of widespread belief systems throughout Europe that predated Christianity. These early beliefs about magic were inextricable from folk medicine. Women in particular used a mix of magic and herbal medicine to treat common illnesses. But as Christianity spread and either assimilated or rejected other belief systems, practitioners of magic came to be viewed as evil. In the fifth century CE, St. Augustine, perhaps the most influential Christian thinker after St. Paul, pronounced all sorcery to be the work of evil spirits, to distinguish it from the good "magic" of Christian ritual and sacrament. The view of the sorcerer changed irrevocably. Magic was devil-worship, outside the framework of Church practice and belief, and those who practiced it were excommunicated and killed.

The Protestant Reformation did not include reform of this oppressive and violent practice. Yet magic continued to keep a hold on people's imaginations, and benign and ambiguous views of magic continued to exist in popular folklore. The conceptions of scholarship further complicated the picture, especially after the Renaissance. Scholars took into their studies subjects not considered scientific by today's standards: astrology, alchemy, and demonology. Some of these subjects blurred the lines between acceptable pursuit of knowledge and dangerous heresy.

As this new Christian folklore of sorcery evolved, certain motifs rose to prominence. Once Christ was rejected, a sorcerer could give his soul to the devil instead, receiving in exchange powers in this life, here and now. Numerous Christian stories feature such bargains, and one of the most famous evolved around the historical person Johanned Faustus, a German astrologer of the early sixteenth century. Marlowe took his plot from an earlier German play about Faustus, but he transformed an old story into a powerhouse of a work, one that has drawn widely different interpretations since its first production. Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is first great version of the story, although not the last. In the nineteenth century, the great German writer Johann Wolfgang van Goethe gave the story its greatest incarnation in Faust. Faustus' name has become part of our language. "Faustian bargain" has come to mean a deal made for earthly gain at a high ethical and spiritual cost, or alternately any choice with short-lived benefits and a hell of a price.

The chronology of Marlowe's plays is uncertain. Doctor Faustus's composition may have immediately followed Tamburlaine, or may not have come until 1592.

Two versions of the play were printed, neither during Marlowe's life. The 1604 version is shorter (1517 lines), and until the twentieth century was considered the authoritative text. The 1616 version is longer (2121 lines), but the additions were traditionally thought to have been written by other playwrights. Twentieth century scholarship argues that the B text (of 1616) is in fact closer to the original, though possibly with some censorship. The Penguin Books edition used for this study guide uses the longer B text as the basis while incorporating sections of A that are recognizably superior.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS (MARLOWE) SUMMARY Doctor Faustus, a talented German scholar at Wittenburg, rails against the limits of human knowledge. He has learned everything he can learn, or so he thinks, from the conventional academic disciplines. All of these things have left him unsatisfied, so now he turns to magic. A Good Angle and an Evil Angel arrive, representing Faustus' choice between Christian conscience and the path to damnation. The former advises him to leave off this pursuit of magic, and the latter tempts him. From two fellow scholars, Valdes and Cornelius, Faustus learns the fundamentals of the black arts. He thrills at the power he will have, and the great feats he'll perform. He summons the devil Mephostophilis. They flesh out the terms of their agreement, with Mephostophilis representing Lucifer. Faustus will sell his soul, in exchange for twenty-four years of power, with Mephostophilis as servant to his every whim. In a comic relief scene, we learn that Faustus' servant Wagner has gleaned some magic learning. He uses it to convince Robin the Clown to be his servant. Before the time comes to sign the contract, Faustus has misgivings, but he puts them aside. Mephostophilis returns, and Faustus signs away his soul, writing with his own blood. The words "Homo fuge" ("Fly, man) appear on his arm, and Faustus is seized by fear. Mephostophilis distracts him with a dance of devils. Faustus requests a wife, a demand Mephostophilis denies, but he does give Faustus books full of knowledge.

Some time has passed. Faustus curses Mephostophilis for depriving him of heaven, although he has seen many wonders. He manages to torment Mephostophilis, he can't stomach mention of God, and the devil flees. The Good Angel and Evil Angel arrive again. The Good Angel tells him to repent, and the Evil Angel tells him to stick to his wicked ways. Lucifer, Belzebub, and Mephostophilis return, to intimidate Faustus. He is cowed by them, and agrees to speak and think no more of God. They delight him with a pageant of the Seven Deadly Sins, and then Lucifer promises to show Faustus hell. Meanwhile, Robin the Clown has gotten one of Faustus' magic books. Faustus has explored the heavens and the earth from a chariot drawn by dragons, and is now flying to Rome, where the feast honoring St. Peter is about to be celebrated. Mephostophilis and Faustus wait for the Pope, depicted as an arrogant, decidedly unholy man. They play a series of tricks, by using magic to disguise themselves and make themselves invisible, before leaving.

The Chorus returns to tell us that Faustus returns home, where his vast knowledge of astronomy and his abilities earn him wide renown. Meanwhile, Robin the Clown has also learned magic, and uses it to impress his friend Rafe and summon Mephostophilis, who doesn't seem too happy to be called. At the court of Charles V, Faustus performs illusions that delight the Emperor. He also humiliates a knight named Benvolio. When Benvolio and his friends try to avenge the humiliation, Faustus has his devils hurt them and cruelly transform them, so that horns grow on their heads. Faustus swindles a Horse-courser, and when the Horse-courser returns, Faustus plays a frightening trick on him. Faustus then goes off to serve the Duke of Vanholt. Robin the Clown, his friend Dick, the Horse-courser, and a Carter all meet. They all have been swindled or hurt by Faustus' magic. They go off to the court of the Duke to settle scores with Faustus. Faustus entertains the Duke and Duchess with petty illusions, before Robin the Clown and his band of ruffians arrives. Faustus toys with them, besting them with magic, to the delight of the Duke and Duchess.

Faustus' twenty-four years are running out. Wagner tells the audience that he thinks Faustus prepares for death. He has made his will, leaving all to Wagner. But even as death approaches, Faustus spends his days feasting and drinking with the other students. For the delight of his fellow scholars, Faustus summons a spirit to take the shape of Helen of Troy. Later, an Old Man enters, warning Faustus to repent. Faustus opts for pleasure instead, and asks Mephostophilis to bring Helen of Troy to him, to be his love and comfort during these last days. Mephostophilis readily agrees.

Later, Faustus tells his scholar friends that he is damned, and that his power came at the price of his soul. Concerned, the Scholars exit, leaving Faustus to meet his fate.

As the hour approaches, Mephostophilis taunts Faustus. Faustus blames Mephostophilis for his damnation, and the devil proudly takes credit for it. The Good and Evil Angel arrive, and the Good Angel abandons Faustus. The gates of Hell open. The Evil Angel taunts Faustus, naming the horrible tortures seen there. The Clock strikes eleven. Faustus gives a final, frenzied monologue, regretting his choices. At midnight the devils enter. As Faustus begs God and the devil for mercy, the devils drag him away. Later, the Scholar friends find Faustus' body, torn to pieces.

Epilogue. The Chorus emphasizes that Faustus is gone, his once-great potential wasted. The Chorus warns the audience to remember his fall, and the lessons it offers.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS (MARLOWE) CHARACTER LIST Faustus Himself He sells his soul to the devil Faustus A brilliant man, who seems to have reached the limits of natural knowledge. Faustus is a scholar of the early sixteenth century in the German city of Wittenburg. He is arrogant, fiery, and possesses a thirst for knowledge. As an intellectual, Faustus is familiar with things (like demon summoning and astrology) not normally considered academic subjects by today's universities. Faustus decides to sell his soul to the devil in exchange for earthly power and knowledge and an additional 24 years of life. He proceeds to waste this time on self-indulgence and low tricks.

Faustus is the absolute center of the play, which has few truly developed characters. Mephostophilis From the Hebrew, mephitz, destroyer, and tophel, liar. A devil of craft and cunning. He is the devil who comes at Faustus' summoning, and the devil who serves Faustus for 24 years. In lore, Mephostophilis (also spelled Mephistopheles, or Miphostophiles, and also called Mephisto) seems to be a relative latecomer in the recognized hierarchy of demons. He possibly was created for the Faustus legend.

In Marlowe's play, Mephostophilis has layers to his personality. He admits that separation from God is anguish, and is capable of fear and pain. But he is gleefully evil, participating at every level in Faustus' destruction. Not only does Mephostophilis get Faustus to sell his soul; he also encourages Faustus to waste his twenty-four years of power. Wagner Servant to Faustus. He steals Faustus' books and learns how to summon demons. At the end of the play, he seems concerned about his master's fate. Good Angel and Evil Angel Personifications of Faustus' inner turmoil, who give differing advice to him at key points. Their characters also reflect Christian belief that humans are assigned guardian angels, and that devils can influence human thoughts. Valdes Friend to Faustus, who teaches him the dark arts. He appears only in Act One. Cornelius Friend to Faustus, who teaches him the dark arts. He appears only in Act One. Lucifer Satan. "Lucifer" original meant Venus, referring to the planet's brilliance. In Christian lore, Lucifer is sometimes thought to be another name of Satan. Some traditions say that Lucifer was Satan's name before the fall, while the Fathers of the Catholic Church held that Lucifer was not Satan's proper name but a word showing the brilliance and beauty of his station before the fall. He appears at a few choice moments in Doctor Faustus, and Marlowe uses "Lucifer" as Satan's proper name. Belzebub One of Lucifer's officers. A powerful demon. The Seven Deadly Sins Personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins, not acts but impulses or motivations that lead men to sinful actions. They array themselves in a pageant before Faustus, although scholars think now that this section was not written by Marlowe. Clown / Robin Robin learns demon summoning by stealing one of Faustus' books. He is the chief character in a number of scenes that provide comic relief from the main story. Dick A friend of Robin's. He is one of the characters peopling the few comic relief scenes. Rafe A horse ostler, or groomer, and friend to Robin. With the Clown, he summons Mephostophilis, who is none too pleased to be called. Vintner A wine merchant or a wine maker. This Vintner chases down Robin and Rafe after they steal a silver goblet from him. Carter A man who meets Faustus while carting hay to town. Faustus swindles him. Horse-Courser A man who buys Faustus' horse. Faustus swindles him. Hostess An ale wench. She treats Robin and his friends kindly. The Pope Yeah, that Pope. In a move that would have pleases his Protestant audience, Marlowe depicts him as cruel, power-mad, and far from holy. Faustus plays some cheap tricks on him. Bruno A man who would be Pope, selected by the German emperor and representing the conflicts between Church and state authority. Raymond King of Hungary. He serves the Pope. Charles The German Emperor. Faustus performs at his court. Martino Knight in the court of the German Emperor. Friend to Benvolio and Frederick. When Benvolio seeks revenge against Faustus, Martino decides to help out of loyalty. Frederick Knight in the court of the German Emperor. Friend to Martino and Benvolio. When Benvolio seeks revenge against Faustus, Frederick decides to help out of loyalty. Benvolio Knight in the court of the German Emperor. Friend to Martino and Frederick. When Faustus humiliates him, he seeks revenge. Saxony A man attending at the court of the German Emperor. Duke of Vanholt A nobleman. Faustus performs illusions at his court. Duchess of Vanholt A noblewoman. Faustus fetches her grapes in January. Spirits in the shapes of Alexander the Great, Darius, Paramour, and Helen Faustus' illusions. An Old Man A holy old man. He tries to save Faustus by getting him to repent, and for his good deed, Faustus initially thanks him. But later, Faustus sends devils to harm the Old Man.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS (MARLOWE) THEMES Man's Limitations and Potential The possible range of human accomplishment is at the heart of Doctor Faustus, and many of the other themes are auxiliary to this one. The axis of this theme is the conflict between Greek or Renaissance worldviews, and the Christian worldview that has held sway throughout the medieval period. As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages, contact with previously lost Greek learning had a revelatory effect on man's conception of himself. While the Christian worldview places man below God, and requires obedience to him, the Greek worldview places man at the center of the universe. For the Greeks, man defies the gods at his own peril, but man has nobility that no deity can match. Doctor Faustus, scholar and lover of beauty, chafes at the bit of human limitation. He seeks to achieve godhood himself, and so he leaves behind the Christian conceptions of human limitation. Though he fancies himself to be a seeker of Greek greatness, we see quickly that he is not up to the task. Pride, and Sin Pride is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, arguable the one that leads to all the others. Within the Christian framework, pride is a lethal motivation because it makes the sinner forget his fallen state. For Christians, men are fallen since birth, because they carry with them the taint of original sin. A men made haughty with pride forgets that he shares Eve's sin, and must therefore be saved by the gift of grace. Only God, through Christ, can dispense this grace, and the man who forgets that fact deprives himself of the path to salvation.

Faustus' first great sin is pride. He does not stop there. Reflecting the Christian view, pride gives rise to all of the other sins, and ends ironically with the proud man's abasement. Faustus goes quickly from pride to all of the other sins, becoming increasingly petty and low. Flesh and Spirit The division between flesh and spirit was stronger in Greek thought than in Hebrew thought, but Christians adapted the divide into their own belief system. While Westerners now take this conception of being for granted, the flesh/spirit divide is not a feature of many of the world's major belief systems. Nor is the flesh/spirit divide necessary for belief in the afterlife: both Hindus and Buddhists conceive of the human entity differently, while retaining belief in life after death.

In Christianity, flesh and spirit are divided to value the later and devalue the former. Faustus' problem is that he values his flesh, and the pleasure it can provide him, while failing to look after the state of his soul. Damnation Damnation is eternal. Eternal hell is another concept that Westerners take for granted as part of religion, but again this belief's uniqueness needs to be appreciated. While the Jewish view of the afterlife was somewhat vague, Christians developed the idea of judgment after death. Moslems adapted a similar conception of hell and heaven, and to this day eternal hell and eternal heaven remain an important feature of Christianity and Islam. While Buddhists and Hindus have hell in their belief systems, for the most part in neither religion is hell considered eternal. For example, an eternal hell in Mahayana Buddhism would contradict Buddhist beliefs about transience and the saving power of Buddha's compassion. Not so in Christianity. If Faustus dies without repenting and accepting God, he will be damned forever. As we learn from Mephostophilis, hell is not merely a place, but separation from God's love. Salvation, Mercy, and Redemption Hell is eternal, but so is heaven. For a Christian, all that is necessary to be saved from eternal damnation is acceptance of Jesus Christ's grace. Even after signing away his soul to the devil, Faustus has the option of repentance that will save him from hell. But once he has committed himself to his own damnation, Faustus seems unable to change his course. While Christianity seems to accept even a deathbed repentance as acceptable for the attainment of salvation, Marlowe plays with that idea, possibly rejecting it for his own thematic purposes. (See analysis of 5.2-end of the play). Valuing Knowledge over Wisdom Faustus has a thirst for knowledge, but he seems unable to acquire wisdom. Faustus' thirst for knowledge is impressive, but it is overshadowed by his complete inability to understand certain truths. Because of this weakness, Faustus cannot use his knowledge to better himself or his world. He ends life with a head full of facts, and vital understanding gained too late to save him. Talk and Action Faustus is, with no exceptions, beautiful when he speaks and contemptible when he acts. His opening speeches about the uses to which he'll put his power are exhilarating, but once he gains near-omnipotence he squanders twenty-four years in debauchery and petty tricks. This gap between high talk and low action seems related to the fault of valuing knowledge over wisdom. While Faustus has learned much of the Greek world's learning, he has not really understood what he's been reading. He can talk about potential and plans in terms of a Greek worldview, but he lacks the internal strength to follow through on his purported goals.

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SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER STUDY GUIDE She Stoops to Conquer was first produced in London in 1773, and was a massive success. It was reputed to have created an applause that was yet unseen in the London theatre, and almost immediately entered the repertory of respectable companies. Within a decade, it had traveled both throughout the European continent and to the United States. This was particularly significant considering the lack of success Goldsmith had with his previous comedy, The Good-Natured Man. This play, which explores similar themes within the same "well-made play" frame, performed very poorly when first produced. There are many reasons for this: where She Stoops to Conquer feels natural, The Good-Natured Man can seem stagey and forced; the complicated plot is far less accessible than in She Stoops to Conquer; and the deliberate exploration of the conventions of "sentimental comedy" are less sharp in the earlier work. However, what perhaps influenced Goldsmith most about its failure was the audience reaction to a scene of "low" behavior, in which the hero is accosted by buffoonish bailiffs. The near- universal disdain for the scene led it be cut from future performances, while the work of a colleague, Hugh Kelly's False Delicacy, was immensely popular. Owing to his jealous nature and disdain for genteel comedy, Goldsmith seems to have sworn he would avenge his loss with a hit play that skewered the very problems that he blamed for the failure of The Good-Natured Man. As time has proved, he accomplished his goal with She Stoops to Conquer. Finally, the play is often published with a sub-title, as She Stoops to Conquer, or the Mistakes of a Night. The sub-title was originally its working title, but perhaps due to evoking too strongly Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Goldsmith re-titled the play. SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY She Stoops to Conquer opens with a prologue in which an actor mourns the death of the classical low comedy at the altar of sentimental, "mawkish" comedy. He hopes that Dr. Goldsmith can remedy this problem through the play about to be presented. Act I is full of set-up for the rest of the play. Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle live in an old house that resembles an inn, and they are waiting for the arrival of Marlow, son of Mr. Hardcastle's old friend and a possible suitor to his daughter Kate. Kate is very close to her father, so much so that she dresses plainly in the evenings (to suit his conservative tastes) and fancifully in the mornings for her friends. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hardcastle's niece Constance is in the old woman's care, and has her small inheritance (consisting of some valuable jewels) held until she is married, hopefully to Mrs. Hardcastle's spoiled son from an earlier marriage, Tony Lumpkin. The problem is that neither Tony nor Constance loves the other, and in fact Constance has a beloved, who will be traveling to the house that night with Marlow. Tony's problem is also that he is a drunk and a lover of low living, which he shows when the play shifts to a pub nearby. When Marlow and Hastings (Constance's beloved) arrive at the pub, lost on the way to Hardcastle's, Tony plays a practical joke by telling the two men that there is no room at the pub and that they can find lodging at the old inn down the road (which is of course Hardcastle's home). Act II sees the plot get complicated. When Marlow and Hastings arrive, they are impertinent and rude with Hardcastle, whom they think is a landlord and not a host (because of Tony's trick). Hardcastle expects Marlow to be a polite young man, and is shocked at the behavior. Constance finds Hastings, and reveals to him that Tony must have played a trick. However, they decide to keep the truth from Marlow, because they think revealing it will upset him and ruin the trip. They decide they will try to get her jewels and elope together. Marlow has a bizarre tendency to speak with exaggerated timidity to "modest" women, while speaking in lively and hearty tones to women of low-class. When he has his first meeting with Kate, she is dressed well, and hence drives him into a debilitating stupor because of his inability to speak to modest women. She is nevertheless attracted to him, and decides to try and draw out his true character. Tony and Hastings decide together that Tony will steal the jewels for Hastings and Constance, so that he can be rid of his mother's pressure to marry Constance, whom he doesn't love.

Act III opens with Hardcastle and Kate each confused with the side of Marlow they saw. Where Hardcastle is shocked at his impertinence, Kate is disappointed to have seen only modesty. Kate asks her father for the chance to show him that Marlow is more than both believe. Tony has stolen the jewels, but Constance doesn't know and continues to beg her aunt for them. Tony convinces Mrs. Hardcastle to pretend they were stolen to dissuade Constance, a plea she willingly accepts until she realizes they have actually been stolen. Meanwhile, Kate is now dressed in her plain dress and is mistaken by Marlow (who never looked her in the face in their earlier meeting) as a barmaid to whom he is attracted. She decides to play the part, and they have a lively, fun conversation that ends with him trying to embrace her, a move Mr. Hardcastle observes. Kate asks for the night to prove that he can be both respectful and lively.

Act IV finds the plots almost falling apart. News has spread that Sir Charles Marlow (Hardcastle's friend, and father to young Marlow) is on his way, which will reveal Hastings's identity as beloved of Constance and also force the question of whether Kate and Marlow are to marry. Hastings has sent the jewels in a casket to Marlow for safekeeping but Marlow, confused, has given them to Mrs. Hardcastle (whom he still believes is the landlady of the inn). When Hastings learns this, he realizes his plan to elope with wealth is over, and decides he must convince Constance to elope immediately. Meanwhile, Marlow's impertinence towards Hardcastle (whom he believes is the landlord) reaches its apex, and Hardcastle kicks him out of the house, during which altercation Marlow begins to realize what is actually happening. He finds Kate, who now pretends to be a poor relation to the Hardcastles, which would make her a proper match as far as class but not a good marriage as far as wealth. Marlow is starting to love her, but cannot pursue it because it would be unacceptable to his father because of her lack of weatlh, so he leaves her. Meanwhile, a letter from Hastings arrives that Mrs. Hardcastle intercepts, and she reads that he waits for Constance in the garden, ready to elope. Angry, she insists that she will bring Constance far away, and makes plans for that. Marlow, Hastings and Tony confront one another, and the anger over all the deceit leads to a severe argument, resolved temporarily when Tony promises to solve the problem for Hastings. Act V finds the truth coming to light, and everyone happy. Sir Charles has arrived, and he and Hastings laugh together over the confusion young Marlow was in. Marlow arrives to apologize, and in the discussion over Kate, claims he barely talked to Kate. Hardcastle accuses him of lying, since Hardcastle saw him embrace Kate (but Marlow does not know that was indeed Kate). Kate arrives after Marlow leaves the room and convinces the older men she will reveal the full truth if they watch an interview between the two from a hidden vantage behind a screen. Meanwhile, Hastings waits in the garden, per Tony's instruction, and Tony arrives to tell him that he drove his mother and Constance all over in circles, so that they think they are lost far from home when in fact they have been left nearby. Mrs. Hardcastle, distraught, arrives and is convinced she must hide from a highwayman who is approaching. The “highwayman” proves to be Mr. Hardcastle, who scares her in her confusion for a while but ultimately discovers what is happening. Hastings and Constance, nearby, decide they will not elope but rather appeal to Mr. Hardcastle for mercy. Back at the house, the interview between Kate (playing the poor relation) and Marlow reveals his truly good character, and after some discussion, everyone agrees to the match. Hastings and Constance ask permission to marry and, since Tony is actually of age and therefore can of his own volition decide not to marry Constance, the permission is granted. All are happy (except for miserly Mrs. Hardcastle), and the "mistakes of a night" have been corrected.

There are two epilogues generally printed to the play, one of which sketches in metaphor Goldsmith's attempt to bring comedy back to its traditional roots, and the other of which suggests Tony Lumpkin has adventures yet to be realized.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER CHARACTER LIST Sir Charles Marlow The father of Young Marlow and friend of Hardcastle. A respectable and aristocratic fellow from the town who believes his son is of very modest character. Marlow Ostensibly the hero of a play. A respectable fellow who comes to Hardcastle's home to meet Kate Hardcastle. Possessed of a strange contradictory character, wherein he is mortified to speak to any "modest" woman, but is lively and excitable in conversation with barmaids or other low- class women. Hardcastle The patriarch of the Hardcastle family, and owner of the estate where the play is set. He despises the ways of the town, and is dedicated to the simplicity of country life and old-fashioned traditions. Hastings Friend of Marlow's, and lover of Constance Neville. A decent fellow who is willing to marry Constance even without her money. Tony Lumpkin Son of Mrs. Hardcastle from an earlier marriage, and known for his free-wheeling ways of drinking and tomfoolery. Loves to play practical jokes. Proves to be good-natured and kind despite his superficial disdain for everyone. His mother wants him to marry Constance but he is set against the idea. Diggory Hardcastle's head servant. Mrs. Hardcastle Matriarch of the Hardcastle family, most notable for her pronounced vanity. She coddles her son Tony, and wants him to marry her niece, Constance Neville. Kate Hardcastle Called "Miss Hardcastle" in the play. The heroine of the play, she is able to balance the "refined simplicity" of country life with the love of life associated with the town. She pretends to be a barmaid in order to judge her suitor Marlow's true character. Constance Neville Called "Miss Neville" in the play. Niece of Mrs. Hardcastle, an orphan whose only inheritance is a set of jewels in the care of her aunt. Her aunt wishes her to marry Tony Lumpkin, but Constance wants to marry Hastings. Maid Kate's servant. The woman who tells her that Marlow believed Kate to be a barmaid, which leads Kate towards her plan to stoop and conquer. Landlord Landlord of the Three Pigeons, who welcomes Marlow and Hastings, and helps Tony to play his trick on them. Jeremy Marlow's drunken servant. His drunken impertinence offends Hardcastle, which leads Hardcastle to order Marlow to leave.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER THEMES Class While the play is not explicitly a tract on class, the theme is central to it. The decisions the characters make and their perspectives on one another, are all largely based on what class they are a part of. Where Tony openly loves low-class people like the drunks in the Three Pigeons, Marlow must hide his love of low-class women from his father and “society.” His dynamic relationship with Kate (and the way he treats her) is defined by who he thinks she is at the time – from high-class Kate to a poor barmaid to a woman from good family but with no fortune. Hastings’ and Marlow’s reaction to Hardcastle is also a great example of the importance of class—they find him impudent and absurd, because they believe him to be of low class, but his behavior would be perfectly reasonable and expected from a member of the upper class, as he truly is. Money One of the factors that keeps the play pragmatic even when it veers close to contrivance and sentiment is the unavoidable importance of money. While some of the characters, like Marlow and Hardcastle, are mostly unconcerned with questions of money, there are several characters whose lives are largely defined by a lack of access to it. Constance cannot run away with Hastings because she worries about a life without her inheritance. When Marlow thinks Kate is a poor relation of the Hardcastles, he cannot get himself to propose because of her lack of dowry. And Tony seems to live a life unconcerned with wealth, although the implicit truth is that his dalliances are facilitated by having access to wealth. Behavior/Appearance One of the elements Goldsmith most skewers in his play's satirical moments is the aristocratic emphasis on behavior as a gauge of character. Even though we today believe that one's behavior – in terms of “low” versus “high” class behavior – does not necessarily indicate who someone is, many characters in the play are often blinded to a character's behavior because of an assumption. For instance, Marlow and Hastings treat Hardcastle cruelly because they think him the landlord of an inn, and are confused by his behavior, which seems forward. The same behavior would have seemed appropriately high-class if they hadn't been fooled by Tony. Throughout the play, characters (especially Marlow) assume they understand someone's behavior when what truly guides them is their assumption of the other character's class. Moderation Throughout the play runs a conflict between the refined attitudes of town and the simple behaviors of the country. The importance of this theme is underscored by the fact that it is the crux of the opening disagreement between Hardcastle and his wife. Where country characters like Hardcastle see town manners as pretentious, town characters like Marlow see country manners as bumpkinish. The best course of action is proposed through Kate, who is praised by Marlow as having a "refined simplicity." Having lived in town, she is able to appreciate the values of both sides of life and can find happiness in appreciating the contradictions that exist between them. Contradiction Most characters in the play want others to be simple to understand. This in many ways mirrors the expectations of an audience that Goldsmith wishes to mock. Where his characters are initially presented as comic types, he spends time throughout the play complicating them all by showing their contradictions. Most clear are the contradictions within Marlow, who is both refined and base. The final happy ending comes when the two oldest men – Hardcastle and Sir Charles – decide to accept the contradictions in their children. In a sense, this theme helps to understand Goldsmith's purpose in the play, reminding us that all people are worthy of being mocked because of their silly, base natures, and no one is above reproach. Comedy Though it is only explicitly referred to in the prologue, an understanding of Goldsmith's play in context shows his desire to reintroduce his audience to the “laughing comedy” that derived from a long history of comedy that mocks human vice. This type of comedy stands in contrast to the then-popular “sentimental comedy” that praised virtues and reinforced bourgeois mentality. Understanding Goldsmith's love of the former helps to clarify several elements of the play: the low scene in the Three Pigeons; the mockery of baseness in even the most high-bred characters; and the celebration of absurdity as a fact of human life. Deceit/Trickery Much of this play's comedy comes from the trickery played by various characters. The most important deceits come from Tony, including his lie about Hardcastle's home and his scheme of driving his mother and Constance around in circles. However, deceit also touches to the center of the play's more major themes. In a sense, the only reason anyone learns anything about their deep assumptions about class and behavior is because they are duped into seeing characters in different ways. This truth is most clear with Marlow and his shifting perspective on Kate, but it also is true for the Hardcastles and Sir Charles, who are able to see the contradictions in others because of what trickery engenders.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PROLOGUE

Summary The prologue is attributed to David Garrick, Esq., a popular actor of his day. The basic premise of the prologue is that the comic arts are passing away, and that Dr. Goldsmith might prove the doctor, and She Stoops to Conquer the medicine, that will cease its death. At the play's opening, Mr. Woodward enters and speaks a prologue. Woodward, a celebrated actor of his day and one who had turned down the role of Tony Lumpkin in the play's initial production, is drying his eyes as though he has been crying. In verse, Woodward laments to the audience that "the Comic muse, long sick, is now a-dying!" As an actor trained in comedy, he intuits that his own career will pass away along with comedy itself, since he "can as soon speak Greek as sentiments!" Unable to tell moralistic, sentimental stories, he fears for the fate of himself and his brethren.

He attempts to tell a moral poem beginning with "All is gold that glitters," but performs poorly and stops himself. He offers one final hope for his problem – "a doctor [has come] this night to show his skill," perhaps to make the audience laugh through his five "draughts" of medicine (paralleling the five acts of the play). He urges the audience to accept the doctor's comic medicine willingly, to laugh heartily, and stresses that should the doctor's goal not be achieved, then they can hold it against him and deny him his fee.

Analysis Though not written by Goldsmith, the play's prologue is useful in the way it provides insight into Goldsmith's purpose in the play. Obviously, the most explicit purpose is to make the audience laugh. The speaker – Mr. Woodward, who would have been portrayed by a different actor – comes out in mourning, already having been crying, which in a way poses a challenge to the play. If we, as actors and audience, are in a state of sadness, can the play lift our spirits?

However, most relevant is the state of affairs sculpted here. The prologue mirrors the trend in theatre that writers like Goldsmith were desperately trying to change. At the time of She Stoops to Conquer, popular theatre comedy was separated into what was commonly termed "sentimental comedy" and "laughing comedy." The former was concerned with bourgeois (middle-class) morality and with praising virtue. The latter, which dated back to the Greeks and Romans and through Shakespeare, was more willing to engage in “low” humor for the sake of mocking vice. Woodward suggests that a certain class of actor (and by extension, then, audience and writer) were dying out as sentimental comedy became more popular. So Goldsmith's play has an extra purpose: it must rejuvenate the joy taken in “laughing comedy,” which could be willing to be more stupid, to dramatize base characters and characteristics, and to mock even the characters who profess to be moral.

It's worth reviewing the "About 'An Essay on the Theatre'" section of this ClassicNote that explains in more detail the context of the theatre of the time, since it will provide an even more in-depth understanding of the purpose suggested in this prologue. But even without such extensive historical research, the prologue brings the audience in with a particular question: can this play remind us that true comedy, which is willing to be silly and unpretentious, is the most entertaining of all?

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ACT I

Summary

Scene One The play opens in its primary setting, a chamber in the "old-fashioned" country house of Mr. Hardcastle. Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle enter in the midst of a pleasant argument. Mrs. Hardcastle is perturbed at her husband's refusal to take trips into London, while he insists he is not interested in the "vanity and affectation" of the city. He tires even of the pretentious London trends that find their way into his removed country community. Mrs. Hardcastle mocks him for his love of old- fashioned trends, so much that he keeps his house in such a way that it "looks for all the world like an inn." They joke about her age, which she wishes to downplay, and speak of her son from a first marriage, Tony Lumpkin. Mr. Hardcastle finds his roguish ways grating, and laments how the boy is too given to practical jokes. On the other hand, Mrs. Hardcastle (Tony's natural mother) defends him, saying education is unnecessary for him since he needs only plan for spending his sizable fortune, and she begs her husband to be easier on Tony. They both grant that he is too inclined towards drink and jokes, but Mrs. Hardcastle believes him frail and needing of sympathy. Tony passes by and tells them he is off to the Three Pigeons, a local pub. Both adults request him not associate with such "low" company, but he defends the liveliness of his pub companions as "not so low." Mrs. Hardcastle forbids him to go, but he insists he has the stronger willpower, and drags her out.

Alone, Mr. Hardcastle describes them as "a pair that only spoil each other." He blames it partially on how the modern fashions have infiltrated their lives, and worries that even his own daughter Kate has been infected by those fashions because of her having lived for a few years in London.

Kate (labeled in the play as Miss Hardcastle, but called Kate here for ease) enters dressed in a lavish gown, which her father finds troublesome. Kate reminds him that they have an agreement: in the morning she dresses as she likes in order to welcome friends, while in the evening she dresses plainly in order to please his tastes.

Mr. Hardcastle then gives her news: he has invited Mr. Marlow, son of Hardcastle's old friend Charles Marlow, to their house that evening in order to court Kate. Hardcastle has chosen Marlow as husband for her, but she is immediately worried that their interview will be overly formal and dull. Mr. Hardcastle considers this a virtue, and in fact insists to her that Marlow is, while generous, brave, and handsome, best known for being reserved. He leaves to prepare the servants, and Kate laments that she might have to spend her life with a boring man. She begins to wonder whether she might be able to find a way to be happy even in such a marriage or whether she can change him, but stops herself from thinking too far ahead.

Constance Neville (called Miss Neville in the play but Constance here for ease) enters and Kate tells her the news of Marlow. Constance is a cousin of Kate, a niece of Mr. Hardcastle who has been orphaned and now lives with the Hardcastles under the protectorship of Mrs. Hardcastle. Constance reveals that she knows Marlow's reputation, since Marlow is friends with Mr. Hastings, her admirer and the man she hopes to marry. Constance tells how Marlow is known for excessive formality amongst women of reputation and virtue, but that he is a "very different character" amongst common women. Kate finds this description strange, and they then discuss how Mrs. Hardcastle disparately wants Constance to marry her son Tony, in hopes of keeping Constance's small fortune (which consists of some jewels that were bequeathed to her) in the family. Constance quite hates Tony but does not want to reveal to Mrs. Hardcastle that she is in love with Mr. Hastings, and so is in a tricky spot. Her only small comfort is that Tony hates her equally.

Scene Two Note that the scene is not explicitly labeled "Scene Two" but instead is marked by the setting change. The setting changes to the room in the Three Pigeons, where Tony fraternizes with several other drunk men.

They all urge Tony to sing a song, and he sings of how liquor provides the best learning, while traditional school wisdom can be ignorance. The song also touches on the hypocrisy of men of manners, who like liquor as much as anyone. The song is a great hit amongst the drunkards, who speak amongst themselves of how wonderful it is to hear songs that are not "low." They also reminisce to themselves about Tony's father, who was "the finest gentleman" in the way he celebrated life.

The landlord brings news that two gentleman have arrived, and are lost on their way to Mr. Hardcastle's house. Tony intuits quickly they must be Marlow and Hastings, and since Tony is still angry about Hardcastle's insults, decides he will play a joke on his step-father. He will convince them that Hardcastle's house is in fact an inn and so will they present themselves there not as gracious guests, but as entitled patrons.

He has the men brought to him. Marlow and Hastings are in poor spirits from a long day of travel, Hastings more so because Marlow's reserve prevented him from asking directions. Tony gives them nonsensical directions to Hardcastle's that make the place sound many miles away (when it is in fact down the road.) Tony interrogates them, and they tell how they have heard about Hardcastle's well-bred daughter and roguish, spoiled son. Tony argues that their information is reversed, that the son (himself) is much loved and the daughter a "talkative maypole." The men ask the landlord if they can stay, but, at Tony's instructions, he tells them there is no room, and so Tony suggests they head down to a nearby inn he knows of. He then gives directions to Hardcastle's house, cautioning them that landlord there puts on airs and expects to be treated as a gentleman rather than servant. They thank him, and leave for Hardcastle's home, and so the stage is set for the comedy to come.

Analysis While She Stoops to Conquer is most notable for the way it subverts the expectations of its intended audience and provides complicated characters within the guise of stock characters, it is also a "well-made play," in that it is well structured to deliver a complicated plot with recognizable characters. It is worth understanding this structure before getting into the play's eccentricities. Goldsmith writes a first act that establishes with great economy all of the plot to come. Firstly, this act shows his ability as a comedian to “set up” his joke. Several plot details are provided in quick succession that will be necessary to establish all of the zaniness in the subsequent acts. For instance: the house resembles an inn; Kate dresses in nice dresses early, and plain dresses later; Constance is set to inherit jewels that Mrs. Hardcastle hopes will stay in the family; and Marlow has a tendency to speak meekly to “respectable” ladies and passionately to common ladies. All of these elements are important for an audience to understand so that the great comedy to follow can be easily understood. In this first act, Goldsmith masterfully lays it all out. This play will operate very much through the use of dramatic irony, the effect produced when the audience knows something the characters do not. Everything Tony sets up in the second scene provides the audience the information they need for dramatic irony to happen. Notice how what we learn here allows us to laugh when all of the characters will only be confused and bothered by their lack of information.

Goldsmith also ably establishes the plot lines we are to follow. The main plot is clearly whether Kate will marry Marlow, while the primary subplot is whether Constance will marry Hastings. And yet one gets the sense from this first act that such stories (which are typical for comedies not only of the period but even today – think romantic comedy films) are not really Goldsmith's concern. Tony seems to stand at the center of the play, considering that it is he who takes action to put the plot in motion, making him what would traditionally be called the protagonist. His love of life and disavowal of customary, respectable expectations will prove crucial to Goldsmith's purpose of praising low comedy over sentimental comedy. Further, there is an additional subplot of whether the Hardcastles will resolve their differences over whether old or new is superior. While this subplot never directly affects the action of the play, it is thematically important, and is given attention right away.

Through all these plots, Goldsmith lays the groundwork for his exploration of morality and respectability. The play's ironic subversion of traditional expectation is established in both scenes of Act I. In sentimental comedy, characters of virtue would be expected to be the heroes, and would ultimately end up together as reward for such virtue. Sophisticated, educated characters of the town would be praised for their superiority over antiquated country bumpkins who eschew education. Goldsmith creates a world that operates in the same milieu – wealthy characters concerned with appearance and marriage – but subverts these easy classifications.

Firstly, Mrs. Hardcastle, who is presented first as the supporter of sophisticated London ways, has already been presented as a much less admirable person than her husband. Not only does she spoil her rogue son, but she is concerned only with the appearance of things. She wants her son to marry Constance only for the sake of the girl's fortune, and is clearly vain in the way she wants to mirror the London fashions and hide her age. On the other hand, Mr. Hardcastle seems to have a great concern for the well-being of his daughter Kate, and while he too is drawn to force her into a marriage with little concern for love, he at least looks to Marlow's character and not wealth or appearance as the reasoning. This conflict will continue to escalate in later acts.

Further, Marlow, who is ostensibly the hero of the play in its traditional sense, exhibits complications. While he would typically be praised by sentimental comedy for his modesty, we learn that such modesty is not a true expression of his character, but rather a front he uses around modest women. In truth, he is a lively fellow more than willing to engage in more lively, baser behaviors around women of less reputation, suggesting a type of hypocrisy that lies behind "refined" behaviors. Likewise, Kate seems to straddle both sides of the expectation. As a country girl who once lived in town, she is able to both respect the expectations of respectable, plain behavior, while also engaging her love for liveliness.

In truth, Kate stands as the exemplary illustration of moderation, which the play seems to preach. Her foremost virtue in the world is liveliness. She wants to live and enjoy her life, a desire that strict formality seems to exclude. She worries that custom will force her into a boring and loveless marriage, and so seeks to find in this overly-respectable gentleman a man she might enjoy. In the same way, Tony becomes a bit of a spokesman for the play. He presents us with a great irony in his alehouse song: traditional wisdom is presented as ignorance, while base living is praised as the wise way to live. He stresses to his mother that his "low" friends are in fact worthy of respect, which mirrors Goldsmith's goal of praising "low" comedy. It is worth noting that the alehouse scene, in which drunkards sing and carouse, would have been risky in the theatre of his time. In fact, Goldsmith's previous play had been criticized for showing scenes of "low" behavior, and so here he not only presents a scene of that sort, but has his drunkards deliberately comment on it, calling it not only acceptable but also stressing that it is not "low" at all to live one's life in this way, since that is what people do. As Tony's song says, even the minister engages in such behavior when eyes are not turned his way.

Lastly, the parent-child relationships in the play are quite fascinating. Most worthy of note is that between Tony and his mother, which has a pre-Freudian Oedipal nature. Mrs. Hardcastle is extremely overprotective of Tony, which accounts somewhat for the juvenile life he lives. He wants so badly to strike out at her and defeat her, but the sense is not that of a hero vanquishing a villain, but of an infantile sort. While such psychological interpretation is anachronistic for Goldsmith's purposes, it is a lens worth considering in one of the play's strangest, most eccentric relationships. The relationship between Kate and her father is even further from such sexual innuendo, though there is a bizarre nature to the way she works so hard to please him, even in the way she presents herself in plain dress for his pleasure. Certainly, this is necessary to plot in the way Tony's relationship with is mother is not a part of the plot, but one is led to wonder to what extent Goldsmith, so concerned with satirizing and attacking conventional establishment values, might be concerned with attacking the convention of a child's deference to her father. Should Kate be less deferential to her father? Does he smother her to some extent, which is what forces her to want so badly a life away from convention? The play is not primarily concerned with this question and as such never gives a definitive answer, but the set-up is interesting enough that one can approach the play with the question in mind.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ACT II

Summary Act II begins in Hardcastle's house. Hardcastle and several "awkward servants" enter, the former instructing them on how to appear sophisticated for the expected guests. One of the servants, Diggory, brags over his ability to hold his hands properly while serving, but Hardcastle stops him and chides him for talking too much. He also instructs them not to laugh at funny stories, since they are not officially part of the company. Diggory points out that one story of Hardcastle's – about "Ould Grouse in the gun- room" – is too funny to ignore, and Hardcastle, amused, allows they might laugh at that. As they exit, the servants continue to banter about where each should stand while serving. Another servant enters, leading in Marlow and Hastings. The men admire how much the inn seems as though it might have once been a mansion, but complain that they will be expected to pay a higher rate because of its quality. While discussing inns, Hastings introduces Marlow's particular oddity of character: in front of modest, reputable women, he is "an idiot, such a trembler," while he is eloquent and lively around barmaids and common women. Marlow too laments the shortcoming, pointing out that the only modest woman he ever knew well was his mother. He tells Hastings he is overcome by the splendor of modest women, and because of his bumbling will likely never make it through the formal courtship process and thus might never marry. When Hastings asks how he intends to address Kate (whom he has been invited for the express purpose of courting), he says he will avoid looking her in the face and "bow low." Marlow then admits his purpose for the trip was not for himself, but to facilitate a meeting between his friend and the family of Constance, whom Hastings loves. Hastings assures Marlow he is not at all interested in Constance's inheritance and so needs no such meeting, but rather would be perfectly happy with the woman herself. Hardcastle enters excitedly, asking for Marlow and offering them "hearty reception." Because of Tony's lie, they believe him to be the innkeeper. To himself, Marlow assumes aloud that the servants had given this man their first names (which he uses, perfectly acceptable for their host but impudent for a landlord). Marlow and Hastings converse with themselves about what clothes they ought to wear, which inspires Hastings to begin telling a story, which they ignore and interrupt, thinking it impudent in a landlord. Finally, Marlow cuts him off and asks for a glass of punch, which Hastings finds not only rude, but distinctly out of character from the modesty he had been led to expect. He serves them a different sort of punch that what they requested, but they decide to humor him rather than confront him. They are amused by Hardcastle's loquaciousness and the way he speaks about politics as though he were a man of repute (which he of course is). They cut off another of his stories to ask for dinner, and when he tells them the cook is at work preparing it, they are shocked to hear they cannot choose their own meal at an inn. He attempts to impress them by revealing that the meal will include pig with prune sauce and other delicacies, but they rudely diminish the value of such a fine meal and demand "plain eating" like calf's tongue and brains. In essence, they want pub food. When he apologizes for lacking such food, they instruct him to bring what he has and decide to retire.

Despite their confusion over this seemingly pushy landlord, the men allow Hardcastle to accompany them to their rooms. However, Hastings stays behind, remarking to himself on the strangeness of the situation, and Constance enters to find him. They are happily reunited, and Constance quickly surmises the trick Tony played, and corrects the mistake for Hastings. Hastings insists Constance join him in eloping, but she believes her fortune will prove crucial in their lives, and begs time to try and persuade her aunt (Mrs. Hardcastle) to turn the jewelry over. Hastings suggests they not correct Marlow's false assumptions since Marlow's timidity would make him to leave quickly in embarrassment, and any plan for elopement would be negated. Obviously, Hastings's identity needs to stay secret. They are still discussing the issue when Marlow re-enters, confused over why Hardcastle would want to dine with them. Hastings spins a new lie, telling Marlow that Constance and Kate Hardcastle are themselves staying at the inn that night. Marlow is terrified by the news, and begs that Hastings postpone his meeting until the next day, when he can meet her at the Hardcastle home (which, of course, he is in.) Constance will not hear of it, since Kate would see such a refusal to meet as insulting. The argument is made moot when Kate enters, and is introduced to Marlow. He holds up decently at first, partially due to the encouragement of Hastings, and to Kate's questions about his worldliness, he says "I have lived, indeed, in the world…[but] I have been but an observer upon life, madam, while others were enjoying it."

Things take a turn into one of the play's funniest scenes once Hastings and Constance abruptly leave despite Marlow's pleas to the contrary. Marlow keeps his head down during the entire interview, and stammers pleasantries, while Kate controls the conversation, amusing herself with the man's timidity. She asks questions about his time with women, about light, "sentimental" conversations that mean nothing, and about hypocrisy, with his responses slowly devolving until she is forced to complete his sentences for him. All the while, she is confused because she expected a man of "impudence" but instead is faced with this timid fellow.

He finally finds a way to politely exit, and Kate, now alone, laughs to herself at his ridiculous shyness. She does, however, note both his "good sense" and good looks, and wonders whether she might be able to teach him a confidence to accentuate those qualities.

She exits, and then four others enter: Tony, Constance, Hastings, and Mrs. Hardcastle. Constance is attempting to talk to Tony, who assumes she is pursuing the marriage desired by Mrs. Hardcastle, and so ignores her. The focus shifts to the other two, where Mrs. Hardcastle enjoys talking of London with Hastings. She explains that, out in the country, the best she can do with London style is imitate it from magazines. She laments being saddled with an "antique" like Hardcastle, but is enlivened to hear that the fashion in London now sees the age of fifty as fashionable. She talks to Hastings of how much Constance loves Tony, and mistakes their bickering for flirtation. When Tony explicitly shows disdain for Constance, Mrs. Hardcastle attacks him, and they argue over whether he is ungrateful or whether she is a harpy for denying him his fortune. Hastings asks the privilege to speak to Tony man-to-man, and so the ladies leave. Alone, Hastings strikes a deal: if Tony can help them to escape, Hastings will "take her off his hands." As an addendum to a deal he greatly endorses, Tony promises to try and help get her jewels so the lovers can have them.

Analysis Where Act I was primarily concerned with set-up, Act II is primarily concerned with establishing the contradictions and complications of the play's characters. On the surface, all of these people are comic types: Tony is the trickster, like Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream; Marlow and Hastings are the romantic leads; Constance and Kate are the pure maidens to be won (typically not characters who create comedy); and the Hardcastles are the stodgy bastions of an old world who will work as antagonists to the young.

And yet part of Goldsmith's mastery is the way he expands these comic archetypes so as to suggest a broader worldview. It is in keeping with his professed goal of lampooning sentimental comedy in favor of laughing comedy that he exhibits foolishness in even the most outwardly heroic characters, and heroism in the “lower” characters.

First, consider the heroes, Hastings and, more so, Marlow. While they would be seen as virtuous young men to their audience – especially because of their aristocratic standing and signs of good breeding – we see right away that they are capable of extreme “lowness” and even of meanness. The most explicit example is Marlow's love of common women. Something that would be considered a vice in moral comedy is here matched in Marlow by a sincere desire to be close to a “modest” woman. Goldsmith accomplishes with this contradiction not only a situation rife with comedy derived from dramatic irony, but also creates a fuller human being. Likewise, both men, when operating under the fallacious assumption that Hardcastle's home is an inn, are quite dismissive of and cruel to Hardcastle. Here, Goldsmith employs a subversion of expectation to suggest the cruelty that can be engendered by strict class-ist attitudes, which of course would be an implicit charge against much of his theatre audience. The men assume that Hardcastle cannot be a gentleman because such behaviors must be learned; the irony is that Hardcastle is a gentleman, and has learned as much, but the men are so blinded by their own perspective that they can't see past their assumptions. Meanwhile, the women are far more interesting than one might expect. Constance is perhaps a bit bland, but that fits within the confines of her sub-plot, which veers the closest to a traditional sentimental storyline. What does make Constance different from most romantic, sentimental heroines is her pragmatic realization that money matters quite a lot. Where Hastings's assertion that he needs only the woman, not the money, is a trope of romantic comedy, Constance will have none of it. Goldsmith creates a woman to remind us that such a philosophy is grand and wonderful for rich men, but only window dressing to people in less privileged conditions. Constance loves Hastings as much as he does her, but she also knows they need cash.

Kate, on the other hand, falls into a literary tradition of strong heroines, a tradition much loved by Shakespeare. Her contradiction is exemplified by the way she dresses plainly for her father and well for her friends, the way she can straddle the line between town and country, sophistication and simplicity. This ability suits her well in confronting Marlow. Not only is she able to see past the stammering caused by his ridiculous expectation of manners, but she is also able to laugh at herself and her situation. She deserves the happiness she will find, because she has the strength to identify it and go after it.

Mrs. Hardcastle is perhaps the character who least transcends her type. She is very much a stock character, the older woman overly concerned with her appearance, vain to the point of cruelty at times. However, her husband is as interesting as his daughter. While he is certainly stodgy, we see here an affability and desire to understand the situation. Where a hot-tempered man might throw the young men out immediately due to their rudeness (especially considering how he complained over new fashions in Act I), we see in this act a patience and desire to understand the situation.

The love of appearance over substance is very much apparent as a theme in this act, and will continue to be so throughout the play. It is manifest in many small symbols, like the way Marlow and Hastings decide how to dress in order to best present themselves, or the way Mrs. Hardcastle seeks comfort over her age, hoping it will not make her unfashionable. And yet the truth is that the “high” appearance of things is not the truth, but merely a guise behind which lies the baser nature of humans. Marlow and Hastings would gladly accept the rich-man food if they had not been tricked by Tony. However, because they believe the house an inn, they reveal their true nature – they love bar food! It is similar to Marlow's true love of “lower,” livelier woman, while he simultaneously attacks himself for an inability to love a woman of acceptable rank. Goldsmith's desire not to praise virtue but to lambaste folly is very much on display.

Much of this thematic content is apparent in the act's signature scene, the meeting of Kate and Marlow. Many things are happening here. Firstly, it is a wonderful parody of sentimental dialogue. One would expect the two lovers in a sentimental comedy (again, think of today’s romantic comedies) to express acceptable philosophies about life to one another, but here, Marlow is entirely unable to say anything, and it is the woman who has to put those words in his mouth. It is as though she is leading him into the sentimental conversation expected of them, while all the while she enjoys the situation.

However, the substance of the conversation does touch on the play's theme: the importance of living, rather than observing life. Ironically, Marlow believes he has only engaged in the latter, because he lacks adeptness at speaking with modest women. Kate, on the other hand, believes that Marlow's lively nature (which she has not seen yet) is the way to actually experience life. He has been blinded by aristocratic expectation to look down on his own pursuits, while right in front of his face is an aristocratic woman who would value such in him if he had the courage to reveal it. The dichotomy between city life (with its manners and excitement) and country life (with its simplicity) continues to trace through the play, with Kate standing as the one who can relate to both.

The Freudian content of the play is expanded in this act to include not only Tony and Mrs. Hardcastle, but implicitly Marlow and his own unseen mother. He confesses to Hastings that he has only ever known well one "modest woman:" his mother. The implication might well be that Tony has been ruined by an Oedipal complex wherein “modest women” intimidate him as pale imitations of an overbearing mother. Certainly, we see a similar situation (with opposite results) in Tony's animosity against Mrs. Hardcastle. She smothers him to constant anger, and yet he is utterly dependent upon her. Again, these currents in the play are certainly unconscious if they are there at all, but it's an interesting way to understand the dynamics.

Lastly, a word needs be said about the comedy in the act. Much of it comes from “low” humor, like the servants at the top, who are wonderfully idiotic and have ridiculous bickering. Yet the best humor here is again dependent on dramatic irony, as the web of confusion allow us to laugh at people who are revealing their true nature around others who they would never grant such privilege under more forthcoming circumstances.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ACT III Summary Act III is set solely in Hardcastle's home. Hardcastle enters alone, confused over what his friend Charles Marlow meant by describing the young Marlow as modest, considering the young man's behavior thus far. Hardcastle is particularly worried that the behavior will put off his daughter. Kate enters, in a plain dress per her father's wishes, and both express their shock at how different Marlow is from his or her expectations. Of course, Kate is confused over his modesty (expecting impudence), and Hardcastle over his impudence (expecting modesty). They realize the contradiction but Hardcastle does see they both know enough to "reject him," a decision Kate approves unless she can reveal him to be more pleasing to each of them than they yet realize. Hardcastle finds such an outcome unlikely, but grants her license to attempt to correct his first impression, assuming her desire to do so is only because she thinks he is good-looking, and so wants to find something to like in his character.

They leave, and Tony rushes on, holding the casket containing Constance's jewels. Hastings joins him, and Tony reveals he has stolen the jewels, which concerns Hastings since he knows Constance is slowly finding success at convincing the old woman to turn over the jewels willfully. Tony calms him, assuring Hastings that he himself will take care of any resentment that might arise in Mrs. Hardcastle. They hear the women approaching, so Hastings exits quickly with the casket. Mrs. Hardcastle attempts to convince Constance that a young woman does not need jewels, which should be reserved to disguise her faded beauty when she gets older. Constance does not accept the argument, so Mrs. Hardcastle attempts to have Tony praise her beauty to dissuade her from pursuing the jewels.

Tony pulls his mother aside, and suggests she lie to Constance, claiming the jewels have been stolen so as to put an end to the matter. Mrs. Hardcastle, who admits to him that she merely wants to save the jewels for him (and hence does she try to set them up in marriage), gladly accepts the plan. Mrs. Hardcastle makes a mock confession of the missing jewels, which Constance refuses to believe until Tony stands as witness to the lie, claiming he too has seen them missing. Constance is upset, and Mrs. Hardcastle's offer to lend the girl her garnets does nothing to comfort her, but Mrs. Hardcastle nevertheless leaves to fetch them.

While she is gone, Tony confesses his plan to Constance, who is happy. However, Mrs. Hardcastle returns quickly, having discovered the jewels have actually been stolen. She laments their loss dramatically, and Tony plays along, as though this is still their play-acting for Constance's benefits. Her attempts to convince him the jewels are actually stolen (which he of course knows to be the case) only lead him to play-act harder, which makes her angrier until she charges offstage.

All exit, and Kate enters with a maid, laughing about the joke Tony played on the men. The maid tells Kate that, as they passed Marlow moments before, he asked the maid about Kate, believing her to be a barmaid because of her simple dress, and because he was so shy with her before that he had never seen her face. Kate sees in this mistake an opportunity to deceive him, and decides to continue playing the barmaid so that she can glimpse his true character and so that she "shall be seen." The maid wonders whether Kate can pull off such a ruse, but Kate promises she has the required acting skills. Marlow enters, remarking to himself how terrible is his situation and how he will leave soon. Kate, acting the barmaid, approaches him and asks if she can help, offers he refuses until he notices her beauty. He grows immediately flirty and open, remarking on the "nectar" of her lips. They speak with great wit, and he confesses to his ability with ladies in town, speaking in lively tones of his life there. Kate asks whether he was so free when he spoke with Miss Hardcastle (which is of course herself, but he doesn't realize that), and he insists he is not in awe of her. Kate also says, in character, that she has lived in the house for 18 years. Overcome with passion, he pulls her close right as Mr. Hardcastle enters. Marlow quickly exits, and Hardcastle confronts Kate, accusing her of lying about Marlow's modesty before since he just saw such an aggressive move. Kate asks for more time to reveal his true character—his "virtues that will improve with age." Hardcastle denies her until she promises to prove her point by the end of the evening, a limit to which he agrees.

Analysis Act III is primarily concerned with complicating the plot, though the confrontation between Kate and Marlow that ends the Act is central to its primary themes.

One of Goldsmith's great accomplishments in She Stoops to Conquer is the naturalness with which he presents such a contrived and complicated plot. This success lies in his superb command of character that, as already noted, uses comic stock characters but complicates them so that their motivations make the contrivances of the plot believable. For instance, we accept Tony is a trickster who loves practical jokes, most of all when they are played on his mother. As a result, the levels of deceit he plays on her – stealing the jewels, having her lie about the theft before she knows about it, and then continuing to pretend they are stolen even when he knows she has discovered the theft – will help to push her into the action she takes in Act IV, and yet all this complication is totally acceptable because we believe Tony is this kind of person. Most of the complications in the act concern this subplot and are great fun because of the dramatic irony – Goldsmith presents the plot so naturally that an audience completely understands what is happening so that they can appreciate the confusion of the characters who lack such omniscience.

Meanwhile, the other section of the act is far more substantial, as it explores the questions of appearance and human foibles. Hardcastle and Kate are both disappointed with what they find in Marlow, though ironically each would be satisfied to have seen the side of Marlow revealed to the other. Goldsmith suggests here our desire to see a virtuous side of someone, when in fact all humans are complicated and prone to hypocrisy.

This theme is most clear in Kate's plan to reveal Marlow's true side. By “stooping” both in terms of class and wealth, she is able to pull out his true nature: a sexually aggressive, rather impetuous young fellow. And yet, for a woman in this time period, such behavior would be frowned upon in all legitimate suitors, and so it excites her to see this type of liveliness in someone who her father might ultimately approve as a husband. Marlow's true nature cannot be contained in either extreme – his extreme respect for modesty or extreme love for women – but instead he has been forced to such extremes by the extreme manners of an aristocratic expectation of behavior. The question of appearance is very much on display, as Kate can, by fashioning a different appearance, change the way reality presents itself to her.

In a way, Kate's plan is also a sly comment on the theatre itself. By acting in a “low” manner, Kate is able to engender truth, a truth that reveals the silliness of human nature. This is very much Goldsmith's purpose in writing a “laughing comedy” that celebrates lowness as a mirror to truth, and it is no accident that Kate draws attention to the artistry involved in acting in this way. She wants to be truly "seen," to be appreciated not for her position as a suitable wife but as an interesting person, and she needs the ruse of theatre to accomplish that. Finally, we get here the best support for a Freudian understanding of Tony and his mother's relationship, when she almost flirtatiously admits she plans his love life so as to secure his wealth, while he is all the while playing around with her.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ACT IV

Summary All of Act IV takes place in Hardcastle's house. Hastings and Constance enter, bringing news that Charles Marlow (father of our young hero) is expected to visit the house that evening. Since he would surely recognize Hastings and thereby ruin the plan for elopement, the lovers know they must move with speed. Hastings has meanwhile sent the casket with jewels to Marlow for safekeeping. Before she exits, Constance says to herself that she will delude her aunt "with the old pretense of a violent passion for [Tony]" so as to keep her off their trail. Marlow enters with a servant, confused why Hastings sent him the casket. He asks the servant to bring the casket to Mrs. Hardcastle (whom he still believes is the landlady) for safekeeping (uh oh!) and then speaks to himself about his nascent passion for the barmaid. Hastings enters and Marlow tells him about the barmaid and his new infatuation. Hastings is shocked that Marlow would rob a girl of her virtue, whereas Marlow insists he will "pay" for the virtue. When Hastings inquires after the casket, he's angered to hear Marlow has sent it to the landlady (since that has returned it to the hands of his antagonist Mrs. Hardcastle). However, Hastings cannot reveal the reasons for his displeasure without alerting Marlow to the duplicity being played on him, and so Hastings must decide on his own that he and Constance will leave without the jewels.

Hardcastle enters to find Marlow, whom he welcomes again as son to his old friend. However, Hardcastle (who Marlow still thinks the landlord) wishes Marlow to control Marlow's servants, who are getting drunk and causing a ruckus. When Jeremy, one of the servants, enters drunkenly and makes a fool of himself, Marlow refuses to discipline him but instead mocks Hardcastle's request. Fed up, Hardcastle demands Marlow and his servants leave immediately. Marlow is disgusted with the idea of being put out in the middle of the night, but Hardcastle insists until Marlow asks for his bill. In the confusion over why Marlow is requesting a bill, Marlow suddenly realizes what is going on, but not before Hardcastle exits angrily. As Marlow is grappling with his mistake, Kate (still disguised as barmaid) passes through, and he confronts her immediately about where they are. Realizing she needs to play the situation right so as not to counteract her well-designed ruse, she answers him that it is Hardcastle's house, and laughs at the prospect that he considered it an inn. What's more, she provides she is not a barmaid but a "poor relation" who relies on the Hardcastles for the charity of shelter. Marlow is shocked to have potentially treated her as a lower class woman, and apologizes for having mistaken her behavior for that of a barmaid. He admits to her that he cannot pursue her since "the difference of our birth…makes an honourable connexion impossible" and so he must not endeavor to ruin her. Kate is impressed with the virtue he shows here, and she suggests that they could be wed even if she lacks fortune. He is touched by her "pretty simplicity" but admits "I owe too much to the opinion of the world, too much to the authority of a father," and so he leaves her as an act of courage. When he leaves, she decides to herself that she will maintain the deceit long enough to show her father his true character.

Tony and Constance enter, with the former explaining that his mother believes the missing jewels were due simply to a servant's mistake but that he cannot steal them again. However, he has prepared some horses for their escape, and if he and Constance can fool his mother for a while longer, she and Hastings should be able to escape. As Mrs. Hardcastle enters, they pretend to be caught fondling each other, and she, so happy to see it, promises she will have them married the next day.

A servant brings a letter for Tony, the handwriting of which Constance immediately recognizes as belonging to Hastings, which could ruin them. Tony, who cannot read, tries to sort it out, but before he can give it to his mother to read, Constance grabs it and pretends to read it, making up a nonsense letter on the spot. Her attempts to blow it off don't deter Tony, who gives it to his mother to read. She reads from it that Hastings awaits them in anticipation of the elopement. Though polite, she insists she will not be bested at this game, and decides she will use the horses Tony prepared to bring Constance far away from Hastings and any attempt to run away. She then leaves.

Constance, now depressed, is joined by Hastings, who accuses Tony of betraying them. Before he can suitably defend himself, Marlow enters, angry at having been duped. In short order, everyone turns on Tony. A servant enters to inform Constance that Mrs. Hardcastle awaits her for a quick departure. In the meanwhile, the resentment between everyone grows harsher. With a quick and sad goodbye, Constance exits. Tony suddenly develops a plan, and tells everyone to meet him in two hours at the "bottom of the garden" where he'll prove to all he's more good- natured than they believe.

Analysis As one might expect in a well-made play, Act IV is where things look the worst for our main characters. By the end of the act, Marlow has turned his back definitively on Kate, and Constance has been removed from her beloved. And to top it all off, lovable Tony is hated by everyone.

It is in this high-stakes act that Goldsmith makes perhaps his most cutting observation on the hypocrisy inherent in the aristocratic worldview. When Kate changes her story, making herself a "poor relation" instead of a barmaid, she puts Marlow up against an ethical test. The fact that he no longer will stoop to seducing her comes off to some extent as an honorable proclamation, but it also implies that he would have had no trouble doing so otherwise. In fact, he speaks of her to Hastings at the top of the act as a commodity. He says he would never rob her of her honor, but would "pay" for it.

This sense of reprobate in Marlow is not something Goldsmith would outright condemn (a brief glance at his biography would suggest the hypocrisy of that), but what is worth condemnation is a system that traps Marlow into such extreme dualities. On one hand, he is a man who loves women – and this is what ultimately attracts Kate. On the other, he is someone much indebted to "the opinion of the world," and as such cannot imagine pursuing this woman any longer. Despite having genuine passion for her, she does not exist on one of his two extreme sides; she is not rich enough to be a respectable match, and yet is too respectable (as a relation to the Hardcastles) to treat as a paramour. In this dilemma is a spark of the tragedy that lies behind good comedy, but that tragedy lies not in the girl's situation (false though it may be) but rather in the forces that confound Marlow's happiness so.

Of course, Kate's change of tactic also continues the play's exploration of how the appearance of behavior is prized over substance itself. Marlow is mortified to learn that she is a “modest woman,” and apologizes for having mistaken her behavior. Of course, her behavior has not changed in the slightest, but now that she is ostensibly of a different social class, the perspective through which he views her is entirely different. It's an absurd fact, and one that makes for good comedy, in that Goldsmith can mock it rather than praising any virtue. The treatment of Marlow in light of his behavior does indicate a certain conservative streak in Goldsmith, no matter how biting his satire might become. There is little doubt that we are ultimately meant to admire Marlow by the end of his “test,” and to believe that he passed it. It is easy for us today to criticize the arrangement, his desire to please the "opinion of the world" and of his father, and his disavowal of a marriage with a poor girl despite romantic attraction. And yet Kate, presented as a level-headed figure able to exist in moderation, admires him. It suggests that Goldsmith does not wish to criticize the confines of his society at large, but rather to merely point out the absurdities contained within it.

Lastly, this act shows Tony growing even more past the limits of his comic archetype. As a trickster, he was well established by the beginning, but his ironic embrace of stupidity as wisdom is now matched with a genuine desire to help others. However, one is certainly pressed to answer why he cares about this. It could be simply a desire to defeat his mother, but it might also be a desire to help others escape the confines of the world that has no place for him. The fact that Hastings and Constance want to escape might attract Tony because it negates the stifling rules of the city/country world. In a sense, perhaps Tony himself has a sentimental streak, so long as that sentiment does not praise aristocratic values as its end.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF ACT V

Summary Act V begins in Hardcastle's house. Hastings enters with a servant, who tells him that Mrs. Hardcastle and Constance left a while before, and must be far away. The servant also tells him that Charles Marlow has arrived, and Hastings, who still wants to avoid detection, heads to the garden even though he has little faith Tony will save him. He exits as Hardcastle and Charles Marlow enter, laughing about young Marlow mistaking Hardcastle for an innkeeper, and Charles Marlow offers that his son will not need much fortune in the way of dowry, since he is already wealthy. Hardcastle shares that Kate believes the two young people like one another, but Charles Marlow waits to see for himself.

Marlow enters to apologize again for his impudence, but Hardcastle is able to laugh it off. They discuss his daughter, whom Marlow praises but says he did not share any intimacy with. Hardcastle, who saw Marlow take her hand in Act III, accuses him of lying, while Marlow continues to insist that their meeting was "without emotion." Sir Charles attempts to rectify the situation, but neither man understands why the other believes what he does, and Marlow leaves.

Kate enters almost right away, and the two elders interrogate her. When she answers that Marlow did indeed meet her more than once and spoke in effusive tones, Sir Charles is certain she lies, since he knows his son's manner to be "modest." There is an irreconcilable perspective amongst them, so Kate proposes they all meet in a half-hour, and the men can listen behind a screen while she confronts Marlow. All agree.

The scene shifts now to the back of the garden.

Hastings waits alone, sure Tony will not come, when the latter finally arrives, covered in mud. He assures Hastings he is "the best friend you have in the world" and explains what he's done. He drove the horses around in circles, through difficult areas, until he finally crashed the carriage into a horse-pond nearby. Thinking herself 40 miles from home, Mrs. Hardcastle is in a panic. Tony stresses that his means of conflict resolution has proved superior since no one has been harmed, and Hardcastle agrees. Mrs. Hardcastle enters, terrified and lamenting being so far from home. She wonders whether the night could grow worse through a robbery, and almost right away, Tony points out a hat that can be spied over the bushes. He realizes it must be Mr. Hardcastle out on his nightly walk, and so exaggerates the appearance to convince his mother it must be a highwayman. He instructs her to hide in the thickets, which she does.

Hardcastle enters and is surprised to find Tony back so soon. As Mrs. Hardcastle prays to herself that Tony will come to no harm, Tony tries to dissuade Hardcastle from investigation by claiming he was talking to himself and so the latter did not hear any voices. Hardcastle persists in pushing through, which leads Mrs. Hardcastle to throw herself at the mercy of the “bandit” to save her son, at which point it takes a few passages of confusion for all to sort itself out and everyone to be angry with Tony again, although Hardcastle sees "morality" in the way he abuses his mother in pursuit of justice, and forces her to reap the spoiled nature she has sown in him.

Hastings and Constance enter, the former begging the latter to join him in eloping. But Constance, having been through so many trials in this night, no longer wants any part of duplicity and wants instead to apply to Hardcastle for leniency and permission to marry. Hastings insists he lacks the power to grant their wish (that lies with Mrs. Hardcastle), but she believes his sense of justice might lead him to use his influence on their behalf.

The scene shifts back to the house.

Here, Sir Charles laments his situation to Kate: either his son is a liar or is an impudent fellow. Kate suggests it might not be so bad, and the man retires so as to observe the meeting between the young people.

Once he arrives, Marlow again laments his situation, where his passion is enflamed by the grace and appearance of this girl who lacks the fortune to please his father. He insists he must quit her immediately, and she grants him this, herself sad that "all [his] serious aims are fixed on fortune." He assures her fortune was not what drew him to her but rather her qualities, which he is learning to see as "refined simplicity." Through his speech to himself, he resolves to stay with her despite his father's lack of approval. She refuses him, claiming such a union will surely result in resentment, but he claims otherwise, and gets down on one knee before her.

At such a move, Sir Charles and Hardcastle charge from behind the screen and each accuse Marlow of falsehood, though for different reasons. In the attacks they launch at him, the truth of Kate's identity is revealed and Marlow is immediately leveled, saying "Oh, the devil." Having been caught, Kate continues to mock him, asking which of his "characters" he intends to use now. Hardcastle softens and asks Kate to forgive him, at which point the lovers move off to speak privately.

Mrs. Hardcastle enters, claiming loudly that her niece has eloped with Hastings and that she will not ever release the girl's fortune. Hardcastle accuses her of being "mercenary" but she tells him to mind his own business, reminding him that if Tony refuses to marry Constance of his own volition once he is of age, then her fortune goes automatically to her.

As Hastings and Constance arrive to beg forgiveness, Hardcastle reveals that Tony is actually of age and pretends otherwise, and so the fortune is for Constance after all. They had kept Tony's true age a secret in hopes it might induce him to mature more quickly. As his first act of age, Tony takes Constance's hand and in a wonderful parody of a marriage proposal, swears her off as a mate. Mrs. Hardcastle complains this is all "but the whining end of a modern novel" and shows no sign of having learned anything. Mr. Hardcastle gives a final speech wherein he hopes the "Mistakes of a Night" shall lead all to never mistake in his or her beloved such faulty qualities again.

Analysis Interestingly enough, Goldsmith's ending could easily be criticized as falling into the sentimentality he claims to want to eschew. Both pairs of lovers end up together, and virtue ends up as the reigning sentiment amongst everyone. There is truth to the claim, most of which lies in the conservative streak Goldsmith never aims to transcend. A happy match of men and women of breeding and character is something to aspire to in the play, and that never goes away.

But the play isn't so simple, and Goldsmith is sure to indicate his awareness of the perceived flaw, which he does by having Mrs. Hardcastle describe the end as a "whining end of a modern novel." The fact is, the emotional, happy ending is only engendered by the comic tools of flaunting vice. Marlow is the best example. While he certainly passes the test Kate poses for him, prostrating himself before a woman he considers below him in terms of fortune because he loves her, he nevertheless is a character of two minds. His baser nature is not subsumed, but rather he is kneeling before this girl as a modest woman he feels comfortable speaking to. One can well argue that the quick resolution of their issue does not detract from the absurdity of his character and contradictions, and that were this play to continue its story, we might find those contradictions causing subsequent problems.

Kate only acquires Marlow as an acceptable husband through classical comic acts of trickery. She must force him to confront his own vice and folly, his own assumptions about behavior and class, in order for him to truly feel anything that could lead to a happy marriage. In his reversal speech, where he decides he will stay with her, Marlow speaks as though her character or behavior has changed, but the truth is that the only change has been in how he perceives her social class. And ultimately, one is left to wonder whether the match would have persisted if he did not have such a tidy fortune as to not need a big dowry.

The theme of appearance and its fallacious nature remains very strong up to the end of the play. Both of the older fellows are unable to imagine a Marlow with contradictions; each needs the young man to be what he expects. Where the father will necessarily be disappointed to find his son is impudent as well as modest, Hardcastle will necessarily be disappointed to find a streak of modesty in a young man he had identified as forward.

Kate then marks herself as the heroine through her moderation. As the character who understands both the simplicity of the country and the sophistication of the town, she understands that life is about contradiction and excitement, and that happiness comes from embracing a bit of both sides. Nobody else – save perhaps her father to a lesser degree – ever exhibits such a strong understanding of life that Goldsmith seems to value.

This sense of complication is also inherent in Tony, who proves himself not a rapscallion, but rather the character with the most agency of all. It is he who facilitates the happy endings, this character who would have been identified by his audience as “low.” It is suspect to say Tony is Goldsmith's mouthpiece (though he will speak one of the epilogues), but the heroism of this low, tertiary character, and his necessity to the plot, helps to further Goldsmith's defense of “laughing comedy.” Tony, because he knows baseness better than anyone else in the play, knows how to best combat that baseness, and his practical jokes ultimately reveal to everyone their own base human level, and so are all forgiven. Finally, the sentimental ending is not absolute because of the financial pragmatism involved. Constance does not lead Hastings back out of propriety, but because she knows they cannot survive without money, and so she is not willing to lose the jewels. There is in this a realistic concern that would have no place in a purely farcical comedy, and as such does the play continue to distinguish itself.

Again, Goldsmith is praised because he makes this complicated play seem so natural, and indeed, while the ending is sentimental in a way, it does not feel contrived from plot, but rather an honest expression of the play's themes: the baseness of humans, the falseness of appearance, the confining strictures of class, the importance of trickery, the value of moderation, etc. All of these themes play a part in bringing around an end that simultaneously creates a satisfying ending to a farcically overstuffed plot and leaves us with insight about humanity to dissect and consider.

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF EPILOGUES

Summary There are two epilogues commonly published with the play. The second, intended to be spoken by Tony Lumpkin, was not written in time for the original production. The first is intended to be spoken by Kate. The character begins by summarizing that she has "stooped to conquer with success" and that the author has thereby conquered his audience. She proposes that "our life is all a play" and then traces the five act life of a pretty country barmaid. In her first act, she is simple, afraid and eager to please. In her second act, she is loud and authoritative. She next moves to town where she impresses everyone with her character and charm. Her fourth act has her wedded to a man of repute, and pretending towards snobbish taste, she ends up losing her edge. Goldsmith (as author) is responsible for her fifth act, in which she might again become judge.

The second epilogue is attributed to J. Cradock, an actor and dramatist of the time. It is meant to be spoken in Tony Lumpkin's voice. Tony notes that, now that the play is done, the audience must want to know what happened to him. He tells how he will "in the great world appear," bringing his lively spirit to London where he will show the world what good taste is.

Analysis The second epilogue is cute and would likely be a fun transition out of the play, but does little to significantly further the play's theme. It certainly can be used as argument for the centrality of Tony to the themes, but at best, it offers the audience a reminder that “good taste” should come from a spirit of liveliness and not moral sanctimony or given assumptions about proper breeding and education, since Tony in most ways lacks those two qualities.

Contrastingly, the first epilogue is a nice summation of the goal Goldsmith set out for himself in his "Essay on the Theatre." Though it's not explicitly stated, the barmaid whose life he describes is likely meant to represent the theatre itself. She learned to confront her audience and demand things of them, then was brought to high society, where she grew pretentious and lost her edge (regressing into "sentimental comedy"), and now sits docile, waiting for someone like Goldsmith ("the doctor" from the prologue) to see where he can lead her. He wants to recapture her bawdy charm from her younger days, and he hopes he can "conquer" his audience by doing so. So the epilogue here serves as a challenge to the audience – did he succeed? Did he conquer them into accepting the low and bawdy nature of comedy again, leading them to repudiate their assumptions about high-minded theatre.

UNIT-3

THE ALCHEMIST (JONSON) STUDY GUIDE The Alchemist is one of Ben Jonson's four great comedies. The earliest recorded performance of the play occurred in Oxford in 1610. It was also entered into the Stationers' Register in this year, though it might have been written and performed earlier than this date. Critics talk of the play as being written and performed in 1610. It was first printed in quarto in 1612, and it was included in the folio of Jonson's works in 1616. A second folio edition of Jonson's works came out in 1640. This version included some emendations, many of which had to do with the tightening of regulations about uttering religious material on the stage. "God's will" (1612), for example, became "Death on me" (1640). Jonson's meticulous preparation of his own folio version was unusual, but it gives us greater confidence in the actual text of the play (no similar source history for Shakespeare, for instance, survives). Thus we have a stronger opportunity for insight into the playwright’s sense of humor on the page and on the stage. For example, we infer that it was Jonson who had all the German and Dutch in the play ("Ulen Spiegel," for example) set in black-letter type.

To Jonson's audiences, The Alchemist would have been a modern play, set in Blackfriars in his own day—a town where there also was a famous theatre in which Shakespeare's late plays were performed.

The Folio edition lists as its principal comedians the actors of the King's men, many of whom were also the stars of Shakespeare's comedies. We know that Burbage, Heminges, Condell, and Armin, all lead actors in Shakespeare's company, were also in The Alchemist, and contextual evidence suggests that the Globe company had begun to use Blackfriars (an indoor theatre) as a winter alternative to the Globe (an outdoor theatre) in 1609.

The play is extensively informed by Jonson's wide-ranging learning and reading. It abounds with quotes from other plays and the Old Testament. Dol's "fit of talking" is itself an extensive quotation from A Concent of Scripture by Hugh Broughton. There are also quotations and references to a myriad of other works, such as Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, whose lead character Hieronymo is also winkingly referenced. (Hieronymo is a part, some evidence suggests, that Jonson himself might have played.) There is so much unusual or archaic language, especially in the alchemism scenes, that it could ruin one's enjoyment of the play by repeatedly returning to a glossary--part of the point is to be bowled over by the strange diction of the alchemist. The play can seem fantastical to a modern audience, and it is often read as a cynical play that argues that even the most obvious illusions are believed by stupid people. Yet there is evidence to suggest that people in Jonson's time really were taken by cons such as that in the play. One man, Goodwin Wharton, was tricked at length into believing he was to be visited by the Fairy Queen some seventy years after the play was published and performed. See the excellent biography of Wharton, a real-life case of Alchemy-conmanship, in the citations for this ClassicNote.

As Jonson has risen to greater prominence, The Alchemist has shaken its reputation as being densely Elizabethan and unfunny, and critics have bolstered its rise into being known as one of the key texts of the Renaissance. Coleridge thought it, along with Oedipus Rex / Oedipus the King and Tom Jones, one of the three "most perfect plots ever planned." Note, though, that the play's plot is linear, with the stories of the seven gulls cleverly intersected to keep tension at the maximum. Kenneth Tynan thought it a "good episodic play ... bead after bead, the episodes click together upon the connecting string, which is chicanery and chiselry." F. H. Mares led many modern commentators by beginning his essay with the observation that "All through the play there is a disparity between what people are and what they say they are." Such readings have culminated with Anne Barton's excellent chapter in Ben Jonson: Dramatist, which pronounces it "a play about transformation, as it affects not metals, but human beings." Without doubt, The Alchemist has been restored to prominence since Victorian times. Often in the company of Jonson's other "great comedy," Volpone, it is analyzed with regard to Jonson's cynical and darkly comic views of London in 1610, legality (since justice in Jonson's plays is always an important question), belief, faith, and the sort of people who believe that they will one day secure infinite wealth.

THE ALCHEMIST (JONSON) SUMMARY Lovewit has left for his hop-yards in London, and he has left Jeremy, his butler, in charge of his house in Blackfriars. Jeremy, whose name in the play is Face, lives in the house with Subtle, a supposed alchemist, and Dol Common, a prostitute. The three run a major con operation. The play opens with an argument that continues throughout the play between Subtle and Face. It concerns which of them is the most essential to the business of the con, each claiming his own supremacy. Dol quells this argument and forces the conmen to shake hands. The bell rings, and Dapper, a legal clerk, enters, the first gull of the day. Face takes on the role of “Captain Face”, and Subtle plays the “Doctor.” Dapper wants a spirit that will allow him to win at gambling. Subtle promises one and then tells him he is related to the Queen of the Fairies. Dispatched to get a clean shirt and wash himself, Dapper leaves, immediately replaced by Drugger, a young tobacconist who wants to know how he should arrange his shop. Subtle tells him, and Face gets him to return later with tobacco and a damask. Their argument looks set to resume when Dol returns to warn them that Sir Epicure Mammon is approaching. Sir Epicure Mammon and his cynical sidekick, Sir Pertinax Surly, are next through the door. Mammon is terrifically excited because Subtle has promised to make him the Philosopher’s Stone, about which Mammon is already fantasizing. Face changes character into “Lungs” or “Ulen Spiegel,” the Doctor’s laboratory assistant, and the two conmen impress Mammon and irritate Surly with a whirl of scientific language. Face arranges for “Captain Face” to meet Surly in half an hour at the Temple Church, and a sudden entrance from Dol provokes Mammon, instantly besotted, into begging Face for a meeting with her. Ananias, an Anabaptist, enters and is greeted with fury by Subtle. Ananias then returns with his pastor, Tribulation. The Anabaptists want the Philosopher’s Stone in order to make money in order to win more people to their religion. Subtle, adopting a slightly different persona, plays along. Kastrill is the next new gull, brought by Drugger, who has come to learn how to quarrel— and to case the joint to see if it is fit for his rich, widowed sister, Dame Pliant. Face immediately impresses young Kastrill, and he exits with Drugger to fetch his sister. Dapper, in the meantime, is treated to a fairy rite in which Subtle and Face (accompanied by Dol on cithern) steal most of his possessions. When Mammon arrives at the door, they gag him and bundle him into the privy. Mammon and Dol (pretending to be a “great lady”) have a conversation which ends with them being bundled together into the garden or upstairs—Face is pretending that Subtle cannot know about Mammon’s attraction to Dol.

The widow is brought into the play, as is a Spanish Don who Face met when Surly did not turn up. This Spaniard is in fact Surly in disguise, and the two conmen flicker between arguing about who will marry the widow and mocking the Spaniard by speaking loudly in English of how they will “cozen” or deceive him. Because Dol is occupied with Mammon, the conmen agree to have the Spaniard marry the widow, and the widow is carried out by Surly.

In the meantime, Dol has gone into a fit of talking, being caught with a panicked Mammon by a furious “Father” Subtle. Because there has been lust in the house, a huge explosion happens offstage, which Face comes in to report has destroyed the furnace and all the alchemical apparatus. Mammon is quickly packed out the door, completely destroyed by the loss his entire investment.

Things start to spiral out of control, and the gulls turn up without warning. At one point, nearly all the gulls, including an unmasked Surly, are in the room, and Face only just manages to improvise his way out of it. Dol then reports that Lovewit has arrived, and suddenly Face has to make a final change into “Jeremy the Butler.”

Lovewit is mobbed by the neighbors and the gulls at the door, and Face admits to Lovewit, when forced to do so by Dapper’s voice emerging from the privy, that all is not as it seems—and has him marry the widow. After Dapper’s quick dispatch, Face undercuts Dol and Subtle and, as the gulls return with officers and a search warrant, Dol and Subtle are forced to escape, penniless, over the back wall. The gulls storm the house, find nothing themselves, and are forced to leave empty-handed. Lovewit leaves with Kastrill and his new wife, Dame Pliant. Face is left alone on stage with a financial reward, delivering the epilogue.

THE ALCHEMIST (JONSON) CHARACTER LIST Subtle The "Alchemist" of the play's title. We never learn whether "Subtle" is a forename or a surname (or the only name). Meaning "crafty" or "clever" in Elizabethan English, it is an appropriate choice. Subtle is grumpy, constantly at odds with Face (he is often played as considerably older), and is very learned, being the one with alchemical expertise. He disguises himself as "the Doctor" to carry out his con. Face Face seems, to some extent, faceless; we get very little idea of a personality or an impetus behind his character. He is constantly switching roles. Some commentators think that his real name is "Jeremy," but this idea--particularly because it is not supported by Jonson's dramatis personae-- could just be one more in a series of disguises Face undertakes. He plays "Ulen Spiegel" or "Lungs" for the Mammon-con, and more usually he is the wiseboy "Captain Face" for everyone else. He is essential in finding the gulls in the pubs of London and bringing them to the Blackfriars house. Dol Also "Dol Common," Dol is short for Dorothy, and her second name, "Common," is in itself a pun, meaning "everyone's"--because Dol is a prostitute. The play implies she is in casual sexual relationships with both Face and Subtle. Her role is not as important as Face's or Subtle's, yet her one transformation, into a "royal lady," is essential in maneuvering Mammon into the right place at the right time. She escapes with Subtle "over the back wall" at the end--without a share of the goods. Dapper A legal clerk and a social climber who comes to the conmen in order to get a "gambling fly" (a spirit who will allow him to cheat and win at gambling). Dapper has met Face in a pub and has been tempted to the house. Extremely greedy and extremely gullible, Subtle tells him he is a relative of the Faery-Queen. Upon his return, he is locked in the privy for most of the play. Abel ("Nab") Drugger An honest, good soul, he is a young tobacconist who has just bought a new shop on the corner of a street. He wants the Doctor (having met Face in a pub) to advise him on (effectively) the feng shui of the building. He is tricked into handing over a lot of expensive tobacco and into bringing Kastrill and Dame Pliant (Drugger's shyly admitted crush) into the Blackfriars house. At the end of the play, he loses everything and is dispatched with a punch from Lovewit. Lovewit The master of the house and the employer of "Jeremy the Butler," his housekeeper (alias Face). Away for the majority of the play, Lovewit doesn't return until Act 5--unexpectedly, though Face lies and claims to have sent for him. At this point he punishes Face, but without uncovering the plot itself, or caring to. He marries Dame Pliant and leaves the stage halfway through the epilogue in order to smoke tobacco. Sir Epicure Mammon Epicure Mammon's name means a person who is devoted to sensory enjoyment and material wealth, and he is perhaps the play's biggest con. He is also the greediest gull of the lot. Constantly comparing himself and the alchemist's work with classical or antique riches, he is obsessed with food, sex, and the idea of getting his riches turned into gold by the Philosopher's Stone. His lust is the reason given by the conmen for the explosion that destroys the (non- existent) furnace and vanquishes his hopes of getting rich. Sir Pertinax Surly The sidekick of Epicure Mammon, he spends the first part of his time in the play bitterly mocking and criticizing Mammon but also calling into question the actions of the conmen. Surly then decides to try to catch them out, and--in his successful disguise as a Spaniard--he falls in love with Dame Pliant. In the end he is attacked by Kastrill and loses the girl. Tribulation Wholesome, a Pastor of Amsterdam The leader of the local group of Anabaptists (see "About Anabaptists" in this ClassicNote), Tribulation is rather more measured and logical than Ananias, but, as the representative of his group, he is hungry for money, membership, and power. Ananias, a Deacon of Amsterdam Ananias is an Anabaptist (see "About Anabaptists") and is greedy for power, land, and membership for his order. He is also incredibly angry and quick to condemn anything that may not be, as he sees it, Christian, and on numerous occasions he blurts out furiously that, for example, "Christ-tide" is the right, Christian name for Christmas. Ananias is also the name of a New Testament character who is stricken dead because of his greed. Kastrill An "Angry Boy," he wants to learn the skill of quarrelling: formal, rhetorical argument. He has come to Subtle to learn it. Clearly young and impressionable, he is very protective over his sister, Dame Pliant, and he goes to huge lengths to seem "one of the guys" in several of the group scenes. His "quarrelling" is rather unimpressive. Comically, he seems to know only a handful of (immature) insults, including "you lie" and "you are a pimp." Dame Pliant Often called "Widow" in the play, she is the recently-widowed sister of Kastrill. Dame Pliant's name means bendy, supple, or flexible; true to her name, she seems one of the stupidest characters in literature. When she does speak, very rarely, she has the same speech mannerisms (e.g., "suster") as her brother. Subtle steals several kisses from her (4.2) while she seems not to notice, and the two conmen fight over which of them will wed her (and inherit the considerable fortune she has inherited from her husband). In the end, it is Lovewit who gets the girl with no wits. Neighbors Several neighbors appear in the street upon Lovewit's return in 5.1, and they describe to Lovewit what they have seen happen while he has been away at his hop-yards. They have a tiny role to play within the play itself, though on a couple of occasions, Dol is seen shooing women away from the door. Their descriptions of "oyster-women" and "Sailor's wives" (5.1.3-4) give us the sense that the conmen have performed several more cons than the play showcases.

THE ALCHEMIST (JONSON) THEMES Belief and faith The gulls are "gullible," easily led to lend their belief to the tricks and plots of the conmen. The play itself is obsessed from the Prologue onward with the idea of what Coleridge would call the "willing suspension of disbelief," except that the gulls do not really start with much or any disbelief, and this is reality for them, not a story in which they believe the premises of a story in order to see what the author does with it. As Jonson’s audience, we know that the stories (and the whole play) are not real, so we are not gulled.

Or is Jonson playing any jokes on us as well? Belief of course is essential to theater, and the play's many metatheatrical forays play on this theme. Note how Jonson exploits theatrical convention to alienate the audience, such as when Surly, as a Spaniard, initially seems to be another character altogether.

Jonson, in portraying two Christian believers, explicitly considers whether there is a difference between having faith in the particulars of a Christian denomination—or having faith in God, or in anything transcendent—and believing in the false tricks of the conmen. All denominations cannot be completely right, so do some people believe because they have been conned rather than simply mistaken? Alchemy Alchemical theory suggests that things are in a constant state of flux and transformation, and several parts of the play deal explicitly with this notion. Not only do the characters themselves transform into other characters, but their wares, their fears, and their faith are easily transformed into gold for the conmen.

Naturally, Subtle's status as "The Alchemist" is questioned throughout the play. What can he really transform, after all? The process of alchemy itself is related explicitly to theater, because in addition to theatrical transformations, theater offers a world in which magical things can happen, and we often wish they would. Gold Gold is the result of successful alchemy, though the goal remains aspirational. It plays a large part in the play as the motivation for just about everything that happens. The gulls are all greedy for gold in order to achieve their dreams, and they are therefore greedy for the Philosopher's Stone. The conmen, inversely, are greedy for the gold they make by tricking the gulls into believing that they will eventually be rich.

Face's epilogue considers the fact that a theater audience similarly has handed over gold in order to be knowingly tricked with a false story on stage. Theatricality The play is set in 1610, a likely date for the play's first performance, and set in a house (to this day, a synonym for an auditorium) in Blackfriars. It is possible that the Blackfriars theater was the site of the play's London performances. The conmen are actors who take on roles to suit their audience, and in the end they trick the real audience as well as the gulls.

Constantly the processes of conning and believing are equated with the medium of theater. The questions in the play can nearly always be couched in theatrical terms. Note, too, moments which might be considered a play within the play, such as the Fairy Queen moments. London in 1610 Jonson's play was a modern-dress play in its day, and it is hugely steeped in the culture of its time. The locations it names—the Temple Church, Deaf John's and the Pigeons Tavern, to name but three—were all close to the Blackfriars theater where the play was performed. The characters it satirizes, Anabaptists, Spaniards, and knights arrogant, would all have been familiar to the contemporary audience. Jonson similarly employs much modern slang for his characters. In some instances the language thus feels dense and dated. Texts Jonson's prologue in his Folio is addressed to the "Reader," and his play abounds with references to other texts, plays, and writers, which creates the impression that the play itself is in some way a patchwork of other texts.

The characters, particularly Subtle, also speak dense, technical jargon, as if to give the sense that their language is somehow plagiarized or borrowed from a better source.

Note that Dol's "noble lady" is a mad scholar of Broughton who quotes, "in her fit of talking," extensively from one of Broughton's works. The play quotes twice from Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. Several other critics have found references and in-jokes to various other contemporary works. "All things in common" The play poses some interesting arguments about the nature of working and living together. Dol Common puts forward an eloquent defense of the need for the con to be a "venture tripartite" if it is to succeed. Interestingly, Dol's claims are expressed in the language of classical political thought, and the London of the play seems vaguely equated with a classical idea of democracy. Dol Common, in this reading, is not just a prostitute but the founder of an admittedly shaky commonwealth. UNIT-4

THE RIVALS STUDY GUIDE The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan is a comedy of manners in five acts that premiered at Covent Garden Theatre in 1775. It is considered one of Sheridan's best-known works and in addition to receiving many revivals, it has served as an inspiration for musicals and contemporary television shows, such as Maverick, a show which appeared on television between 1957 and 1962. The Rivals was Sheridan's first play. During the time that Sheridan was writing, he and his wife, Elizabeth Linley, were living beyond their means, as "Eliza" had given up her career as a singer, as was customary for a young wife to do. Sheridan's completion of The Rivals was in part a project he undertook to earn some money for his household. The play premiered in 1775, with Mary Bulkley, a comedian, in the role of Julia Melville. It was met with scorn from the public and from critics on its opening night. Audiences even threw apples at the actor playing Sir Lucius O'Trigger, who was perceived as being a rude representation of Ireland. Sheridan listened to his public and not only rewrote the part, but recast it. Afterward, it was met with critical acclaim, not only in England, but also in the colonies. The play was allegedly George Washington's favorite play. THE RIVALS SUMMARY The play begins with a preface written by the author, Sheridan, in which he outlines what the audience is about to see. Sheridan writes in the preface that the success of the play was unexpected for him, as was the way in which the play was initially received. After a disastrous first night, he was forced to rewrite certain parts. Sheridan claims that the reason the play was unsuccessful was that it was the first play he had ever written and because he did not research the writing style enough.

Sheridan then talks about various critics who, in his opinion, misjudged his play and only wanted to make him feel bad and did not want to see him improve as a writer. Sheridan also expresses his opinion that critics should not write harsh criticism about anyone who they do not know personally.

Next, Sheridan presents the prologue of the play, a prologue which was presented only on the first night. The prologue presents a scene in which an attorney is trying to give money to a court official to present a brief speech on behalf of a poet.

A second prologue is then presented during which an actress comes on stage playing the role of the Muse and claiming that the purpose of the play is to transmit a moral lesson.

The play then begins with two servants meeting accidentally on the streets in the city of Bath. The servants, Fag and Thomas, talk about their masters and Thomas tells Fag that his master, Sir Anthony, has decided to move his entire family to the city. It is then revealed that Fag works for Sir Anthony’s son, Captain Absolute, who decided to change his name to Ensign Beverley, hoping to win the affection of a woman named Lydia Languish who prefers poor people. The two servants part when Fag sees his master in the distance. The next scene takes place in Lydia’s home where one of her servants, Lucy, returns from running an errand. Lucy was sent to bring her mistress some books, and then she lists all the books she was able to find for Lydia. Julia, Lydia’s cousin, enters and tells Lydia about Sir Anthony and his arrival in town. The two then discuss their love interests and each criticizes the other, even though they both have secret relationships. Lydia then tells her cousin about how she had never had a fight with her lover, Beverley, so she faked a letter just to have a reason to fight with him. Unfortunately, the plan back-fired and Lydia didn’t get a chance to mend things with him. Julia tries to assure Lydia that if Beverley really loves her, he will not give up that easily. Lydia also tells Julia that she does not care if Beverley is rich or not and that she will willingly give up her money just to be with him.

Next, Julia talks about her fiancé, a man named Faulkland, who is always questioning Julia about her love for him. The two fight frequently, but Julia still claims that she loves him. When Sir Anthony arrives, Julia leaves in a hurry before he enters the room. Sir Anthony comes with a woman named Mrs. Malaprop, Lydia’s guardian, and they begin talking with her about Beverley and how their relationship is a mistake. When Lydia disagrees, she is sent from the room. Sir Anthony expresses his concern regarding the quality of Lydia’s education, claiming that the education she receives makes her act too independently. Sir Anthony then proposes to marry Lydia to his son and tells Mrs. Malaprop to do everything she can to convince Lydia to accept the match. After Sir Anthony leaves, Mrs. Malaprop writes her own letter to her admirer, a man named Sir Lucius, and has Lucy deliver the letter. After Lucy takes her leave, Mrs. Malaprop begins talking to herself and revealing how she orchestrated the release of certain bit of information behind her master’s back and how she did everything she could to turn the things in her favor. In the second Act, Fag talks with his master and tells him that his father is in town. Fag claims that he lied to Sir Anthony about Absolute’s visit and the two agree to tell Sir Anthony that the reason Absolute is in town is that he is recruiting soldiers.

Faulkland then enters and they soon begin to talk about Lydia. Faulkland advises Absolute to try and convince his father and Mrs. Malaprop to accept the match, but Absolute refuses, saying that if Lydia were to find out that he has money, she will reject him. They talk next about Julia and how Faulkland feels as if he will never be able to love another woman except Julia. Absolute then reveals to Faulkland that Julia is in town but advises Faulkland to be patient and to wait until he goes to see her. Acres, a man who was close to Julia, comes in and tells Faulkland that Julia was well during his absence. Instead of feeling happy, Faulkland feels betrayed, not knowing how Julia can be happy when he is miserable. After hearing this, Faulkland leaves the room, angry.

Alone, Acres and Absolute talk about Lydia and Acres expresses his love for Lydia and his hatred for Beverley, not knowing that Absolute is Beverley.

After Acres leaves, Sir Anthony enters, telling his son that he plans to marry him to a woman, but does not tell him who the woman is. Absolute tries to tell his father that he already loves someone, but Sir Anthony refuses to listen to what his son has to say and leaves, angered by his son’s disobedience.

In the second scene of the second act, Lucy delivers a letter from Malaprop to Sir Lucius who is unaware of the fact that Delia, the woman he thinks he is talking with, is an old woman and not a 17-year-old girl. After Sir Lucius leaves, Fag appears on the scene and calls out Lucy for her act. Then, Lucy tells Fag about Absolute and how he will compete for Lydia’s love as well. Fag leaves laughing, not telling Lucy that Absolute and Beverley are the same man.

Act 3 returns to Absolute who has found out from Fag that Sir Anthony plans to marry him to Lydia, the woman he loves. Soon after finding out about the woman’s identity, Absolute meets with his father and tells him that he has agreed to marry whoever his father has selected for him. Sir Anthony is surprised to see his son changed so much and promises he will arrange for him to meet his future wife.

Faulkland meets with Julia. Having heard about her happiness in his absence, he expresses his disapproval. Julia tries to reassure him that she loves him, but he does not accept it and she ends up leaving the room, crying.

In the next scene, Absolute goes to visit Mrs. Malaprop about Lydia and they begin talking about Lydia and her passion for Beverley. Mrs. Malaprop tells Absolute that she was unable to convince Lydia to give up her passion for Beverley but that she hopes the two will get along fine. Mrs. Malaprop then gives Absolute a letter written by Beverley and he pretends to laugh at it and at how Beverley planned to win Lydia by using Mrs. Malaprop.

Absolute tricks Malaprop and proposes to scheme together. Absolute tells Malaprop that she should let Lydia and Beverley continue to correspond, and that he will come when the two try to elope. Malaprop then calls Lydia down and Absolute convinces her that he somehow managed to fool her aunt into believing that he is Absolute. He then proposes that they run away together, but Lydia is reluctant to accept. The two are interrupted when Mrs. Malaprop enters the room and begins to criticize Lydia for rejecting Absolute. Acres talks with his servant about dancing, when suddenly Sir Lucius appears. They begin talking about Lydia, the woman they both love, and how she loves another man, named Beverley. Sir Lucius doesn't realize that they are both pining for the same woman, and tells Acres that he should provoke Beverley into a duel since his reputation and honor have been tainted. Lucius leaves after he helps Acres write a letter challenging Beverley to a duel.

Acres becomes worried that he will die, even though everyone assures him he will survive. Acres sends for Absolute and asks him to deliver the letter to Beverley and to make sure that Beverley understands just how dangerous an opponent he is. Through this, Acres hoped to make Beverley deny the duel and thus save his honor.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Malaprop tries to convince Lydia to accept Absolute and forget about Beverley. Absolute comes to see Lydia with his father, but Lydia refuses to look at him. Absolute tries to convince his father to leave him alone with Lydia, but he refuses. Left with no other choice, Absolute talks with Lydia and she recognizes him as Beverley. Not knowing what else to do, Absolute reveals the truth to everyone in the room, telling Lydia that the only reason why he lied to her is to test whether she would still love him even if he was a poor man.

While Sir Anthony is pleased with how things have turned out, Mrs. Malaprop realizes that Absolute made fun of her through his letters. When Lydia and Absolute are alone, Lydia tells Absolute she no longer loves him because he deceived her and treated her like a child. Absolute tries to convince Lydia to marry him, but says he will not force her should she want to find someone else. The scene ends with Lydia storming out of the room. Sir Anthony tells Mrs. Malaprop she needs to convince Lydia to accept the match.

Absolute leaves Lydia’s home and runs into Lucius, who wants to fight with him. Absolute does not understand why, but agrees to meet with him that night at six o'clock—the same time and place given by Acres for his duel with Beverley. Faulkland also appears, and Absolute asks him to be his second in the duels. Faulkland refuses at first, saying that he needs to mend things with Julia. A letter she sent him made him change his mind and also to come up with a plan to test her love.

Faulkland sends a letter to Julia, telling her he must flee the country because he did something terrible and that he wishes she could come with him. However, the only way for her to go with him is if she were to be married to him. When the two meet, Julia tells Faulkland that she will marry him, and will follow him anywhere, no matter the circumstances.

Being sure that Julia loves him, Faulkland tells her the truth and promises to marry her the next day. Julia, however, is enraged that Faulkland does not trust her and is playing tricks on her, so breaks up with him.

Lydia then enters and tells Julia about everything that happened. Julia confesses to knowing about Beverley’s identity and while Lydia remains mad, Julia urges her to accept Absolute as her husband and marry him. The two ladies are interrupted by David who comes to tell them about the duel, so both women and Mrs. Malaprop rush to stop the men from injuring or possibly killing one another.

In the park where the men were supposed to meet, Absolute's father passes through by chance. Absolute manages to convince his father that he plans to go to Lydia, so his father leaves him alone. Meanwhile, Lucius coaches Acres about the art of dueling. As Lucius presents some of the possibilities of the duel, Acres gets even more scared as he realizes that he might die. When Absolute and Faulkland appear, Absolute reveals his identity, but Acres refuses to fight against his best friend. Lucius, on the other hand, is more than happy to fight against Absolute, and they prepare to duel.

Before the fight can start, Sir Anthony and the women appear and the duel stops. Sir Anthony demands to know why Lucius wants to fight his son and he tells Sir Anthony that Absolute insulted his honor. Lucius then takes out the letters written to him by Delia. Lydia claims that she was not the author of those letters. Upon seeing the letters, Mrs. Malaprop admits to being the one who wrote them. Sir Anthony proposes that Lucius marry Mrs. Malaprop, but Lucius refuses.

Faulkland and Julia reconcile at Sir Anthony’s insistence, and the play draws to an end. The last character to speak is Julia, who expresses her hope for everyone in their group to continue being in love with their partner even in old age.

THE RIVALS CHARACTER LIST Captain Jack Absolute An entitled aristocrat masquerading as a poor but honest ensign for the purpose of wooing the romantic Lydia Languish. He is dogged in his determination to win Lydia's hand, and he has a playful approach to their courtship. Eventually, when the truth comes out, Lydia is angry with Jack, but he continues to fight for her affections nonetheless. Lydia Languish Lydia is a 17-year-old noblewoman inclined to fantasy, whose views on love are shaped mainly by dramatic sentimental novels. As a result, she believes that the pinnacle of romance is wrapped up in a life of poverty, and wants to forfeit her inheritance to be with a poor man. She falls in love with such a man when she meets Ensign Beverley, but little does she know that he is actually the equally noble Jack Absolute. Sir Anthony Absolute Jack's conservative, traditionalist father, Sir Anthony, is firm in his belief that he has the right to choose whom his son will marry. He is strict and authoritarian, and seems to care more about his influence than about the actual decisions he is making for his son. He has gout. Mrs. Malaprop Lydia’s aunt who has a particularly quirky relationship to the English language, often misusing words. She is very protective of Lydia and, like Anthony, wants Lydia to do exactly as she desires. She is smitten with Lucius O'Trigger, who has no idea that it is Malaprop that he is corresponding with. She is perhaps the most comedic character in the play. Bob Acres Bob Acres is a country squire who is also in love with Lydia. He is a bumpkin trying to become a more sophisticated city person, and his primary means of doing so is in affecting a new sense of fashion. When he learns that his rival, Ensign Beverley, is actually just an alter ego for Jack Absolute, he no longer wishes to duel, as Jack is his friend. Sir Lucius O’Trigger Lucius is an Irishman who believes he is corresponding with Lydia via letter, and is shocked to find that he is actually in touch with Lydia's aunt, Mrs. Malaprop. Before he learns this, he challenges Jack Absolute to a duel, and is determined to win out no matter what. Faulkland A friend of Jack's who is in love with Julia. While Julia returns his affections, Faulkland is exceedingly insecure, and believes that she doesn't actually love him. He is constantly worrying and testing her love, which tries her patience and only drives her away. However, by the end of the play, they are reunited, and he is more confident in Julia's love for him. Lucy The scheming maid of Lydia who creates a great deal of the misunderstandings in the play. For instance, it is she who brings Lucius' letters to Malaprop instead of to Lydia. Julia Julia is a beautiful young woman who is in love with Faulkland, but must contend with his overwhelming insecuritie

THE RIVALS THEMES Social customs As a "comedy of manners," the play examines the ways that people, and especially the upper classes, interact and conduct themselves in polite society. Much of the comedy in The Rivals comes from the fact that it is a play about society and social customs, and the ways that the characters are pushed beyond the limits of propriety into more absurd relations. The younger characters must bend to the whims of their parents, and seek to rebel against these strictures in whatever way they can. The servants meddle in their masters' affairs. The play examines the ways that emotion, desire, and the more unruly aspects of the human condition cannot always fit into the strictures of polite society. Honor The men in the play are all preoccupied with preserving their sense of honor. When they feel as if someone has insulted their honor or the honor of someone they care about, they defend it vehemently, a contentious dynamic that often results in the challenge of a duel. Lucius O'Trigger is the character who preaches the importance of honor most vehemently, as when he encourages Acres to duel with Beverley, saying, "What the devil signifies right when your honour is concerned? Do you think Achilles, or my little Alexander the Great, ever inquired where the right lay? No, by my soul! they drew their broadswords..." Women's place in society Another major theme in the play is the role of women in society. The female characters in the play are not afforded very much control over their own fates. Lydia must forfeit her fortune if she wants to marry for love, Julia must contend with the jealous and insecure suspicions of Faulkland, and Mrs. Malaprop—though she is less sympathetic—is regularly disparaged by the other characters for her age. It would seem that the 18th-century society in which the play is set is not particularly friendly to women's desires. However, the epilogue presents a different perspective on the matter, as the figure of the muse tells the audience that, though it seems that men have all the power, women are in fact the more powerful members of society, because they hold a romantic sway over men. The desirability of women is their principal power, according to the play. Romance The play is, ultimately, a romance. While little time is spent examining the love between the various characters, and more often than not they are caught up in quarrels and deceptions, the two young couples, Jack and Lydia and Julia and Faulkland, are at the thematic center of the narrative. The character of Lydia is particularly hung up on the concept of romance as it pertains to fiction. The young noblewoman loves nothing more than to lie around and read romantic sentimental novels, complete with star-crossed lovers and poverty. Her notion of romance is a somewhat naive if pure one, as she believes that true love is about finding someone who is constant even in poverty. In order to prove his steadfast love, Jack Absolute pretends to be poor in his courtship of her. Deception The entire plot of the play is built around the deception of Jack Absolute. In the very first scene, we learn that he is pretending to be a lowly ensign in order to win the affection of Lydia Languish, who wants to marry someone poor. While Jack is actually a very wealthy nobleman, he assumes the identity of a poor man in order to win over his beloved. This deception is a central aspect of the narrative arc. Additionally, Lucy the maid and Faulkland, Jack's friend, pursue their own deceptions. Lucy, as the maid in Mrs. Malaprop's house, is privy to her employers' secrets—both Lydia and Malaprop's. As such, she controls who receives which information when. She brings Lucius O'Trigger's letters for Lydia to Mrs. Malaprop, setting off a whole slew of misunderstandings. She also tells Lydia about Mrs. Malaprop's epistolary affair. Faulkland deceives his lover, Julia, as a way of testing her love. Worried that she does not love him enough, he tells her that he must flee the country, and asks her to come with him, even though this is a patent lie. She agrees to flee the country, but when he informs her that he devised the premise of his exile to test her love, she becomes angry with him, and calls off their engagement. Language A running joke in the play is the fact that Mrs. Malaprop often uses language poorly. She substitutes words that do not mean what she thinks they mean into her conversation, which creates a great deal of confusion, and provides comic fodder. Indeed, her misuse of words even led to the coinage of the term "malapropism," which means the unintentional substitution of the wrong word. Malaprop's misuse of language is connected to her pretentious attitude, her lack of self-critique, and her desire to appear learned. Authoritarianism and Generational Conflict Making the plot all the more complicated is the tight hold that the members of the older generation have over the decisions of the younger generation. Mrs. Malaprop has told Lydia that she is forbidden from marrying someone poor, and if she disobeys this command she will lose her inheritance. Indeed, it is this ultimatum that leads Lydia to want to rebel and marry someone poor in the first place. Throughout the play, Malaprop disapproves of how inquisitive and independent Lydia is, railing against her penchant for reading and her disobedience.

Anthony Absolute, Jack's father, is also an especially authoritarian parental figure. He decides to pick Jack's bride, and when Jack expresses his resentment of this arrangement, becomes infuriated. Jack's contentment is less important to Anthony than his obedience, and when Jack refuses this arrangement, Anthony yells, "Zounds! sirrah! the lady shall be as ugly as I choose: she shall have a hump on each shoulder; she shall be as crooked as the crescent; her one eye shall roll like the bull's in Cox's Museum; she shall have a skin like a mummy, and the beard of a Jew—she shall be all this, sirrah!—yet I will make you ogle her all day, and sit up all night to write sonnets on her beauty."

THE RIVALS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PART 1 Summary The play begins with a preface by Richard Sheridan. He discusses the fact that, usually, a preface is unnecessary, but that in this case, he wants to tell the audience about the fact that the play was edited after its first performance given the fact that people did not like it. He apologizes for his inexperience as a playwright—it was his first play and he was just 23 when he wrote it. He writes, “I flatter’d myself that, after the first trial, I might with safer judgment proceed to remove what should appear to have been most dissatisfactory.”

The preface becomes an explicit apology when Sheridan writes, “With regard to some particular passages which on the First Night's Representation seemed generally disliked, I confess that if I felt any emotion of surprise at the disapprobation, it was not that they were disapproved of, but that I had not before perceived that they deserved it.” He then discusses the importance of an audience, saying, “For my own part, I see no reason why the Author of a Play should not regard a First Night's Audience as a candid and judicious friend attending, in behalf of the Public, at his last Rehearsal.”

Sheridan than dismisses critics “who scatter their peevish strictures in private circles, and scribble at every Author who has the eminence of being unconnected with them, as they are usually spleen-swoln from a vain idea of increasing their consequence, there will always be found a petulance and illiberality in their remarks, which should place them as far beneath the notice of a Gentleman as their original dulness had sunk them from the level of the most unsuccessful Author.”

He writes about the fact that much of the audience’s objections to the first performance of the play had to do with his characterization of Sir Lucius O’Trigger, thanking the audience members who objected to the character for encouraging him to rewrite it. Finally, he thanks the performers “for the exertion of their several abilities.” A Prologue follows, spoken by Mr. Woodward, the original actor playing a Sergeant at Law, and Mr. Quick, another other original actor playing an Attorney. They discuss the fate of a poet and the fact that Mr. Quick is trying to give Mr. Woodward money so that he can present a speech on behalf of the poet. Woodward delivers a brief monologue about the blamelessness of the writer, writing, “His faults can never hurt another's ease,/ His crime at worst —a bad attempt to please:/ Thus, all respecting, he appeals to all,/ And by the general voice will stand or fall.”

Another Prologue follows this one, spoken by Mrs. Bulkley, the original actress. She tells the audience that she represents the Muse, saying, “Like him, I’ll try to merit your applause,/A female counsel in a female’s cause.” She explains that the play will be a comedy, and that the play's more difficult truths will be lightened by satire. She compares the comedy to the sentimental play, a much more serious and respected genre. She says, “…moral truth disdains the trickster’s mask,” and wonders if comedies can represent moral lessons.

The play proper begins, with Act 1, Scene 1, on a street in Bath. As a coachman, Thomas, crosses the stage, Fag, the servant to Captain Absolute, enters. They know each other from both being servants and are excited to see one another. When Fag asks what brings the coachman to Bath, Thomas tells him that his master, Anthony Absolute, was worried another fit of gout was coming on, so they came to town hastily.

Thomas asks Fag how working for Captain Jack Absolute, Anthony’s son, is going, but Fag tells him that he is working for Ensign Beverley. Shortly after he reveals that Ensign Beverley is Jack Absolute in disguise, and confides to Thomas that Absolute is in disguise because he is in love. When Thomas asks why he has disguised himself as an ensign and not a general, Fag explains that the woman with whom he is in love prefers poor men and would not approve if she knew he was “a baronet with three thousand a-year!” Analysis The preface to the play is unusual in that it marks a moment in which the playwright, Sheridan, is directly addressing his audience. While contemporary plays are typically stand-alone texts, without apology or addendum, this comedy of manners includes a special note of apology, an explanation of the fact that the play was not ready for its first audience. This gives us not only a window into Sheridan’s process, the fact that he took negative feedback to heart and was a young and inexperienced writer, but also a window into historical conditions of playwriting, and the fact that, in 1775, the relation between playwright and public was more open. Sheridan alludes to his philosophy about the connection between audience and writer, and the fact that he holds the opinion of his audience in high regard. He writes, “For my own part, I see no reason why the Author of a Play should not regard a First Night's Audience as a candid and judicious friend attending, in behalf of the Public, at his last Rehearsal.” In effect, he invents the concept of a “preview,” the term in contemporary theater for when a company uses a certain number of performances to fine-tune the production before the critics arrive.

Following the Preface is yet another preamble, a prologue in which an attorney representing a poet, asks a sergeant about the moral standing of poetry. It serves almost as a dramatization of the preface that precedes it. In it, the two lawmen discuss the fact that poetry is at worst “a bad attempt to please”—i.e., not so bad at all. Thus, Sheridan begs his audience yet again to be gentle with his play, and to understand that it is not meant to arouse dissent, but rather to create enjoyment.

The second prologue marks the entrance of a feminine influence, the Muse, who discusses the virtues of comedy. This serves as yet another humble annotation from the playwright, as the Muse ponders questions about genre and wonders whether a comedy is able to bear the same moral weight as a sentimental play or a drama. She lightheartedly considers the fact that this play is satirical, that its comedy contains some sharp truths within it, before philosophizing about whether the genre of comedy can contain moral lessons in its narrative.

After a great deal of prologue, the action of the play begins quickly. No sooner have the two servants, Coach and Fag, arrived onstage, than we know that have learned about the mischievous exploits of their masters. Fag reveals to Coach that his master, Jack Absolute and the son of Thomas’ master, has disguised himself as Ensign Beverley for the purpose of pursuing a woman who prefers men who are poor to men who are rich. A number of complications—disguise, love, and class—are thrown together rather quickly and set the stage for the action of the play.

THE RIVALS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PART 2 Summary Thomas asks Fag if the woman Absolute loves is rich and Fag confirms that she is very wealthy. “…She could pay the national debt as easy as I could my washerwoman!” Fag then reveals that the woman’s name is Miss Lydia Languish, and that while she loves Absolute, “there is an old tough aunt in the way,” but that the aunt has never met or seen Absolute. Apparently, Lydia and Jack got acquainted in Gloucestershire. Thomas asks Fag to describe Bath, suggesting that he has heard it is a good place for merry- making. Fag explains that Bath is divided into parties, “High-roomians and Low-roomians,” denoting two different assembly rooms in town. Fag tells him that there is a pump-room (a mineral spring), a promenade, billiards, and dancing, before complaining about the “regular hours” there, given the fact that Bath is primarily a health resort.

When Fag mentions that he and Mr. Faulkland’s servant are friends, Thomas reveals that Faulkland is supposed to marry Julia Melville, a relation of the Absolutes. Fag teases Thomas for wearing a wig, and Thomas says that he would never give it up, even if “the lawyers and doctors may do as they will.” As Thomas goes on a rant about wigs, Fag warns him that Captain Absolute and Madam Lucy, Lydia Languish’s maid, are coming towards them. Thomas notices that Jack is giving Lucy money, which is strange, and Fag tells him to meet him that night at 8 for a little party. Scene 2. Mrs. Malaprop’s lodgings, a dressing room, where Lydia is sitting on the sofa and Lucy is just returning home. Lucy tells Lydia that she had to go all over town to a number of different libraries, but could not find the romantic books that Lydia requested. One of them had recently been taken out by Lady Slattern Lounger, but it was too “soiled and dog’s-ear’d.” Lucy takes out the books she was able to find. Lydia is pleased and requests her smelling-bottle next, which Lucy produces. When Lucy alludes to the fact that she has seen Ensign Beverley, Lydia gets excited, but they are interrupted by the entrance of Julia Melville. Lydia has a number of things to say to Julia, informing her that Mrs. Malaprop has disapproved of her affair with Beverley, confining her to the house. She then tells Julia that Mrs. Malaprop is in love with an Irish baronet, whom she met at "Lady Macshuffle's rout."

Lydia explains that Mrs. Malaprop uses a feigned name with her lover—"It is a Delia or a Celia"—but that it has not made her any more sympathetic to Lydia's affair. Lydia then tells Julia that she quarreled with Beverley before she was confined to her house and she has not been able to make up with him.

Julia asks Lydia what the quarrel with Beverley was about, and Lydia informs her that she thought it was time for her and Beverley to have a quarrel, so she wrote a note to herself saying that Beverley was having an affair with someone else and then showed it to Beverley. Julia assures Lydia that Beverley will forgive her, before bringing up the fact that Beverley is not very wealthy. Lydia counters, "But you know I lose most of my fortune if I marry without my aunt's consent, till of age; and that is what I have determin'd to do ever since I knew the penalty.—Nor could I love the man who would wish to wait a day for the alternative."

When Julia says that this is foolish, Lydia insists that Julia's relationship with Faulkland is misguided as well, given the fact that Faulkland has delayed marrying her. Julia defends Faulkland, saying, "Unus'd to the foppery of love, he is negligent of the little duties expected from a lover—but being unhackney'd in the passion, his love is ardent and sincere." She tells her friend that, despite his imperfections, Faulkland is a sincere lover.

Lydia asks Julia if she would still love Faulkland had he not saved her life; evidently, he saved her from drowning. Suddenly, Lucy enters and tells the women that Sir Anthony Absolute and Mrs. Malaprop have just arrived. Julia leaves hastily, for fear of running into Sir Anthony who will "detain [her] to shew [her] the town." As Julia leaves, and Anthony and Malaprop come up the stairs, Lydia orders Lucy to hide all of her romantic novels. Mrs. Malaprop enters, insulting Lydia to Anthony about her love affair with Beverley and telling her, "Thought does not become a young woman." Malaprop asks Lydia if she will forget Beverley and marry someone chosen for her, saying, "What business have you, Miss, with preference and aversion? They don't become a young woman...'tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion. I am sure I hated your poor dear uncle before marriage as if he'd been a black-a-moor—and yet, Miss, you are sensible what a wife I made!"

When Lydia leaves the room, Malaprop and Anthony discuss the fact that it was wrong to teach girls to read, and Anthony notes that he saw Lucy returning with books from the library. "Madam, a circulating library in a town is as an ever-green tree of diabolical knowledge!" he says, when Malaprop reminds him that his wife was fond of reading.

Malaprop agrees that learning and education are unbecoming on a young woman, but suggests that "I would send her at nine years old to a boarding-school, in order to learn a little ingenuity and artifice." Anthony tells Malaprop that he wants Lydia to marry his son Jack Absolute—the real identity of Ensign Beverley—and Malaprop agrees to help him in this.

Analysis The tone of the play is immediately lighthearted and fun, largely because the characters who introduce the action are two affable and well-informed servants. In the stratified world of the play, the servants gossip to one another about their employers’ exploits, and try to find a little fun when they are not tending to their masters’ needs. A great deal of humor comes from the fact that Fag and Thomas are gossiping about their masters while also trying to find some fun in a town that has a conservative social life, being a health resort. Fag and Thomas, from their lowly but well-placed positions, provide some comic relief.

In this section we learn more about Lydia Languish, a wealthy young heiress with a penchant for romantic novels. The books she loves have titles like The Reward of Constancy, The Fatal Connection, and The Mistakes of the Heart, all comic allusions to her dramatic taste. We have already learned that she does not want to marry a wealthy man (even though she herself is wealthy), because she wants to be sure that she marries for love. Her taste in books only highlights her girlish taste for melodrama and passion. Her temperament is archetypal and recognizable to a contemporary audience or reader. Yet another humorous element of the play is the use of archetypal language for the designation of different character names. “Lydia Languish” is the perfect name for a character who loves nothing more than sitting around reading romantic novels. When Lucy the maid returns home, she tells her mistress that someone named “Slattern Lounger” just checked it out, another name that alludes, humorously and irreverently, to the character’s tendency to languish. This device appears again and again, with characters like “Jack Absolute” and “Mrs. Malaprop," and serves to highlight some of the archetypal features of the respective characters.

Lydia's romantic personality is not without its ironies, especially as it affects her capricious attitudes towards her own affairs. She tells Julia that she has been in a quarrel with Ensign Beverley, her lover, and that the cause of the fight was all her doing. Indeed, she completely fabricates an affair and even writes a letter to herself in order to stir up tension with the man she loves. Her fanciful and changeable nature make her an exceedingly unpredictable lover, which only adds to the comedy of the play.

The motor of the plot begins when Anthony and Malaprop reveal their desire to set Lydia up with Jack Absolute. In those moments, two instances of dramatic irony kick into gear, which heightens the comic stakes even more. Lydia stubbornly wants to marry the poor Ensign Beverley for love, but Anthony and Malaprop want her to marry Jack Absolute, Anthony's wealthy son. Neither party knows, however, that Ensign Beverley and Jack Absolute are the same person. Everyone is plotting for Lydia to marry the same man, even though they believe they all have different desires.

THE RIVALS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PART 3 SUMMARY Malaprop tells Anthony that she has never seen Jack Absolute, but hopes he will not object to the arrangement. Anthony has no doubt that Jack will go along with it, informing Malaprop that he has always been an imperious and authoritarian father. Malaprop thinks this is the best course, saying, "Nothing is so conciliating to young people as severity." She tells Anthony that she will send away Bob Acres, one of Lydia's other suitors, and prepare Lydia to receive Jack.

"If she rejects this proposal—clap her under lock and key," Anthony tells Malaprop, adding that another good way to get her to comply is to convince the servants not to bring Lydia dinner for a few days. When Anthony leaves, Malaprop speaks about the fact that she is eager to get Lydia out from her care, as Lydia has recently learned about her "partiality" for Sir Lucius O'Trigger. She calls for Lucy and asks the servant if she saw Lucius while she was out, and reminds her not to tell anyone about her affair with him. When Malaprop leaves, Lucy discusses the fact that everyone has been paying her to do their bidding. Malaprop paid her to procure the information about Lydia and the ensign, Lydia paid her for helping her plot to run away, Bob Acres paid her to deliver letters which she never delivered, and Lucius O'Trigger paid her for delivering letters to Lydia, when she was actually delivering them to Malaprop. Act 2. Captain Absolute's Lodgings. Jack Absolute and Fag have a discussion, in which Fag tells him that he went to visit Anthony and told him Jack was in Bath, but did not tell him why. When Jack asks Fag if he told any of the servants why he is in Bath, Fag lies and tells him that though Thomas was inquisitive, he did not tell him anything about Jack's visit to the city. Fag tells Jack that he told Anthony he is in the city to recruit soldiers and Jack gets worried that Fag told too elaborate of a lie. Jack asks if Faulkland is there, and Fag tells his master that Faulkland is upstairs. When Fag exits, Faulkland comes in and asks Jack how things are going with Lydia. "I have not seen her since our quarrel; however I expect to be recalled every hour," Jack says, and Faulkland asks why he doesn't just go off with her at once. "What, and lose two-thirds of her fortune?" Jack replies, alluding to the fact that he must win the approval of her family so that he will get Lydia's money.

"If you are sure of her, propose to the aunt in your own character, and write to Sir Anthony for his consent," Faulkland says, but Jack tells him that he must woo her in the guise of a poorer man before he can assure her affection and loyalty. Jack then makes fun of Faulkland for being so moody and unsure of Julia's love for him, before revealing to him that Julia is in Bath at the moment. "Can you be serious?" Faulkland asks, alarmed. Suddenly, Fag enters and announces the arrival of Bob Acres. With this, Jack encourages Faulkland to stay, since Acres will know something of Julia. He also reveals that Acres is a rival of "Ensign Beverley" and it is fun to listen to Acres speak ill of Jack's alter ego.

Acres comes in and greets the men, confirming to Faulkland that Julia is in fine health. Faulkland is a little bit offended by this, latching onto yet another thing to make him insecure about his relationship with Julia—"isn't there something unkind in this violent, robust, unfeeling health?" he says. Acres goes on to say that Julia has been "the belle and spirit of the company wherever she has been—so lively and entertaining!"

When Acres discusses the fact that she is so musically proficient, Faulkland moans, "You see she has been all mirth and song—not a thought of me!" Jack teasingly asks Acres if he remembers the songs that Julia sang, listing names of songs about missing a distant loved one. Suddenly, Acres remembers the song she sang, with the lyrics, "My heart's my own, my will is free."

This only makes Faulkland more insecure, but Jack tries to assure him that he should be happy to hear that Julia has been happy. When Acres reveals that she was doing a lot of country dances, Faulkland gets really upset, suggesting that he would have been able to handle another kind of dance, but country dancing feels like a betrayal. He rails against his mistress and leaves in a huff. Left alone, Jack and Acres discuss Acres' appearance, and the fact that he used to have a very bad fashion sense. Acres resolves to look better, saying, "My hair has been in training some time." He then says that he wants to beat "Ensign Beverley," clearly ignorant of the fact that the ensign is actually Jack.

When Acres exits, Fag enters and tells Jack that his father is there. Anthony Absolute greets his son and immediately tells him that he is going to marry someone that he chooses. Anthony fails to mention that he wants Jack to marry Lydia, the girl he already loves, and Jack assumes that his father must be talking about another girl and so refuses. This only enrages Anthony, who insists that Jack must do as he tells him, no matter who he chooses for his son. Before he leaves, Anthony tells his son that he will take away his commission if he does not consent to the marriage in the next six and a half hours.

When Anthony leaves, Fag visits Jack and tells him that he should "drop his acquaintance." Frustrated, Jack snaps at Fag, and leaves angrily. Miffed, Fag says, "When one is vexed by one person, to revenge one's self on another, who happens to come in the way, is the vilest injustice!" Suddenly he is interrupted by an errand boy, and Fag snaps at the boy much in the way that Jack snapped at him. He chases the boy out of the room, "kicking and beating him."

Scene 2. Lucy enters and discusses the fact that she knows that Jack is a new suitor of Lydia's, but decides not to tell anyone for a while. She then discusses the fact that Lucius O'Trigger thinks he is corresponding with Lydia when he is actually corresponding with Malaprop.

Lucius comes in shortly and Lucy presents him with a letter from Malaprop, which he thinks is from Lydia. It is filled with misused words, and Lucius calls her "the queen of the dictionary!" Lucius pays Lucy for her help and kisses her, which she does not appreciate. When they hear someone whistling, Lucius runs away quickly.

Fag enters and Lucy tells him that Anthony is planning to marry Jack to Lydia. Fag finds this very funny, knowing his master's double identity, and rushes off to tell him.

Analysis A contrast is struck between the temperaments of the young and the old, and both ends of the spectrum are satirized. The young people in the play are fanciful and curious; Lydia reads sentimental novels and wants so badly to marry for love that she denies her own desire for financial security. Jack is willing to assume the identity of a much poorer man for the express purpose of winning her over. Meanwhile, the older characters are so serious and severe that it is comical. The unimaginative and humorless attitudes of the older characters is typified by Malaprop's line, "Nothing is so conciliating to young people as severity."

Another contrast in the play is that between servants and employers. Indeed, the play began with two servants gossiping about their employers' affairs, and the complication of this relation becomes even starker in this section of the play. Malaprop fears that Lucy will have told Lydia of her affair with Lucius O'Trigger, and denounces her as a simpleton. Meanwhile, however, Lucy is anything but simple and is involved in her own scheme to make a little extra money on the side for the confidences she keeps and the favors she does.

Lucy's various favors are quite scheming, and lead to a great deal of chaos in the affairs of her employers. She tells the audience, in her own kind of confidence, that she was paid to tell Malaprop about Lydia and Ensign Beverly, that she was paid to deliver Lydia letters from Bob Acres, but never did, and that she was paid by Lucius O'Trigger to deliver letters to Lydia. Little do any of these people know the liberties that Lucy has taken with this information. Lydia thinks that Lucy is keeping her secret safe, Malaprop thinks Lucy is keeping her secret safe, and Lucius thinks that Lucy is helping him win favor with Lydia, when she is in fact 'helping' him seduce Malaprop. In this section we are introduced to the exceedingly insecure Faulkland, who interprets every piece of information as evidence of the fact that his beloved, Julia, does not love him, or else that there is something wrong between them. Indeed, when he hears she is in Bath—a cause for celebration, no doubt—he is distressed to hear that she is in good spirits and good health, interpreting it somehow as evidence of her inconstancy or unreliability. Jack makes fun of his friend for his fickle insecurity, the fact that nothing can calm his nerves about his relationship.

The tone of the play, even when stakes and tensions seem high, is exceedingly lighthearted and comical. Every scene offers a comic relation between the characters, whether it is the relation between the inarticulate Malaprop and her scheming servant Lucy, or a jesting discussion between the ultra-smooth Jack Absolute and his neurotic and insecure friend Faulkland. The scenarios are made all the funnier by the temperaments of the characters, a true comedy of manners.

THE RIVALS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PART 4 SUMMARY Act 3, Scene 1. The North Parade. Jack has learned that the girl his father wants him to marry is "the very girl [he is] plotting to run away with." When his father, Anthony, comes in, Jack tells him that he has thought about it and he is willing to marry the woman his father has chosen.

Anthony is pleased to hear it, and tells Jack that he is marrying him off to Lydia Languish. Playing with his father, Jack pretends to be indifferent to Lydia, even though Anthony was excited to present such an eligible, young, and beautiful woman to his son. "What think you of blooming, love-breathing seventeen?" Anthony squawks, determined to convince Jack that he has found a good match. When Jack remains indifferent, Anthony says, "Why, you unfeeling, insensible puppy, I despise you! When I was of your age, such a description would have made me fly like a rocket!" Frustrated, Anthony becomes determined to send Jack to Lydia at once.

Scene 2. In Julia's dressing room, Faulkland is alone. He remembers when he and Julia first fell in love, when suddenly Julia enters. She confronts Faulkland about the fact that he has been cold, and that he is often doubtful of her love for him. He confronts her about her actions, and suggests that she does not love him, but she insists she does. When he doesn't believe her, she flees the room, weeping. Seeing how upset she is, Faulkland expresses regret for his behavior, and vows to himself to make it up to her the next time he sees her. Scene 3. At her lodgings, Mrs. Malaprop speaks to Jack Absolute about his imminent marriage to Lydia. Jack flatters Malaprop, citing her "intellectual accomplishments, elegant manners, and unaffected learning." After he flatters her a great deal, Malaprop tells Jack about the fact that Lydia has been corresponding with another man, pulling out a note from "Ensign Beverley." "Oh, the devil! my last note," says Jack in an aside, annoyed that Lucy would hand the note over to Malaprop. Jack reads the letter aloud, which refers rather unflatteringly to Malaprop, calling her an "old weather-beaten she-dragon." When Jack reads a part that insults Malaprop's poor use of language, Malaprop gets very angry, and Jack pretends to be on her side, saying, "He deserves to be hanged and quartered!"

Jack hatches a plan to let Lydia keep corresponding with her lover, and even let her plan an elopement, which they will then block at a later date. Malaprop is delighted by this plan. Jack then asks to speak with Lydia for a moment, advising Malaprop to tell Lydia that Beverley is there to see her; he poses this idea as a kind of joke that Malaprop can play on Lydia.

Lydia enters, thinking she is about to meet Jack Absolute, but is surprised when the man she meets is the man she knows to be Ensign Beverley. Jack keeps up the charade and tells her, "I have deceived your aunt—I was informed that my new rival was to visit here this evening, and contriving to have him kept away, have passed myself on her for Captain Absolute." Lydia is delighted to hear that Malaprop thinks he is Jack Absolute.

Lydia asks "Ensign Beverley" if he is ready to marry her and forfeit her inheritance for the sake of romance. When he says yes, she beams, saying, "how charming poverty will be with him!" Malaprop comes in and listens in on their conversation. She hears Lydia say, "Let her choice be Captain Absolute, but Beverley is mine," and is surprised that Lydia would say this to Captain Absolute's face, unaware that Lydia thinks he is Beverley. Malaprop confronts Lydia about insulting Captain Absolute to her face, but everyone remains blissfully unaware of the fact that Jack and Beverly are the same person.

Scene 4. Acres' lodgings. Acres is there with David, his servant. They are discussing the fact that Acres has recently changed his wardrobe to be more sophisticated and urbane, after years of country living. Acres then talks about how he likes to dance in a country style, when they are interrupted by the arrival of Lucius O'Trigger.

Lucius comes in and greets Acres, asking what has brought him to Bath. Acres tells him that he is in love with a woman, without mentioning her name. He tells Lucius that he has a rival named Beverley, who is also in love with the woman. Lucius encourages Acres to fight Beverley, but Acres insists, "...he has given me no provocation." Lucius insists that the fact that they love the same woman is provocation enough, and begins to stoke some animosity in Acres, who becomes determined to challenge Beverley to a duel. He becomes impassioned and sits down to write a letter. In the letter, he summons Beverley to King's-Mead-Fields. Before he leaves, Lucius tells Acres that he has a rival he would like to fight as well.

Analysis So much of the pleasure of the play comes from dramatic irony, the fact that the audience is privy to all the intricacies of the plot, while many of the characters are blissfully unaware. The pleasure of dramatic irony is exploited at the beginning of the act, when Jack has learned of his father's plot to marry him to the woman he already loves. While the audience knows that Jack loves Lydia and is more than willing to marry her, Jack pretends to be indifferent to the match, which infuriates his father. This tension, between what the audience knows and what Anthony knows, creates an especially comedic scenario.

The secondary couple in the play, Julia and Faulkland, is not as intricately entangled as Jack and Lydia, but they create their own complications in the dynamic they have struck up. Faulkland is exceedingly insecure, and interprets nearly everything that Julia does as proof that she does not love him. No matter what Julia says, he cannot be consoled; he even sees her happiness in his absence as evidence of her inconstancy. While they have both expressed their affection for one another, Faulkland is unable to accept it, and sees Julia as disloyal, even though she is not.

Matters only get more and more complicated as the play progresses. Jack plots to win over Lydia, maintaining one identity with Malaprop and his father, and another with his lover, Lydia. He must keep his two identities straight, as a betrayal of his plot to either party will ruin his plans to marry the woman he loves. Meanwhile, the audience delights in his trickery, especially when it leads him into particularly contradictory territory, such as when he must read an insulting letter that he wrote as Beverley about Malaprop to Malaprop. Through the character of Lydia Languish, the play satirizes a youthful orientation towards romance. Not only is her voracious consumption of romance novels comedic in its own right, but also her love for "Ensign Beverley." So much of her affection for him comes from the fact that he tells her he is willing to give up earthly goods for the sake of love. His lack of materialism, and his willingness to "forfeit that portion of [her] paltry wealth" is what makes him so appealing, as it seems to prize affection and love over financial security. To a 17-year-old rich girl, there is nothing more romantic than being poor, and some of Lydia's most comic moments come from her preoccupation with penniless love, as when she says, "How charming will poverty be with him!" The joke for the audience is, of course, that poverty is never charming, and Lydia is naive to believe that it could be.

While Jack Absolute's plot has been mostly smooth throughout the play, he faces some complication when Lucius O'Trigger encourages Bob Acres to challenge "Beverley" (Jack) to a duel. While he has imagined that he will be able to win Lydia's hand in marriage by posing as an ensign, his love is not unrivaled. The impressionable Bob Acres takes Lucius' call to arms seriously and becomes impassioned in his quest to protect his affection for Lydia. The act finishes with the promise of violence and retribution for our hero, Jack Absolute.

THE RIVALS SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PART 5 Summary Act 4. At Acres' lodgings, David tries to dissuade Acres from fighting a duel, but Acres is insistent that he fight. "David, no gentleman will ever risk the loss of his honour!" he says, but David insists that because Acres risks death, it is not worth it, saying, "Under favour, the surest way of not disgracing them, is to keep as long as you can out of their company."

A servant enters and announces the arrival of Jack Absolute. Jack comes in and asks Acres why he called him there, and Acres hands him the challenge for Ensign Beverley. Jack agrees to deliver the challenge, when suddenly the servant comes back in and announces the arrival of Anthony Absolute, looking for Jack. Before Jack leaves, Acres asks him to tell Beverley that he is "a determined dog."

Scene 2. At Malaprop's lodgings, Malaprop and Lydia discuss Jack Absolute and Beverley. Malaprop thinks Jack is very handsome indeed, but Lydia stubbornly insists that she still loves Beverley. A servant announces the arrival of Anthony and Jack Absolute, and Malaprop tells him to bring them up, before telling Lydia to "show [her] good breeding."

Lydia is determined to be impolite to Jack, so much so that she decides to not even look at him when he comes in, looking away from the door. Anthony and Jack enter and Jack notices that Lydia is refusing to look at him. He asks his father to leave them alone, but he will not, entreating his son to speak to Lydia. Finally, Jack resolves to alter his voice and speaks to Lydia in a "low hoarse tone."

With no other hope, Jack speaks to Lydia in an aside in his own voice, telling her to "suppress all surprise at present." When Lydia turns around and sees him, she recognizes him as Beverley, which confuses Malaprop and Anthony. Jack admits that, indeed, he has disguised himself as Beverley to win Lydia's affection, and Lydia disappointedly says, "So!—there will be no elopement after all!"

Anthony is mad that Jack would mount such an elaborate charade and compromise his reputation. Malaprop is also offended by Jack's ruse, realizing that it was he who wrote such unflattering descriptions of her in his letters. Anthony encourages Malaprop to forgive them and delight in the fact that they are in love, and the two elders leave the room, singing.

Jack goes to Lydia and notices that she is disappointed that he is actually a wealthy young captain. She says to him, "Then, sir, let me tell you, the interest you had there was acquired by a mean, unmanly imposition, and deserves the punishment of fraud.—What, you have been treating me like a child!—humouring my romance! and laughing, I suppose, at your success!" She bemoans the fact that she thought she was rebelling against her family, but was actually falling in love with precisely the person her aunt and father want her to marry.

As Jack flatters Lydia and looks at a picture of her, she bursts into tears, and storms out of the room, vowing not to marry him.

Scene 3. The North Parade. Lucius comes in and waits for Beverley, his opponent in the duel. Then, Jack enters, crestfallen at the fact that Lydia has denied him. "I could cut own throat, or any other person's, with the greatest pleasure in the world!" he says. He runs into Lucius, who wants to fight him, even though Absolute does not understand why. They agree to meet that night at 6, the same time Lucius is to fight Beverley.

When Lucius leaves, Faulkland enters and asks Jack what is wrong. Jack tells him that Lydia does not love him and that Lucius has challenged him to a duel. He asks Faulkland to be his second at the duel, but Faulkland tells him he is very troubled by the fight he got into with Julia, and cannot attend the duel. A servant comes in and hands Faulkland a letter from Julia. Faulkland is too scared to read the letter, so Jack opens it and reads it. The letter says that Julia wishes to speak with him and is signed "Yours ever and truly," but Faulkland is still not convinced of her love. Faulkland says to Jack, "...don't you think there is something forward, something indelicate, in this haste to forgive?" Jack reproaches him and leaves.

Left alone, Faulkland devises a plot to use the duel as a way of testing Julia's love for him.

Act 5. In Julia's dressing room, she reads a letter from Faulkland about a "dreadful accident." Faulkland enters and tells Julia that he was drawn into a quarrel and must flee the country. Julia tells him, "My heart has long known no other guardian—I now entrust my person to your honour—we will fly together." Faulkland comes up with a number of reasons why she shouldn't come, but Julia proves steadfast in her devotion to him.

Satisfied with her loving words, Faulkland reveals that he completely fabricated his need to leave the country. While Julia is relieved, she is also angered by his doubtfulness. She tells him that she has devoted herself to him in the same way she devoted herself to her father who passed away soon after she and Faulkland became acquainted. She then tells him that his deception is insulting and cruel and that she will never be his. She exits, leaving Faulkland heartbroken. After a brief monologue, he exits.

Lydia and a maid come in, looking for Julia. When Julia comes back in, Lydia notices that she has been crying, but Julia refuses to say why. Lydia then tells Julia about her misfortune, the fact that she has been duped by Jack, but Julia tells her that she already knew, because Faulkland told her. Lydia vows never to marry Jack, but Julia insists that Jack loves her sincerely, and that she ought to forgive him.

Suddenly, they are interrupted by Malaprop, Fag, and David. Malaprop tells the servants to tell Julia and Lydia about the duel that is to take place between Jack, Faulkland, Acres and Lucius. Malaprop is distressed to hear that Lucius is involved, and all three of the women decide that they must go to the dueling location and stop it.

Scene 2. Jack enters with a sword, waiting for Faulkland. Suddenly, Anthony appears, and asks Jack where he is going. Jack lies and says he is going to Lydia to beg for forgiveness, but Anthony notices his sword and becomes alarmed. Jack again lies and tells his father that he is bringing the sword to Lydia as a dramatic suicide prop to whet her appetite for drama and romance. Anthony believes him and lets Jack go.

As Jack exits, David enters and asks Anthony why he didn't stop his son, revealing that Jack is on his way to a duel. Anthony asks David to take him to the dueling place.

Scene 3. At King's-Mead-Fields, Lucius and Acres enter with pistols. They argue about how far away the dueling parties should be from one another. They are interrupted by the arrival of Faulkland and Jack. Jack reveals that he was pretending to be Beverley all along, and Acres does not want to fight, as Faulkland and Jack are his friends.

Lucius is undeterred, however, and wants to fight, but just as he draws his sword, Anthony, David, Malaprop, Lydia, and Julia all enter. Anthony asks Lucius why he challenged Jack to a duel. "Your son, sir, insulted me in a manner which my honour could not brook," Lucius says, before looking at Lydia and calling her "Delia," the name he uses in his letters.

Confused, Lydia tells Lucius that she has come to offer Jack her hand in marriage, and Jack is overjoyed. Jack then addresses Lucius, telling him that there must be some misunderstanding. Acres says that he will give up his pursuit of Lydia, and Lucius pulls out the letters he believes are from Lydia. Lydia looks at the letters, and tells him they are not from her, before exiting with Jack.

Malaprop reveals to Lucius that she is Delia, and Anthony suggests that Lucius should marry Malaprop, but he refuses. Everyone leaves the stage except Julia and Faulkland. Julia forgives Faulkland for lying to her and they reconcile. Anthony encourages their union and the other characters come forward. Julia speaks the final line of the play, saying, "...while Hope pictures to us a flattering scene of future bliss, let us deny its pencil those colours which are too bright to be lasting.—When hearts deserving happiness would unite their fortunes, Virtue would crown them with an unfading garland of modest hurtless flowers; but ill-judging Passion will force the gaudier rose into the wreath, whose thorn offends them when its leaves are dropped!"

An epilogue by the author addresses the audience. Originally uttered by Mrs. Bulkley, adopting the identity of the Muse, it reads, "One moral's plain," cried I, "without more fuss;/Man's social happiness all rests on us:/Through all the drama—whether damn'd or not—/Love gilds the scene, and women guide the plot./From every rank obedience is our due/D'ye doubt?—The world's great stage shall prove it true." She says that women carry the torch of love, and that love is central to all matters.

Analysis At every moment in which Jack's plot could potentially be revealed, something gets in the way to prevent the truth from coming to the surface. These convenient elisions always have a comical effect, for indeed they occur right in the nick of time, saving Jack from getting discovered. For instance, in Act 4, Scene 2, Anthony Absolute and Jack come to visit Lydia and Malaprop, but Lydia feels so averse to meeting him that she hides her face and refuses to look at him. If she looked at him, she would realize that he and Ensign Beverley are one and the same, but instead she prevents herself from learning her beloved's true identity for a time.

This does not last long, however, as Anthony and Malaprop force a meeting between Jack and Lydia. As soon as Lydia turns around, she recognizes her beloved as Ensign Beverley, and Jack must come out with his plot to everyone. Malaprop and Anthony are both enraged by the deception for a moment, but soon enough, they decide to look past it and take heart in the fact that the two young lovers have found one another. With their approval, it is only Lydia who needs convincing from Jack that his love is worth the deception.

A great deal of comic mileage comes from the fact that Lydia's preferences in a man are the complete opposite of what one would expect of a noblewoman. Instead of wanting a monied captain, she wants a lowly ensign with whom to live in poverty. When Jack's identity comes out, however, it becomes clear that her desires for a poor mate were less about poverty itself than about rebelling against her station. Incensed, she tells Jack, "So, while I fondly imagined we were deceiving my relations, and flattered myself that I should outwit and incense them all— behold my hopes are to be crushed at once, by my aunt's consent and approbation—and I am myself the only dupe at last!" Her desire to marry an ensign and to forfeit her inheritance was wrapped up in her desire to disobey her protective guardians, to make a decision for herself for once.

While both Jack and Faulkland's deceptions are meant to ensure the love of their respective mistresses, their backhandedness proves to have the opposite effect, at least at first. Offended to have been duped by Jack, Lydia refuses his hand at first. Similarly, Julia is heartbroken when she realizes that Faulkland has only pretended to need to leave the country in a bid to test her affections. In the final act of the play, the unions between the two couples are broken, and it seems as though everyone will end up uncoupled, and perhaps, killed in a duel.

In the end, the play is a romantic comedy, a lighthearted confection about the foolishnesses and beauty of romantic love. So it's no surprise that the two central couples, Jack and Lydia and Julia and Faulkland, are finally reunited and hope to live happy lives with one another. The epilogue only further amplifies the theme of romantic love, a series of rhyming couplets about the fact that while it may seem as though men have the upper hand in society, it is women who hold the keys to his social happiness and control the tides of romance.

Unit-5

STRIFE

Summary

The strike at the Trenartha Tin Plate Works had lasted so long without any sign of a settlement that the directors had begun to fear for their dividends. They had all gathered at the Underwood home at the request of the workers, and at first there was some talk of compromise. Facing them, however, was the stern figure of the chairman of the board, seventy-five-year-old John Anthony, who refused to consider any plan for compromise.

Anthony belonged to the old school of businessmen who refused to move with the times. For him there could be only one master at the plant, and that was John Anthony himself. He had defeated four strikes in his thirty-two years as chairman of the board, and he was certain that a little more perseverance would defeat the strikers once more.

The other directors were a little uneasy under his stern refusal. In his report Underwood, the plant manager, had made no attempt to disguise the terrible suffering of the striking workers and their families. The directors were also aware that if the strike lasted much longer their stockholders would begin to protest strongly. Although the union had withdrawn support from the strikers because two of their conditions exceeded the prevailing standards, Simon Harness, a Trades Union official, had been sent to attempt mediation between the board and the workers. His interview with the directors accomplished nothing because of Anthony’s obstinacy. The meeting between the representatives of the workers and the directors was equally unhappy. Roberts, the leader of the striking workmen, was just as unyielding on his side as Anthony was on his. Both sides faced a deadlock.

Conditions among the workers were so terrible that many of them were ready to give in, but Roberts remained adamant. Mrs. Roberts was dying; her weak heart could not stand the cold and hunger which the strike imposed upon them all. At one time she had been the maid in Underwood’s home, and one afternoon Enid Underwood went to visit her. Mrs. Underwood had tried to send food to Mrs. Roberts, but the strike leader was too proud and too stubborn to accept help from the daughter of John Anthony. Mrs. Underwood tried to plead with Roberts, asking him, for his wife’s sake, to give in and end the strike. But he was fanatic in his certainty that in the end the workmen could bring their employers to terms.

At a meeting of the men and Harness, the Trades Union official, it became evident that most of the strikers were willing to compromise, to accept the union suggestions. A few were willing to give in completely. When Roberts appeared at the meeting, the men did not wish to hear him speak. But Roberts was a powerful orator, and as he talked to them again about the eventual victory which they could win if they refused to give in now, they were once more moved and convinced by his oratory. As he was speaking, a young woman approached the platform and told him that his wife had died. With this tragedy as an example of what they must expect if they continued to resist, the men decided to accept the terms of the union compromise.

The news of Mrs. Roberts’ death was a blow to the directors. Edgar Anthony, in spite of the respect which he had for his father, now faced his colleagues and accused them of responsibility for the woman’s condition and death. They felt uncomfortably that what he said was very close to the truth. Old Anthony, weak and unwell as he was, still insisted that the company should not yield. But the directors had decided to act in spite of him, although they knew that should they decide to accept the union terms, Anthony would resign.

That evening the meeting between the workers, Harness, and the directors was painful in the extreme. Anthony found himself outvoted by his colleagues. Wearily, with an acknowledgement of his defeat, he resigned. Roberts, who knew nothing of the action which his men had decided to take after he had left the meeting, arrived at the Underwood home in time to watch Harness complete the settlement. The terms agreed upon were those which the union had suggested to both sides before the strike began, but it had needed months of suffering to bring agreement in the dispute. The two leaders stared at each other, both deserted by their supporters, both defeated by the compromise. As they recognized the courageous battle which each had put up, their expression of hate turned to one of grudging admiration and mutual respect. Characters

John Anthony

John Anthony, the chairman of the board of a sheet metal plant. He is dramatically a fully realized character and also an example of a popular type that figured in early twentieth century industrial disputes. He fights stubbornly for his principles and is uncompromising in his attitude toward petitions from labor factions. Eventually, his resignation is forced by board members eager to compromise with the union.

David Roberts

David Roberts, a zealous leader of the striking workers who is Anthony’s counterpart in the ranks of labor. He is typical of the adamant, unyielding element prevalent in labor disputes in the early twentieth century. As Anthony is deserted by the board, so Roberts is abandoned by the union membership, and the strike is compromised.

Annie Roberts

Annie Roberts, David’s wife, who, though not an active character in the play, is an important agent in it. It is her death from the privation caused by the strike that causes the contending forces to think soberly and work out a compromise.

Edgar Anthony

Edgar Anthony, the realistically presented son of John Anthony. He expresses the views that employers of the future might be expected to have where labor is concerned.

Francis

Francis and

Enid Underwood

Enid Underwood, who are sympathetic to labor’s cause. Francis, because he is the plant manager, is not as overt in his stand as is Enid. She boldly attempts to reconcile the opposing factions, first by attending Roberts’ sick wife and then by pleading personally with Roberts to give up the fight. Significant is the fact that Enid is Anthony’s daughter.

Simon Harness

Simon Harness, a union officer whose compromise finally is accepted by the contending parties.