Write a short note on the character and role of Miss Neville
Miss Neville is of a yielding type with no strong personality either like Tony or Miss Hardcastle. She submits to the control of Mrs Hardcastle, and would not have broken from it, even when there was Hastings to rescue her. When Hastings proposes that she should run away with him to France, she wavers and does not consent until Tony secures her jewels, another hold upon her, from his mother.
Now it is the worst that could have happened to Miss Neville. Mrs Hardcastle is going to take her off to her aunt, Pedigree. Tony who has a pact with Hastings, renewed at this critical stage, comes to her rescue. She becomes now more prudent than before.
There is a chance now for Miss Neville to get away from the control of Mrs Hardcastle and choose her own life. But she will not part with her jewels. This is what she says to Hastings: " Prudence once more comes to my relief and I will obey its dictates. In the moment of passion, fortune may be despised, but it ever produces lasting repentance, I'm resolved to apply to Mr Hardcastle's compassion and justice for redress.
" Miss Neville had no freedom of her own like Tony, Mrs Hardcastle had a grip upon both, and the difference between the two was that Tony wanted to break away from his mother, and Miss Neville had no alternative but to submit to Mrs Hardcastle and pose all the time that she was in love with Tony, while Tony repudiated her.
She could, however, trust in Tony's goodwill, and finally, she owes her independence to Tony's generous impulse. Miss Neville is sensible enough to recognize the good nature of Tony, for she tells Miss Hardcastle: " It is a good-natured creature at bottom, and I'm sure would wish to see me married to anybody but himself. "
Read More-
- Plot construction of 'She Stoops to Conquer'
- English Comedy before Goldsmith
- Sentimental Comedy: Reaction of Goldsmith against it
- Character and role of Miss Neville
- Discuss She Stoops to Conquer as a Sentimental Comedy
- Discuss Goldsmith's View of Sentimental Comedy
- Give an estimate of Goldsmith as a dramatist
- Contribution of Goldsmith as a Dramatist
