She Stoops to Conquer as a comedy written after Shakespeare's concept
She Stoops to Conquer is first of all a comedy brimming with mirth and laughter. The spirit of youth and gaiety is embodied in Tony. But it is not less evident in Marlow and Miss Hardcastle, both when Marlow swaggers with Miss Hardcastle and when he makes love to Miss Hardcastle disguised either as a barmaid or a poor relation of the family.
Even Miss Neville, who seems to be a little more restrained in a manner than Miss Hardcastle, seems to catch something of the spirit when she plays at love with Tony just to take in Mrs Hardcastle, Tony's love of mischief which manifests itself more than once in the play, and which has been productive of good rather than evil is but youthful exuberance.
He seems to remind us of the mischievous spirit, Puck, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. She Stoops to Conquer is after all a romance of comedy. There is a twofold or rather threefold love interest in the play. Marlow comes to pay his addresses to Miss Hardcastle, but he is a young man, ever modest and therefore tongue-tied before a young woman of virtue and reputation. Miss Hardcastle is driven to a romantic device to catch the fancy of Marlow and loosen his tongue.
It is the idea of playing the barmaid she is assisted by Marlow's own delusion that he is at an inn ( instead of the house of Hardcastle ). Her device is readily actable because a romantic situation has been created by Tony's trick of sending Marlow and Hastings to an inn and not to Hardcastle's house.
We may think here of Rosalind in Shakespeare's As You Like It, masquerading as a youth in the forest of Arden and playing with the love of Orland. It is on a lower scale that the romance of Miss Hardcastle is presented, but there is no mistaking the link between As You Like It, and She Stoops to Conquer. It is the romantic tradition which links As You Like It and She Stoops to Conquer.
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
