She Stoops to Conquer as a Comedy of Intrigue
She
Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith is a splendid comedy of intrigue. In such
a comedy there are plots, designs, contrivances, even conspiracies of one
character or a group of characters against the others. She Stoops to Conquer
consists of intrigues or tricks of Tony against Marlow and Hastings and his
mother, of Miss Hardcastle against Marlow, and of Mrs. Hardcastle against Tony.
These tricks are the principal sources of wit and humour in the play.
Tony’s
intrigue against Marlow and Hastings sets the action of the drama in motion.
Marlow and Hastings come to the Three Pigeons losing their way to Mr.
Hardcastle’s house. At that time Tony misdirects them in order to take revenge
on his stepfather who always finds faults with him and calls him young dog and
considers him to a worthless boy. So Tony misdirects them to the Hardcastle
home as to an inn and Mr. Hardcastle as to an innkeeper. These tricks
contribute to a lot to the comic impression of the play. Because of these
tricks, Marlow mistakes his future father-in-law for an innkeeper and orders
him for punch. They talk at cross purposes which amuse us most.
Miss Hardcastle’s tricks upon Marlow
constitute the central episode of the play and bring about the happy ending of
the main plot. In their first interview, Marlow does not look at her face. So
she decides to play the barmaid in order to win his heart. When she appears
before him in plain dress, Marlow mistakes her for a barmaid, looks at her face
and tries to plan a kiss on her lips. Thus she captivates his heart by stooping
to the level of a barmaid. She plays another trick upon him. When he asks her
if she is a barmaid, she tells him that she is a poor relation of the family.
Her tricks upon him are charged with irony.
The
tricky of Tony and Miss Neville upon Mrs. Hardcastle is another amusing scene
of the play. Tony is the son of Mrs. Hardcastle by her first husband. Miss
Neville is an orphan who lives with her aunt, Mrs. Hardcastle. Mrs. Hardcastle wants his son to marry Miss
Neville in order to retain her fortune in the family. But Tony does not like
Miss Neville because his heart is foxed on a country girl, Bet Bouncer. Miss
Neville, on the other hand, is in love with Hastings. But they pretend to make
love each other with a view to satisfying Mrs. Hardcastle.
Tony
again intrigues against his mother in order to help Hastings and Miss Neville to
be united in wedlock. He steals the jewels of Miss Neville from his mother’s
almirah and gives them to Hastings to assist the elopement of Hastings and Miss
Neville. But the jewels go back to Mrs. Hardcastle for the idiocy of Marlow and
Hastings and the plan of elopement is revealed to her. When she sends Miss
Neville to aunt Pedigree’s house as a punishment, Tony harasses his mother by
taking her round and round the house in a stage coach through the muddy paths,
sloughs etc, and places her in the horse pond. She comes out of the pond being
drenched. She is so frightened that when she mistakes her own husband for a
highwayman and kneels down at his feet to spare her son’s life. This scene is
highly comical.
Hasting
and Miss Neville intrigue against Marlow by not telling him that the house to
which they have come is Mr. Hardcastle’s and the owner of the house is not an
inn-keeper.
Tony
is himself intrigued by his mother and step-father who keep him under the
illusion that he has not yet come of age, though he attained maturity three
months earlier. When this trick is exposed, Tony declares that Miss Neville is
free to marry anybody she likes. This declaration entitles her to marry
Hastings with her fortune. As a result the play ends happily and it makes for
the totality of comic impression in the play.
Good analysis
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