![]() ![]() It is only Kate who appears admirable and rational. Here, in Act 1 itself, the audience come to know how Marlow is a complicated character, who assumes modesty only to serve his means. A sentimental comedy generally portrayed a virtuous character as its hero. Act 1 also highlights one of Goldsmith’s major themes the subversion of traditional beliefs and instead of going for a zestful life. The audience consequently receives ample occasions to laugh, being aware of the expected follies of the characters. Also, Kate’s unusual dressing routine is a hint to the audience about the scheme of identity reversal that she’d undertake so as to unveil Marlow’s true nature. ![]() Hardcastle’s comparison of her house with an inn prepares the ground for Marlow’s and Hastings’s misconception. Hardcastle strongly wishes to get Tony and Neville married since the latter possesses a small fortune, but both Tony and Neville despise each other.Īct 1 introduces all the characters and prepares the basis on which the complications are going to be established. Tony, on the other hand, is a habitual drunk and follower of “low company.” Mrs. Kate is an obedient daughter, who wears as she pleases in the morning, while dresses according to her father’s wishes in the evening. Hardcastle’s son from her previous marriage, Tony and their cousin, Constance Neville. Along with them dwell, their daughter Kate, Mrs. Harcastle, a middle-aged couple reside in their “old fashioned” mansion that reminds one of an inn. The play is also referred to as a Restoration Comedy for its similarities with the “laughing comedies” of the Restoration period. Interestingly, Goldsmith flouted the very factor of involving scenes of low behaviour that had led his earlier play to be criticised, by deliberately depicting the alehouse scene where drunkards stress that their kind of life is not at all low. She Stoops to Conquer was a huge success, and this was particularly important to Goldsmith for his previous work, “The Good-Natured Man” had been poorly received. He asserts that “a doctor,” (namely Goldsmith), “has come this night” with his “five draughts,” meaning the five acts of the play, to make the audience laugh heartily.įirst performed in London in 1753, this anti-sentimental comedy also satirises the vain class consciousness of the upper-class people of his day, employing the form of a comedy of manners. ![]() The prologue uttered by Woodward, (one of the leading actor of those times), points out how “the Comic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying!” thereby referring to the steady dissipation of true comedy by an overdose of morality and sentiment that were in vogue in the sentimental plays. She Stoops to Conquer or The Mistakes of a Night was written by Irish novelist Oliver Goldsmith to restore the essence of wit and humour that were hugely missing in the sentimental drama of 18th century England. ![]()
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