She Stoops to Conquer

[Frances, Moderator]

This is our space to read and discuss She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith.

This short play shows a mass of confusion and misunderstandings as young Marlow, who becomes shy and tongue-tied around ladies of quality but is quite free and easy with lower class women, is sent to court Miss Hardcastle, the daughter of his father's friend. His friend wishes to marry her cousin, who is intended for Tony, the bumpkin brother.

I found this short play quite funny, but imagine it would be even more enjoyable when staged.

1. What did you think of the relationships between the various friends, courting couples, parent-child pairings or siblings?
2. What was the intended lesson around young Marlow-would he be considered an admirable young man or a seducer of lower-class women?
3. Compare and contrast with The Vicar of Wakefield-were there similarities or differences in style or message?

Please share your impressions of this play and of our overall reading of Goldsmith.

[Bill]

Generally I dislike the kind of humour that depends on a character’s making embarrassing mistakes, too easily imagining myself in similar situations. She Stoops to Conquer is so intellectually vacuous that it offers little that needs critical comment. The older view was that Goldsmith and Sheridan were attempting to revive the wit of Restoration Comedy (basically 1660 to 1700) but for a later 18th-century middle-class audience less tolerant of sexual situations and innuendo. (Readers of Evelina will recall that she disapproved of Congreve’s Love for Love; that performance was real and it was not a success.) The only jokes in She Stoops I found funny were Marlow’s drunken servants. Thinking Hardcastle was an innkeeper, Marlow would have expected Hardcastle should have been delighted Marlow’s servants were running up a huge bar bill, whereas of course they were freeloading in the servants hall. (In real life, Hardcastle’s butler would doubtless have had word with his master.) Goldsmith’s contemporaries such as Johnson and Boswell remarked on Goldsmith’s lack of what we would call social skills, which may have inspired Marlow’s reticence in polite company. For an audience today, Today the cavalier treatment of the servants (including the supposed barmaid) would be distasteful. But in the 18th century I expect one would be as surprised at the notion one should be considerate to one’s servants as I would be if you thought I should care about the feelings of my refrigerator.

[Trev]

This was great fun and would be lapped up by today’s pantomime audiences (Is pantomime just a British phenomenon?) For an eighteenth century audience wanting a good laugh and good night out, what more could they ask for?

It is actually really quite difficult to write, produce and perform comedy of this type to a high standard. I am sure that the Cambridge (University) Footlights brigade that eventually morphed into Monty Python admire both this play and Sheridan’s comedies, because I can see so much of their comedy stratagems (with added silliness) employed here.

Didn’t Oscar Wilde borrow those ideas of mistaken identity/identity deception in his play, The Importance of Being Earnest? Part of his title was ‘Trivial Comedy’ and I found Goldsmith’s trivial comedy just as entertaining even without the one liners that Wilde is famous for.

The plot is almost irrelevant. More important has to be the interaction of the characters in producing the comedy. The play’s longevity in production compared with so many of its contemporaries is at least one indicator of its quality or at least its appeal to audiences through the ages.

[Brian E]

Trev wrote: "This was great fun.."

I thought so too. It was a surprising treat after what I considered the relatively mundane storytelling in The Vicar of Wakefield

Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Amy]

In response to Trev’s comment about Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest borrowing literary devices of mistaken identity - I agree. I’ll add so did his contemporary Brandon Thomas in Charley’s Aunt. I don’t know if they knew each other (apologies I haven’t looked it up.)
An aside: My high school performed this play when I was in 9th grade & I had the role of the REAL aunt. That was a lot of fun. Back in the 1970’s…

[Frances, Moderator]

Amy wrote: "In response to Trev’s comment about Wilde’s The Importance of being Earnest borrowing literary devices of mistaken identity - I agree. I’ll add so did his contemporary Brandon Thomas in Charley’s A..."

This would probably have been a fun play for a high school! I guess the whole mistaken identity thing is a pretty common trope, but it continues to delight in all sorts of settings-comedy, farce, drama, opera, and sometimes in real life!