SIX MAJOR CHARACTORS OF THE PLAY SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

SIX MAJOR CHARACTORS OF THE PLAY SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Oliver Goldsmith’s (1728-1774) play “She Stoops Conquer” (1773) is a sentimental comedy. His method of characterisation is indirect. He sketches his characters indirectly through dialogues. By means of dialogues characters convey to u everything necessary for the fuller understanding of themselves. Now we are going to discuss about the six major characters of the play:- 1.MR. HARDCASTLE: Mr. Hardcastle is a stock-figure, a fine old man, who is fond of everything old. As he himself says, “I love everything that’s old; old friends, old time, old manners, old books, old wine.” He is good at heart and simple by nature. The familiarity of his servants, his tolerance of his wife’ whims or of the pranks of graceless Tony, show his kindness to all around him. In spite of being kind he is a humorous man too and so because of his for his old military stories. He also draws images from military matters. While speaking of the necessity of training his servants in table manners he says to Kate, “As we seldom see company they want as much as a company of recruits the first day master.” He is not only a humourist, but also has genial sense of humour and lively wit. When Mrs. Hardcastle expresses her apprehention that Tony is consumptive, he wittily remarks that he is consumptive “if growing too fat be one of the symptoms”. But although he is although a humorous man, has sense of self-respect. Being a self-respecting man, he feels insulted when anybody gives him the cold shoulder. He is touch the quick when Marlow and Hastings give a fig for his favourite stories of the Duke of Malborough and George Brooks and talk between themselves about the suit the will put on it going to court theirs loves, and when Marlow behaves with him impudently ordering him about. He complains to Kate, “He spoke to me as if he knew me all his life before…interrupted my best remarks with some silly pun; and when I was in my best story of the Duke of Malborough and Prince Engene, he asked if I had not a good hand at making punch.” His virtue of hospitality makes him remarkable. He goes as far as the gate to give Marlow and Hastings a hearty welcome. He sees that their horses and trunks are taken care of. He does his best to make them comfortable. He asks them to treat his house as the Liberty hall and to “do just as you please here.” Besides, Mr. Hardcastle is indirectly responsible for the initial blunder of Marlow in taking his house for an inn. The trick TONY plays on Marlow and Hastings is motivated by his step-father’s behaviour towards him. 2.YOUNG MARLOW: Marlow is an interesting creation of Goldsmith. A handsome young man born with a silver spoon in his mouth he has been bred a scholar ad is designed for an employment in the service of his country. He is generous, brave and a man of excellent understanding. He has travelled widely and has seen a lot of the world with his natural good sense; still he sadly wants in self-confidence. Marlow is a very singular character, as Miss Neville remarks, He has a strange duality in his nature. He is bashful and modest – an idiot and a trembler, as Hasting says— in the company of women of reputation; but he is free and saucy mong loose women like barmaids. Marlow’s bashfulness and lack of self-confidence are palpably seen in his first interview with Miss Hardcastle. No sooner is he introduced to her than he feels very shy and begins to fumble for the right things to say. Kate Hardcastle rightly remarks that there was never “such a sober, sentimental interview” between two lovers. To speak the truth, Marlow is a generous man. He may not care of honour in his dealing with women of easy virtue, such as barmaids, but he is decent enough not to corrupt a simple woman of virtue who has faith in him. He says to Miss Hardcastle playing a poor relation of the family: “I can never harbour a thought of seducing simplicity that trusted in my honour, of bringing ruin upon one whose only fault was being too lovely.” Marlow is a warm friend, though a cold lover. He loves Hastings dearly and does not miss any opportunity to further his friend’s happiness. Miss Neville, Hasting’s beloved, lives with the Hardcastles to whom he is unknown. Marlow has come to meet Hardcastle so that Hastings might get chance meet his love. Though gullible, Marlow has a fine sense of wit and humour. Humour enables him to derive pleasure from the fact of life. His speeches are remarked by humour and wit. In repay o Tony’s tortuous direction about the way to Mr. Hardcastle’s house Marlow say’s humorously, “We could soon find out the longitude.” His solicitude for a kiss on the lips of Kate is expressed through a fine wit: “Suppose I should call for a taste, just by the way of trial, of the nectar of your lips; perhaps I must disappointed in that too?” 3.TONY LUMPKIN: Tony Lumpkin is the most interesting character of the play. His name is well chosen, for Tony, short for Antony was a cant name for a simpleton. Yet he is no fool. He has plenty of low cunning, such as a spoiled child is likely to acquire if not restricted in the means to indulge himself as he grows older. Tony Lumpkin loves to play pranks o or mystify others. He is “a mere composition of tricks and mischief” as Mr. Hardcastle says. He describe Kate as “a tall, trapesing, trolloping, talkative a maypole” and himself as a “pretty, well-bred, agreeable youth, that everybody fond of.” He describe the countryside and country roads leading to Hardcastles house as dangerous and infested with brigands who break travellers’ head. He is a comic character and he is not a fool as many take him too be. He also has conventional sense of right and wrong. Besides, he is a spirited young man. He is full of life and vivacity He helps those who need help. Indeed he represents the eternal youth which braves the dangers and difficulties that come it way. The song which concludes Act II and which sings of triumph of youth is very characteristic of him: “We are the boys That fears no noise Where the thundering connons roar.” 4.MR. KATE HARDCASTLE: Miss Kate Hardcastle is the most interesting feminine creation of Goldsmith’s dramatic genius. The daughter of Hardcastle is a well accomplished woman. Though her fortune is but small, she has enough of physical charms to attract any young man. Marlow goes to raptures over her beauty: “Such fire, such eyes, such lips.” She is frank and free in her speech and conduct. She does not seek to conceal her thought and feelings. She complains her father that her father has reduced her marriage to a formal business matter by choosing Marlow to be her husband and leaving her to choice. Kate is really a good judge of character. Her assessment of her mother’ character is true. She is really tempted by Constace’s fortune. She correctly judges that “my brother holds out stoutly.” She has a fine sense of humour. She is also witty. Her wit comes out in her reply to Marlow’s call for taste of the nectar of her lips, “Nectar! Nectar! That’s liquor is no call for in these parts. French, I suppose. We sell no French wines here, sir.” She is lady of intellect. Unlike the heroine of sentimental comedy or her cousin Constsnce she is not subject t emotional fluxes. She does not respond to Marlow’s call for kiss, as Constance does to Hasting’s call for elopement. She is not a hesitating woman as Constance is. She does not change her decision under circumstances. In the face of her father’s insistence she does not agree to revise her first impression of Marlow because she things she is not mistaken in taking Marlow to be modest. 5.MRS.HARDCASTLE: Mrs.Hardcastle is a type of the foolish conceited and elderly country woman madly ruined after city fashions. She hates country life and everything that is old or old-fashioned. She is vain, foolish woman. She is on the wrong side of filthy, still she thinks herself young and beautiful. Greed for money is a dominant trait in her character. She wants to marry her son Tony to Miss Neville not for her physical or intellectual excellences, but for her fortune. She conceals the real age of Tony in collusion with her husband to keep Constance’s jewels in her hands. That she more than she does for her is borne out by the fact that she does not whine or cry when she hears of her elopement; rather she is satisfied that though Hastings has taken away the lady, he has not taken her fortune. She considers her jewels a compensation for her loss, “… that remains in this family to console us for her loss.” All though she is a doting mother, her love and concern for Tony know no bounds. She cannot send her to school, because “A school would be his death.” He is growing fat, but she thinks that he is a consumptive. 6. MISS NEVILLE: Miss Neville is a practical, worldly-wise woman. She loves Hastings and is eager to marry to him but she is not ready to lose her fortune. She thinks that “in the moment of passion fortune may be despised, but it ever produces a lasting repentance” She is prudent as well as tricky like Kate and Tony Lumpkin. She intrigues against her guardian Mrs. Hardcastle, to get her jewels. She lacks the boldness to stand by what she thinks right or does – the boldness that we find in Kate Hardcastle. She is a type of a girl of some spirit, ready to elope if she cannot otherwise marry as she wishes and to deceive her aunt to avoid oppression but equally ready to repent of complicity in a sinister design like elopement. ****************