Summary for She Stoops to Conquer by Goldsmith

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She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer or The Mistakes of the Night is a comedy play written by Oliver Goldsmith. It was first performed in London in 1773. The purpose of the prologue is to make the audience laugh. “I give it up--morals won't do for me; To make you laugh, I must play tragedy”.

She Stoops to Conquer Themes

  • Mistakes and Deceptions.
  • Class and Geography.
  • Courtship and Love.
  • Parents and Children.
  • Fashions and Tastes.

 

The play centers around the desire of Hardcastle, a wealthy landowner in the country, for his daughter, Kate Hardcastle, to marry the well-educated Marlow. Together with Marlow's father, Sir Charles Marlow, arrange for the younger Marlow to visit the Hardcastle's house and court Kate.

Tony Lumpkin deceives Marlow and Hastings by telling them that Hardcastle’s house is an inn. When Marlow and Hastings arrive, Marlow treats Hardcastle’s family with disrespect, falsely believing them to be servants there. Marlow feels shy around ladies of noble birth.

Kate to get to the bottom of his true character, disguises herself as a maid and comedy succeeds as Marlow makes love to the “barmaid” and disregards her father. Meanwhile, George Hastings is thrilled to find his true love with Constance Neville, living at the Hardcastle’s house. Through the scheming of Mrs. Hardcastle, she is owed to marry Tony, despite their mutual dislike of each other.

Finding a way to get out of his marriage, Tony helps Constance to regain her inheritance and gets his mother out of the way, dumping her in a local horse pond. Finally, as Marlow’s father arrives, all is put to right and Charles Marlow is ashamed by his behavior. Forgiven by all, the two couples find happiness with each other, and Tony successfully gains his rightful inheritance without an unwanted engagement.

A main moral message of this play is that truth does not necessarily appear on the surface, but has to be searched out. The words "she stoops to conquer" come from a Dryden poem. The heroine in this novel stoops down as a barmaid to understand the modest quality of the hero. Thus “She Stoops to Conquer” is a wonderful comic play from the 18th century written by Oliver Goldsmith.

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