The School for Scandal

Lady Teazle is a young woman from the country, who married Peter and moved to town with him. According to her and Peter, her life before marriage consisted of household chores, spending time with family, and living an idyllic pastoral life. However, once Lady Teazle moves to town, she is taken in by the luxury and excitement of upper-class society, specifically Sneerwell’s group. Her central desire, nonetheless, is independence, as Peter tries to control her behavior and prevent her growth as a character. Though she almost succumbs to Joseph’s seduction, Lady Teazle maintains a specific moral sense in the play, rejecting the idea of having an affair or criticizing her friends. Her arguments with Peter are essentially fights toward character growth, which she achieves by the end of the play.

Lady Teazle’s role in the play is to flesh out the microcosm of Lady Wormwood from the Prologue, which is spoken by the actor playing Peter. After engaging with the gossiping crowd, Lady Teazle finds herself at the center of a scandal concocted by Sneerwell. Once Peter reveals his plans to allow her independence and Charles reveals Joseph’s motivation to sleep with her, Lady Teazle realizes the error of her ways and repents.

In the Epilogue, Lady Teazle does not reject the humor and fun of life in town, but she does explain how gossip and scandal can backfire and damage even the reputations of the gossipers. As the only dynamic character, Lady Teazle grows from being rooted in the country, to relishing the extravagances of the town’s high life, to repenting and rejecting the immorality of Sneerwell’s crowd. In the Epilogue, Sheridan frames this growth as the kind of moral development he hopes the audience will take from the play.

Joseph Surface is a young man who grew up in Peter’s care with his brother, Charles Surface. Both Joseph and Charles’s last name, Surface, indicates the primary theme of the text: The Discrepancy Between Public Virtue and Private Vice.

Joseph, on the “surface,” is a moral and upstanding young man. He engages in proper formalities, does not waste his money, and promises to help others. However, in reality, he does not engage in actual charity, hoards his wealth, and gossips and spreads scandals with his friends. Joseph deceives Peter into thinking he is a good person, while simultaneously seducing Lady Teazle, trying to marry Maria for her money, and spreading rumors about Charles’s extravagance. Joseph is part of Sneerwell’s group, but he has an additional degree of immorality in that he does not engage with the group. Instead, Joseph and Sneerwell create rumors and scandals behind the scenes, which the group then spreads.

Joseph’s purpose in the play is as an antagonist, crafting the scandals that form the conflict of the play. He is an example of the kind of false morality that Sheridan is satirizing, as he follows the specific formalities and pleasantries of the upper classes. Joseph’s character is intended to highlight how proper behavior can serve as a mask for immorality, and few of the characters in the play see through his act. Oliver and Maria either intuit or observe Joseph’s false character, leading Maria to reject Joseph’s advances and Oliver to effectively disown him. However, Lady Teazle and Peter fall for Joseph’s tricks, which almost leads Peter to prevent Maria and Charles’s marriage, while also bringing Lady Teazle to the point of having an affair with Joseph.

Charles Surface is a young man who grew up in Peter’s care with his brother, Joseph Surface. As with Joseph, Charles’s last name—Surface— reflects The Discrepancy Between Public Virtue and Private Vice.

Charles, on the “surface,” is an immoral and extravagant libertine. Charles is the victim of rumors regarding his extravagance, but, unlike most of the gossip in the play, Charles largely lives up to his reputation. He gambles, drinks, and wastes money, though the text implies that he does not have affairs with women or engage with sex workers, as most libertines were known to do. However, in the critical moment of selling portraits, Charles refuses to sell Oliver’s portrait, and, in discussing women with Careless, Charles expresses his earnest love for Maria. These glimpses into Charles’s true character are arranged to show the audience that Charles’s libertinism is superficial, masking his true, moral character.

Charles is the opposite of Joseph, making them foils for each other. His role in the play is to show how seemingly immoral behavior can mask a moral character, which, as with Joseph’s immorality, only Oliver and Maria can see. Charles lives an honest life even amid his extravagance, which ultimately serves as Joseph’s undoing. When Charles defends himself against the accusation of an affair with Lady Teazle, he does not consider any negative consequence to revealing Joseph’s attempted affair with Lady Teazle, since he does not hide anything of himself. At the play’s end, Charles vows to reform his extravagant ways to be worthy of his new bride, Maria.

Sir Oliver Surface is Joseph and Charles’s uncle, and he is the source of their wealth following the death of their father. Oliver spent most of his life in other countries, such as India, but he supported Joseph and Charles financially out of familial love and duty.

In the events of the play, Oliver decides to visit Joseph and Charles to see if they are deserving of the wealth he has sent them over the years. Unlike Charles and Joseph’s characters, whose last name “Surface” indicates a character trait, Oliver literally presents himself on the “surface” as Premium and Stanley to deceive his nephews. Likewise, “Oliver” is a name that often represents hope, so Oliver can be seen as a hopeful character who tries to see past the “surface” of his nephews.

Oliver’s role in the play is a mix of mentor and trickster archetypes, both providing guidance for other characters and playing tricks on them. He ridicules Peter’s marriage, but he also urges Peter to reconcile with Lady Teazle. At the same time, he tricks Joseph and Charles, but he only does so to gauge their true characters. In each of his character roles, both Premium and Stanley, Oliver interjects asides that reveal his true feelings, such as his disgust at Charles’s extravagance, relief when Charles does not sell Oliver’s portrait, and disappointment as he sees through Joseph’s lies. In the end, though, Oliver is motivated by his feelings, forgiving Charles for refusing to sell Oliver’s portrait, even as Charles is willing to sell every other family heirloom in his possession.