She Stoops to Conquer

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1773

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Summary

Background

Act Summaries & Analyses

Act I

Act II

Act III

Act IV

Act V

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Themes

The Instability of Social Class Identity

She Stoops to Conquer questions whether social class is an innate quality or a learned behavior. Throughout the play, various upper-class characters are mistaken for members of the working class, destabilizing the notion that there is any definitive difference between the aristocracy and the common people. Goldsmith suggests through these moments of confused identity that class is determined not only by family, but by behavior, manners, and aesthetic signifiers like decoration and dress. Therefore, he invites the possibility that a person should be valued based on their virtues rather than their birth.

At the beginning of the play, the upper-class Tony Lumpkin goes to a local inn to drink and socialize with laborers, engaging in the same types of lower-class pursuits that they enjoy and initiating a blurring of class boundaries. Tony has no interest in receiving an education that might make him more like a typical nobleman, and he instead sings a silly song about preferring the life at the inn. However, his lower-class companions still perceive his behavior to be aristocratic. One remarks, “the genteel thing is the genteel thing any time: if so be that a gentleman bees in a concatenation accordingly” (13). Tony's friends argue that because he was born a gentleman, anything he does must therefore be genteel. However, this line is comedically undermined by Tony's behavior. Through this interaction, Goldsmith questions if it is birth or behavior that makes someone a gentleman.

The interactions between Kate and Marlow indicate the extent to which perceptions of social class determine one's behavior, but also how those perceptions are sometimes based entirely on outward appearances. When Marlow mistakes Kate for a bar-maid initially, it is entirely because of her clothing. She later plays into his incorrect assumption by changing her accent, relying on the exterior signifiers of class to convince him that she is a servant. However, she points out that he treats her entirely differently than he did when he thought she was an upper-class lady. When he flirts with her and tries to kiss her, she interjects, “I'm sure you did not treat Miss Hardcastle, that was here awhile ago, in this obstropalous manner. I'll warrant me, before her you looked dashed, and kept bowing to the ground, and talked, for all the world, as if you was before a justice of peace” (55). Marlow justifies his flirting and brashness to Hastings later, telling him, “we all know the honour of a bar-maid at an inn. I don't intend to rob her, take my word for it; there's nothing in this house I shan't honestly pay for” (60). When there is an expectation that Marlow will pay for a service, rather than be offered hospitality, he feels more confident in taking exactly what he wants. This includes a sexual relationship with the bar-maid, whom he assumes would not be a virgin and therefore morally acceptable to seduce.

While Marlow clearly treats people differently based on their class, being shyer and more reserved once he learns that the house is not an inn, Kate points out that he evaluates class entirely on aesthetic factors. Marlow had no suspicion that the house was not an inn due to its old-fashioned decorations and he assumed that Kate was a bar-maid based on her dress. She tells him at the end of the play, “I'm sure there's nothing in my behaviour to put me on a level with one of that stamp” (65). Kate acted in the same modest and upstanding manner that she did previously when she was dressed as a lady, only altering her dress and her speech. Thus, Goldsmith indicates that overreliance on the outward features of class, usually those determined by wealth and education, will sometimes lead to confusions and mistakes. Ultimately, this destabilizes the divisions of class based on inheritance, indicating that what truly makes Kate a fit match for Marlow is her virtuous behavior.

The Deceptive Nature of Appearances

Goldsmith suggests throughout She Stoops to Conquer that everyone engages in some degree of deception in order to get what they want, but that lies are ultimately unsustainable and truth will become apparent in the long-run. Many characters in the play attempt to counterfeit an appearance or impression that is in some way untrue, but eventually their real character is always made apparent. Lying is both a temporary and an undesirable state to be in, although it has its uses to achieve social goals.

Appearances and first impressions frequently serve as a source of confusion. Appearances mislead Mr. Hardcastle because of a lack of contextual information, rather than a deliberate deception. When Mr. Hardcastle first meets Marlow, he forms his opinion based on their first encounter, deciding that he is rude and an unsuitable son-in-law. He tells Kate, “the first appearance has done my business. I'm seldom deceived in that” (46). However, Mr. Hardcastle's evaluation is incorrect, as he does not understand the deeper reasons for Marlow's impudent behavior: Marlow does not intend to be brash, he is simply operating as though he were in an entirely different social context. Therefore, Mr. Hardcastle's belief in the importance of first impressions and the logic of normal polite manners fails to capture the truth of Marlow's temperament.

While appearances are sometimes deliberately manipulated by characters seeking to deceive others, Goldsmith hints that this causes problems and will eventually lead to exposure. In the first Act of the play, Tony attempts to lie to Marlow and Hastings about his own reputation, telling them that he is beloved by all while Kate is tall, squinting, and awkward. However, this lie cannot be sustained because of too much contradictory information that Marlow and Hastings have received from others. They tell Tony, “our information differs in this. The daughter is said to be well-bred and beautiful; the son an awkward booby, reared up and spoiled at his mother's apronstring” (16). Constance and Hastings's elopement and Marlow's misunderstanding about the house also fall apart eventually due to a failure to control information. Mrs. Hardcastle's attempt at deception backfires on her because she is not aware that Tony is also involved in a trick. She attributes his dismissive reaction to the news that the jewels have vanished to stupidity, lamenting, “was there ever such a blockhead, that can't tell the difference between jest and earnest?” (51) when ironically, she is the one who cannot discern that Tony is joking rather than honestly confused.

These failed tricks indicate that attempts to deliberately alter a person's behavior in order to achieve a goal are a temporary method at best. At the end of the play, Constance admits that since her father's death she has been “obliged to stoop to dissimulation to avoid oppression” (90). Deception is equated with “stooping,” the term used in the play's title to refer to lowering one's social status. While many of the characters “stoop” in order to “conquer,” lying to accomplish their goals, Constance's line points out that she did not enjoy lowering herself in this manner. She prefers to end the play with honesty, and only when all secrets are revealed can the play conclude happily. Through this, Goldsmith suggests that while characters may debase themselves by lying about their true character, truth will eventually become obvious and everyone will be evaluated based on their real worth.

Conflict Between the Old and the New

She Stoops to Conquer portrays a persistent conflict between the old and the new, often realized through a difference between the older and younger generations. The end of the play seems to resolve this tension, as the parents and children are finally at peace with one another, but the presence of constantly changing fashions and trends lingers on. Goldsmith explores how the old and new will always come into conflict, while hinting at the ways in which his own time was one of particularly rapid and sometimes unsettling change.

At the beginning of the play, Mr. Hardcastle declares his affiliation with the old, in opposition to his wife and daughter. He declares, “I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine; and I believe, Dorothy (taking her hand), you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife” (5-6). The love of old things is affiliated with loyalty and marital constancy in his mind, while newness is like a disease spreading from foreign shores and into the countryside via the metropolis of London. He complains about his daughter, Kate, claiming, “the fashions of the times have almost infected her too. By living a year or two in town, she is as fond of gauze and French frippery as the best of them” (8, emphasis added). Mr. Hardcastle affiliates newness with France and with the urban center of London, suggesting that the countryside is a more old-fashioned place as well as a more English place.

However, the old-fashioned nature and Englishness of Mr. Hardcastle's house backfires on him—it is mistaken for an inn rather than a gentleman's estate due to the decoration. When Marlow and Hastings arrive, they discuss how many large mansions that once belonged to aristocrats have been converted into inns, saying that this is “the usual fate of a large mansion. Having first ruined the master by good housekeeping, it at last comes to levy contributions as an inn” (21). Their assessment hints that the times are rapidly changing for the local English gentry, forcing them out of their ancestral homes due to the expense of managing such a large house. This implies that the English pastoral economy is becoming more mercantile, more urban, and more connected to foreign influences.

At the end of the play, the elder generation is brought into accord with the younger generation, suggesting that parents must compromise with their children to preserve what matters. Mr. Hardcastle often bargains with his daughter, allowing her to dress in modern clothing for part of the day and to choose her own husband. Mr. Hardcastle tells Marlow's father, Sir Charles Marlow, that he seeks to bring together the couple because “this union of our families will make our personal friendships hereditary” (76). His priority is to carry on the legacy of friendship, and that requires the cooperation of the younger generation. He is willing to compromise with Kate, knowing that he needs her to help pass on the old ways that matter most to him.

Similarly, Tony Lumpkin represents how the younger generation can result in the passing on of undesirable traits as well. When Mrs. Hardcastle admonishes her son for playing a trick on her, Tony replies that she was the one who spoiled him with her lack of discipline. Mr. Hardcastle remarks, “there's morality, however, in his reply” (85), suggesting that Tony is correct to scold his mother for having made him an undesirable child. Since children are an integral part of passing down traditions, She Stoops to Conquer explores how important it is for parents to properly raise their children and to arrange a compromise between old and new things. While new fashions and changing trends are inevitable, the Hardcastles do pass on old inherited traits through their children, for better and for worse.