Q: Do you think that ‘she stoops to conquer’ is
a sentimental comedy?
A: The comedy that actually focuses on the
pleasure of the audience and emphasizes the moral aspects of its situation is
known as the sentimental comedy. After
the five year of ‘comedy of manners’, sentimental comedy has come out. It is the reform of ‘comedy of manner’.
Written by Oliver
Goldsmith, the play named “She Stoops to Conquer” is considered as a
sentimental comedy. Through this play
Goldsmith mocks at the society of Eighteenth century in a very mild way. The
actual purpose of the dramatist is to make laugh for people.
Though the play is not
judged as a pure sentimental comedy, here are some reflections of the features
of sentimental comedy. As a result, this play is treated as a sentimental
comedy and the features are as follows-
In a sentimental comedy
‘tension’ is always found. Here, in this drama we can find tension all the
time. Firstly, we find tension in the dualism of Marlow that makes the audience
confused. We find, Marlow in tension when he meets Kate at first. He even can’t
continue his communication with her for shyness. On the other hand, we find
also Marlow in tension when he confesses his love to the bar-made. Because
their relationship will not acceptable in his upper class society. Secondly,
tension can be seen between Hastings and Neville. They love each other but all
their situations do not support them. So, they are getting prepare to elope.
For this reason we find Hastings is remaining in tension.
There are conflicts
between virtue and vice, which is another important feature of a sentimental
comedy. Here we can see the moral conflicts between Mr. Hardcastle and Mrs.
Hardcastle. Mr. Hardcastle is an old fashioned man, who loves everything old in
his life. He is a very simple man with moral sense. On the other hand we find
Mrs. Hardcastle as a complete snob. Her character is full with vanity. She
always tries to act as upper class London Lady. So, there are always clashes of
morality between them.
The sentimental
comedies are called moral comedies because the playwright purpose is to give
the moral sense to the audience. Here, Goldsmith criticizes his contemporary
society and the conflicts between upper and lower class through his witty and
ironical dialogue. By this he actually emphasizes the moral sense of human
being.
Sentimental comedy
actually deals with the middle class people. In this play we find Mr.
Hardcastle as a middle class man.
In sentimental comedy
there are the true absences of the spirit of comedy. As we can see the play of
Shakespeare “Twelfth Night” as a pure comedy play. There are humorous incidents happen all the time to make laugh
to the audience. But, here we can discover the absence of that spirit of
comedy.
Though the play is
considered as a sentimental comedy, but it has some lacking of feature of a
perfect sentimental comedy. Through this play, Goldsmith tries to break down
the tie of upper class bond with his wit and ironical dialogues. The play
mainly is considered as a half sentimental comedy by following some important aspect
of pure sentimental comedy.
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