Social Message / Comedy of Manners She Stoops To Conquer
About "She Stoops to Conquer" A.N. Jeffares writes, "there are many reasons for play's enduring popukarity, Goldsmith sets out to make us laugh and does so successfully. Side by side he provides a serious social message." The play is a timeless comedy, farcial in plot, but often shrewd in characterisation, realistic in illustration of human nature and social picture. "She Stoops To Conquer" aims at to convey a social message through the presentation of the 'folies and foibles' of man and women and as such it has an element of social criticism. But in the later part of the play the dramatist has lost sight of social criticism and concentrates on the element of fun so much so that the play becomes an entertaining comedy. In other words, Goldsmith's love for fun makes him turn a satire on social foibles into an entertaining comedy with a "serious social message."
When the curtain is drawn up, the play provides a satire on socail foibles - hypocrisy, vanity and affection that are resulted from the village women's imitation of town fashion and greed for wealth. Goldsmith feels sorry to see the age-old purity and simplicity of viaage life getting polluted by the imported traditions. His satire on hypocrisy on young men comes out when Miss. Neville says about Marlow, "Among women of reputation and virtue he is the modestest man alive; but his acquaintance give him a very different character among creatures of another stamp" [Act 1, Scene 1 - A Chamber in an old-fashioned House]
Goldsmith ridicules the contemporary craze for fashion through Mrs. Hardcastle. She wishes to visit London at least for a fortnight every season "to polish up their manners." Since she never goes to London. She gathers information about the latest fashion by reading "The Scandalous Magazine." Miss. Hardcastle is a young woman who alos imitates the latest Frech fashion in dress. Miss. Hardcastle is astonished to see the amount of fashionable splendour in her dress:- "What a quantity of superfluous silk hast thou got about thee, girl! I could never teach the fools of this age, that the indigent world could be clothed out of the trimmings of the vain."
She landed gentry lived a carefree life. As they were free from the necessity to earn a living, they did not take care to educate their sons properly. Tbe education of Tony is neglected and his mother says, "a good fortune. My son is not to live by his learnings." She also thinks, "A school would be his death." As a result he remains illiterate and cannot read a letter.
"She Stoops To Conquer" throws interesting side-light on the town-life of the time. In the towns ladies club were noted for gossips and scandal mongering and young men are admitted to them. The members made themselves merry the revelry. Marlow says to Kate, "Yes, as merry as cards, supper, wine and old women can make as."
Fornal social gatherings in mofley dress was a common entertaining phenomenon. Mrs. Hardcastle refers to it when he says to Kate, "He might as soon learn wit of a masquerade." Puppet shows were a popular source of entertainment.
Prof. A. Nicoll says about the play, "It is not a true comedy of manners; yet it owes part of its inspiration to the school of which Farquhar was one of the last true representatives." It attempts at a revival of the Restoration comedy of manners. It presents the follies and foibles, habits and manners, fashions and fads of the higher stars of the 18th century England. The men and women inhabiting the world of the "She Stoops To Conquer" were rich enough not to worry about the livelihood and their life is a continual round of pleasures, intrigues and amours. In 'She Stoops to Conquer' Goldsmith's main purpose is to create an entertaining comedy and adds to that or piece of social criticism.