Critical Analysis - School for Scandal : Sheridan

           Critical Analysis - School for Scandal : Sheridan

[alert-success] School for Scandal : Sheridan

[/alert-success]

[alert-primary] Critical Analysis [/alert-primary]

         School for Scandal was written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in 1777 at London's Drury Lane Theatre. In this play, England's high society and aristocracy are ruled by rumours and scandals, most of which are about sexual intrigue. Sheridan's plot is often seen as the best of the "comedy of manners" plays. It is a scathing rebuke of the lack of honour, loose morals, and arrogance of the idle rich, who spend their time in constant turmoil trying to get ahead and get ahead of their peers by ruining their good names. 

        The title of the play itself is suggestive as it gives hints about the general direction of the plot and the main idea of the play. The whole play is a satirical look at 18th-century British society and the lengths people are willing to go to get what they want.  

        Each character has a name that is obviously satirical. For example, Lady Sneerwell's main job is to spread lies and rumours about other people in order to get along with the people in her social circle while gleefully ruining their reputations. So, from a thematic point of view, there are two kinds of characters in the play: those who enjoy society as a place where scandals happen and those who don't. Through twists in the plot and verbal sparring, the characters try to find out the truth about each other. The fact that people's true identities are hidden is a second theme.

This play exposes the masks that a person carries in the society. The play looks at how people try to hide and how they end up being found out. As the real personalities of the characters are revealed, hypocrites are shown for what they really are, and wrong impressions and bad reputations are fixed. Some characters, like Maria, act in a moral way and are known for being good, while others, like Lady Sneerwell, act in an immoral way and are known for being bad. Most of the other characters, on the other hand, hide who they really are, either from themselves or from other people.  

         The Play is about a group of rich Londoners who spread rumours to have fun and get back at each other. The play gives hints about how bad it can be for men and women to have a bad reputation and how mean it is to spread rumours, but it doesn't try to teach a serious lesson about how bad it is to spread rumours.

        The School for Scandal is a work of sentimentalism from the eighteenth century, but it is also a satire of the problems with sentimentalism. When the play was written in the 1770s, people liked the idea of the "Man of Sentiment," whose actions were based on moral feelings and emotions instead of cold, logical thinking. It was admired to be kind, loyal, and loving to a fault, and it was seen as morally uplifting to say things in an eloquent way. In this situation, to be driven by sentiment meant to make decisions about what to do based on how you feel about a strong moral principle.  

       Sheridan shows the flaws of his society by using comedy with over-the-top situations, like people hiding in closets and behind screens so they won't be found, and clever language and dialogue. He does this by holding up a mirror to the people of his time and making them laugh at their own mistakes. Sheridan's play has been popular ever since it was first put on, and it remains the best example of comedic social satire.