Short Summary - She Stoops to Conquer : Oliver Goldsmith

  Short Summary - She Stoops to Conquer : Oliver Goldsmith

[alert-success] She Stoops to Conquer : Oliver Goldsmithn

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        Oliver Goldsmith's play She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy with five acts, a prologue, and an epilogue. It was first put on in London in 1773. The prologue starts with Mr. Woodward, who was a comic actor in Goldsmith's time, crying because he thinks comedy is dead. He hopes that Goldsmith's play will make him laugh, which will bring back the comedy arts. It's important to know that David Garrick, an actor and producer in the 1770s, wrote this prologue. 

        The play begins in Act One with Mr. Hardcastle. He has picked a husband for his daughter Kate, but she has never met him. Kate's future husband is a quiet, good-looking man who is the son of Sir Charles Marlow, an old friend of Mr. Hardcastle. Tony Lumpkin, Hardcastle's stepson, is daydreaming at the Three Pigeons Tavern in the second scene. 

        Marlow and Hastings, two men, show up and say that they are lost. They are looking for the house where Hardcastle lives. Tony decides to play a joke on them, so when he tells them how to get there, he says that his stepfather's house is an inn. He tells them that it's run by an eccentric man, who thinks he's a gentleman. Tony directs Marlow to Hastings to Hardcastle's house, by saying that it is an old inn. 

        In Act Two, Hardcastle calls his farmhands together and tells them that his future son-in-law, Marlow, is coming to visit. He tells the servants that they need to act like servants of a gentleman, which confuses them. On the way to Hardcastle's house, which Marlow thinks is an inn, he tells Hastings that he feels shy around proper women. 

        Marlow and Hastings are rude to Hardcastle when they get to his house because they think he runs the inn. Miss Constance Neville is the niece of Mrs. Hardcastle, and Hastings meets her. She tells him that they are not in a hotel but at Hardcastle's house. His answer is that he will try to get her to run away with him. She doesn't want to give up her inheritance, though. They come up with a plan to get her jewels so they can run away together. Hastings decides not to tell Marlow that he's not at an inn because Marlow would be embarrassed and ruin his and Constance's plans.
        Hastings brings Constance and Kate to meet Marlow, who is very shy around them. Kate doesn't like how quiet he is, even though he looks good, and she wonders if she can be happy as his wife. Hastings makes fun of Mrs. Hardcastle's lack of connections to London and its fashionable society when she shows up. Then, while talking to Tony, Hastings finds out that Tony's mother is pushing him to marry Constance so that the family can keep Constance's inheritance. Tony doesn't like the idea, so he tells Hastings that he will help him not only get Constance's inheritance back, but also run away with her.

        Act Three starts with Hardcastle again, who doesn't understand why his friend Sir Marlow would suggest his son for Kate when Hardcastle thinks young Marlow is rude. Kate's father and she talk about Marlow as if he were two different people. This is because Marlow is rude to Hardcastle, like he would be to an innkeeper, but he is quiet and shy around Kate because he knows she is a lady. Tony sends Constance's jewels to Hastings in the meantime. Constance asks Mrs. Hardcastle if she can wear her jewels, because she wants to take them with her when she runs away. Mrs. Hardcastle doesn't know about their plan. Tony tells his mother to tell Constance that the jewels have been lost, which she does.
        Kate finds out that Tony has been teasing Marlow and Hastings by telling them that the house is an inn. She doesn't tell the truth about the lie, but instead keeps it going. Marlow thinks that Kate is a bartender and starts to flirt with her. When Hardcastle sees them kissing, Marlow runs away, but Kate, who likes Marlow now, is sure she can show he is a good person.     

        Hastings and Constance request permission to get married, and since Tony is of legal age and has the freedom to refuse to wed Constance, the request is granted. Everyone is content, and the "mistakes of a night" have been fixed.
        The play has two epilogues, one of which metaphorically depicts Goldsmith's attempt to return comedy to its traditional roots and the other of which implies that Tony Lumpkin still has adventures in store for him.