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Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

She Stoops to Conquer

by Oliver Goldsmith

1773

Drama

Comedy

When two young men mistake their host's home for a country inn, confusion ensues, but, typical of comic drama, the play concludes with enlightenment, reconciliation, and the prospect of marriages.

Charles Marlow, bashful with women of his own class but uninhibited with those of lower rank, is traveling to meet Kate Hardcastle, his prospective wife. He is accompanied by Hastings, who loves Constance Neville, a niece and ward of Kate's mother.

When they stop at an alehouse for directions, Tony Lumpkin, Mrs. Hardcastle's son, directs them for lodging to a supposed inn, which really is the Hardcastle home.

When they arrive, Hastings sees Miss Neville and learns that Tony duped them; however, he does not tell Marlow, thus setting the stage for Marlow's pursuit of Kate, whom his father has chosen for him, but whom he thinks is a servant.

Hastings and Constance want to wed, but her aunt hopes to match Tony with the girl. Since Tony does not want to marry, he helps orchestrate Constance's elopement.

In the final act, Tony again demonstrates that though illiterate, he is not an oaf, and he cleverly forestalls his mother's attempt to remove Constance to another aunt for safekeeping. The arrival of Marlow's father also moves the plot to its proper conclusion, for he and Hardcastle confront the young man with the real identity of the girl he has been wooing.

Mrs. Hardcastle finally releases Constance's inheritance when Hardcastle's revelation that Tony is of age enables the young man to renounce Constance as his prospective wife. All are reconciled and look forward to the two marriages.

Goldsmith's play is a rejection of the morally uplifting sentimental comedy popular through much of the 18th century and a return to the older tradition of laughing comedy. Therefore, it is more closely related in subject matter and technique to Shakespeare's comedies and those of the Restoration than to its 18th century predecessors.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Goldsmith, Oliver. "She Stoops To Conquer." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0495.
APA 7th
Goldsmith, O. (2015). She Stoops to Conquer. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Goldsmith, Oliver. "She Stoops To Conquer." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.