Public and Private Character in She Stoops to Conquer

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Public and Private Character in She Stoops to Conquer Alexandra Krenus English 221 Dr. Greg Morgan October 25, 2013 In the eighteenth century there was a huge emphasis on a social etiquette known as “propriety” throughout the upper class. Propriety was an important element of what distinguished high society from other classes. In upper class society one was expected to put on a façade that was most likely different from ones true character. This was an idea commonly known as public and private character enforced by the rules of propriety. In the play She Stoops to Conquer Oliver Goldsmith he takes the idea of public and private character as defined by propriety and allows his characters to conduct themselves in a completely contradictory fashion of eighteenth century “proper character”. In the play there is one major plot line and one sub plot. The main plot follows Miss Kate Hardcastle who has to alter her public character in order to view the private character of Charles Marlow. The sub plot is the story of Miss Constance Neville and George Hastings who choose to not follow the practice of public characters and allow for everyone to view them through their private characters. The plot line of She Stoops to Conquer are solely dependent on people disregarding the proper protocol of propriety in the eighteenth century and allowing for a blurred distinction of private and public character. Propriety in eighteenth century England is described as “conformity to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals” by Oxford dictionaries. This was the idea that there needed to be a distinction between the true self and the way in which one was received by the public. In essence,, amongst those of the upper class rules of propriety were stronger than legalities and they encouraged the stifling of expressions of emotion in public. This is consistent with the
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