She Stoops to Conquer-Socail and Psychological Contrasts

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Social and Psychological Contrasts in "SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER" Social Contrasts in the Play: When the play opens the audience is immediately presented with some contrasts. Mrs Hardcastle laments the fact that they never go to town, while her husband thinks the people of the town foolish. Mr Hardcastle clearly represents old-fashioned values, and is entirely unashamed of this, whereas Mrs Hardcastle likes to think she is more modern, although it is implied that she is rather pretentious. Their conflicting attitudes are concisely illustrated in these antithetical statements. Mrs Hardcastle, speaking of her husband's long-winded stories as a method for entertaining guests, states: I hate such old-fashioned trumpery. Her husband replies: And I love it. I love everything that's old: old friends, old manners, old books. old wine But despite the fact that Mrs Hardcastle considers herself to have a modern approach to life, in matters of importance she is the most old-fashioned character of the play. Both Mr Hardcastle and Sir Charles Marlow are concerned that their offspring marry someone they can be happy with and make it clear that they do not wish to force anyone into an unwanted marriage. Contrariwise, Mrs Hardcastle is intent on marrying her son Tony to Constance Neville because she wishes Constance's jewels to remain within the family. The fact that the only thing which Constance and Tony have in common is a mutual dislike is not a consideration for her, in fact she does not even notice. In many works of literature contrast between the different social classes is employed. In this play it is not so much the difference between classes which is explored, but rather the extremely different ways in which certain characters treat people according to which class they belong to. This creates many opportunities for humour as there are characters who are of a
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