Question : Essay-type
Who do you think is the central in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’? Support your answer.
Introduction
Tony Lumpkin is undoubtedly the most interesting character of Goldsmith’s play ‘She Stoops to Conquer’. But for him the action could not have the start in the manner that it does. It is his funny mischief-making with a view to playing pranks upon his ‘cross-grained, old-fashioned, whimsical’ step father and also upon Marlow for unconsciously calling him ‘an awkward booby’, that sets the play motion.
Dramatic Function Of Tony Lumpkin
Tony knows that Marlow is the young man who is going to his step-father’s house to court his step-daughter, according to arrangement. So he takes a direct and active part in getting the main love episode in motion.
Again Tony plays a more important part in helping his cousin Miss Neville to be united to her lover Hastings, while Tony’s mother is bent upon seeing that he marriages Miss Neville for her jewels. Tony has set his heart upon his favorite girl, Bet Bouncer. It is Tony who steals Miss Neville’s jewels from the custody of his mean contriving mother in order to speed Miss Neville’s elopement with Hastings. But when for his mistake the theft is discovered and the jewels go back to his mother’s hand, he arranges for the elopement by taking his mother and his cousin round and round the house, and at last rounding his mother in the horsepond.
We see that but for Tony Lumpkin the whole plot would have fallen to pieces and both Marlow and Hastings would have a different cause to follow.
Besides, we are to note that in a comedy it is not the love episodes that give it life and spirit. Laughter at the discomfiture of the intrigues, satire on the follies and foibles of characters are the chief elements in a joyous comedy. Hearty-mirth and gentle in offensive ridicule make the spirit of a comedy. It is through mirth and fun that the audiences expect to see that all’s well that ends well. In achieving these effects of a comedy Tony Lumpkin is indispensable. He alone is the key-stone of the arch upon which the whole comedy is built. It is Tony who, as the powerhouse, gives motion to the different episodes and characters in the play. In fact he is the most interesting character in the play round whom the main incidents of the comedy are woven by the dramatist. Almost all the comic scenes of the play owe to him.
Conclusion
We may not agree to give Tony Lumpkin the technical title of the hero of the comedy, because in the two love episodes which make up the theme of the comedy, it is Marlow and Hastings who engage our interest and not Tony Lumpkin. Besides, Miss Hardcastle is the center and main spring of the main-plot of the play, and upon her device of stooping to conquer Marlow the whole plot hinges. Still there is no gainsay in the fact that Tony is the central character of the play. As a matter-of-fact ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ is a comedy without hero. The comedy is dominated by the heroine. Still Tony engages the interest of the audience from the beginning. He is the connecting link between the two plots. Both the two plots of the play become what they are by the action of Tony. So Tony is the chief figure and the chief interest in the play.
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Related Questions
1️⃣ Comment on the dramatic function of Tony Lumpkin in Goldsmith’s ‘She Stoops to Conquer’.
2️⃣ Discuss the character of Tony Lumpkin and his role in ‘She Stoops to Conquer’.
3️⃣ Discuss the intrigues of Tony Lumpkin and their significance and connecting links in the plot.
4️⃣ How does Tony play a significant role to interlink the sub-plot and the main-plot of Goldsmith’s ‘She Stoops to Conquer’?
