As Kate wants to woo Marlow, but Marlow’s fear of embarrassment leaves him too intimidated by upper-class women to get to know them, she realizes that she can only get his attention by deceiving him about her class background. Similarly, Kate fooling Marlow into believing that she is a barmaid could be seen as a cruel and humiliating prank, but Kate’s intentions are good. Hastings’ choice is ultimately vindicated, though, because allowing Marlow to behave in an embarrassing way for so long enables him to finally overcome his own shyness and vanity. ![]() This is an ambiguous moral choice, however, since Hastings-who is Marlow’s closest friend-knows that Marlow has come on this visit for the sole purpose of impressing the Hardcastles and will make a fool of himself if he goes on believing they are innkeepers. Though Hastings quickly learns of the deception, he decides to allow Marlow to persist in the misunderstanding because he fears Marlow will be too embarrassed if he learns the truth, and Marlow is unable to cope with embarrassment. For example, when Tony tricks Marlow and Hastings into believing that Sir Hardcastle’s home is an inn, he simply means to get the better of the men (whom he sees as uppity fops from the city) and to pull a funny prank on his stepfather in the process, not to hurt either of them. Although publicly humiliating Marlow in this way is somewhat cruel (particularly since this is a deep fear of his), the play never casts judgement on those who deceive him, as their actions are lighthearted and not meant to be cruel. Through being tricked into believing that Sir Hardcastle’s home is an inn and subsequently mistaking Kate for a barmaid, Marlow humiliates himself publicly, which paradoxically cures him of his worst flaws. ![]() The connection between deception, mistakes, and moral lessons is made clearest through Marlow, whose social and romantic life is crippled due by his shyness and his vain fear of embarrassment. That none of the play’s many tricks ever gets out of hand ensures that the play’s tone remains lighthearted (it is a comedy, after all), and allows the moral lessons that the characters learn to resonate more, since they’re not too hurt in the process of learning. Hardcastle also deceives Tony about his own age so that she can keep him under her control and continue to pressure him to marry Constance, but when Hardcastle recognizes the unfair way his wife is manipulating her son, he instantly tells Tony the truth. Tony, however, saves Constance from ruin by pulling her aside to reassure her of the jewelry’s whereabouts. Hardcastle pretends that Constance’s inherited jewelry has been lost because she wants to manipulate Constance into marrying Tony, thereby keeping the jewelry in her family. Not every act of deception in the play is lighthearted, but even tricks that are meant to manipulate others are always revealed before serious harm is done. Hardcastle’s naïveté and privilege, as the prank reveals that she is unable to recognize her own backyard. Toward the end of the play, Tony tricks his mother into believing that they are forty miles away in a dangerous neighborhood (when in fact they are in their backyard), which pokes fun at Mrs. This misunderstanding is played for comedic effect, particularly as Hardcastle (who views himself as wise, venerable, and dignified) struggles to make sense of Marlow’s insults. Hardcastle, who thinks that Marlow has come to his home to woo his daughter, is understandably shocked and confused by his guest’s rude and inappropriate behavior. ![]() ![]() For example, for the greater part of the play, Marlow mistakenly thinks Hardcastle is an innkeeper and treats him as an inferior. Throughout the play, seemingly harmless tricks and trivial mistakes accumulate into a tangled mess of misunderstandings. Thus, deception somewhat paradoxically enables them to see themselves and others for who they truly are. Most notably, Marlow’s rude and condescending treatment of the Hardcastles provides all the play’s upper-class characters an opportunity to become less vain and affected. More than simply humiliating these characters, however, the play’s deceptions prompt them to realize that they have misjudged themselves and their surroundings. As a comedy of manners, the play uses its deceptions to bring its most pretentious and uppity characters down to earth by stripping them of their pompous self-assurance. An improbable series of deceptions and misunderstandings about characters’ identities propels the plot of She Stoops to Conquer, and at the center of these deceptions is the protagonist Marlow’s mistaken belief that the Hardcastle family-an elite family he hopes to impress-are lowly innkeepers.
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