She Stoops to Conquer

Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer opened on March 15, 1773. The wildly successful play focuses on the follies that all humans are prone to. She Stoops to Conquer is the story of the relationship between young Londoners Charles Marlow and Kate Hardcastle. Marlow misperceives the Hardcastle mansion to be an inn, therefore acting very rudely to Kate and her father, whom he believes to be employees at the inn. Kate responds to this behavior by playing the part of a barmaid until Marlow declares his love for her. Through the many farcical elements and ironic twists, She Stoops to Conquer acts as a bastion of “laughing comedy,” the genre Goldsmith proposed in response to the prevalence of “sentimental comedy.” The frequent reproduction of She Stoops to Conquer to this day indicates of the ongoing appeal of “laughing comedy” over “sentimental comedy.”