Analysis Pages
Character Analysis in She Stoops to Conquer
Charles Marlow: Charles Marlow, the play’s central male character, is a modest and well-educated man who has set out to court Kate Hardcastle. Believing the Hardcastle home to be an inn, Marlow is rude to Mr. Hardcastle, whom he thinks is the innkeeper. Marlow is extremely shy around upper-class women, becoming a nervous, bumbling fool in their presence. But around women below his status, he becomes a confident and dashing rogue.
Miss Kate Hardcastle: Miss Hardcastle is the other central character and the one who does the titular stooping. The daughter of Mr. Hardcastle, she shows her father great respect and love. Unlike Mr. Hardcastle, she appreciates the town and all it offers. Kate is cunning, posing as a maid to deceive Marlow—attracted as he is to women of lower status—into falling in love with her. Kate sees that in order for her relationship with Marlow to blossom, she must drastically alter her personality.
George Hastings: George is a friend of Marlow’s and the lover of Miss Constance Neville. He intends to elope to France with Constance, but she will not leave without the jewels she inherited. Therefore, George and Constance enter into an agreement with Tony Lumpkin to retrieve the jewels.
Tony Lumpkin: Tony Lumpkin is Mrs. Hardcastle’s son and Mr. Hardcastle’s stepson. He is a mischievous and uneducated playboy who is fond of gambling and performing at the alehouse. Lumpkin is promised in marriage to Constance Neville, his cousin. However, because he despises Constance, he goes to great lengths to help her and Hastings elope to France. The joke that he plays on Marlow—convincing him that the Hardcastle home is an inn—is the central deception that drives the plot forward.
Mr. Hardcastle: Mr. Hardcastle is a level-headed man who is in love with all things old. He despises the town and its follies, preferring instead to recount the tales of his time at war. He cares very deeply for his daughter, and he is the one who arranges the marriage between Kate and Marlow. Despite being greatly insulted by Marlow’s initial treatment of him, he manages to keep his temper and, after realizing the deception and misunderstanding at work, forgives Marlow and consents to Marlow’s marriage to Kate.
Mrs. Hardcastle: The mother of Tony and the wife of Mr. Hardcastle, Mrs. Hardcastle is a corrupt and greedy widow. She desires the socialite lifestyle of the London elite and often complains that she and her husband never entertain. She spoils Tony, and her love for him blinds her to his flaws. She promises Tony to Constance in marriage in an attempt to keep her inheritance within the family and to take advantage of Constance’s social standing. Mrs. Hardcastle’s greed and vanity prevents her from seeing Tony’s dislike of Constance.
Miss Constance Neville: Constance is in love with Hastings and wants to elope with him. However, she is hesitant because she does not want to lose her precious jewels, which she inherited from her uncle, an East India Company director. Therefore, she and Hastings collaborate with Tony agree to take the jewels away from the greedy Mrs. Hardcastle.
Sir Charles Marlow: A minor character, Sir Charles Marlow is the one who recommended his son, the other Charles Marlow, to his old friend Mr. Hardcastle as a suitable husband.
Character Analysis Examples in She Stoops to Conquer:
Act The First
🔒"trapesing, trolloping, talkative maypole..." See in text (Act The First)
"unaccountable reserve..." See in text (Act The First)
"fifteen hundred a year..." See in text (Act The First)
"grumbletonian..." See in text (Act The First)
"as they mayn't be good enough company for you..." See in text (Act The First)
"I'll be no bastard..." See in text (Act The First)
"SONG..." See in text (Act The First)
"though I am obligated to dance a bear..." See in text (Act The First)
"Besides, as she has the sole management of it..." See in text (Act The First)
"but his acquaintance give him a very different character among creatures of another stamp..." See in text (Act The First)
"Yet now I look again..." See in text (Act The First)
"sheepish..." See in text (Act The First)
"they want as much training as a company of recruits the first day's muster..." See in text (Act The First)
"set my cap to some newer fashion..." See in text (Act The First)
"I'll never control your choice..." See in text (Act The First)
"that the indigent world could be clothed out of the trimmings of the vain..." See in text (Act The First)
"But is not the whole age in a combination to drive sense and discretion out of doors..." See in text (Act The First)
"spins the pewter platter..." See in text (Act The First)
"Little Aminadab..." See in text (Act The First)
"Ay, you have taught him finely. ..." See in text (Act The First)
"to years of discretion yet..." See in text (Act The First)
Act The Second
🔒" I'm in love with the town, and that serves to raise me above some of our neighbouring rustics;..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Bandbox..." See in text (Act The Second)
"I never see you when you're in spirits..." See in text (Act The Second)
"He falls out before faces to be forgiven in private..." See in text (Act The Second)
"but I'm told the ladies intend to bring up fifty for the ensuing winter..." See in text (Act The Second)
"with his usual Gothic vivacity..." See in text (Act The Second)
"the Pantheon, the Grotto Gardens, the Borough..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Ranelagh, St. James's, or Tower Wharf..." See in text (Act The Second)
"coquetting him to the back scene..." See in text (Act The Second)
"I beg you'll proceed..." See in text (Act The Second)
"there are few that do not condemn in public what they practise in private..." See in text (Act The Second)
"I understand you perfectly, sir..." See in text (Act The Second)
"as yet have studied--only--to--deserve them..." See in text (Act The Second)
"You don't consider..." See in text (Act The Second)
"to complete my embarrassment..." See in text (Act The Second)
"they called on their return to take fresh horses here..." See in text (Act The Second)
"the India director..." See in text (Act The Second)
"my hopeful cousin's..." See in text (Act The Second)
"This may be modem modesty, but I never saw anything look so like old-fashioned impudence..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Joiners' Company, or the corporation of Bedford..." See in text (Act The Second)
"The devil, sir..." See in text (Act The Second)
"All upon the high rope..." See in text (Act The Second)
"For supper, sir..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Well, this is the first time I ever heard of an innkeeper's philosophy..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Half the differences of the parish are adjusted in this very parlour..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Warm work, now and then, at elections, I suppose..." See in text (Act The Second)
"A very impudent fellow this..." See in text (Act The Second)
"So this fellow, in his Liberty-hall..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Punch, sir..." See in text (Act The Second)
"I'll pawn my dukedom, says he, but I take that garrison without spilling a drop of blood..." See in text (Act The Second)
"Duke of Marlborough, when we went to besiege Denain..." See in text (Act The Second)
"I intend opening the campaign with the white and gold..." See in text (Act The Second)
"with my back to the fire..." See in text (Act The Second)
"and yet to converse with the only part of it I despise..." See in text (Act The Second)
"They are of US, you know..." See in text (Act The Second)
"an inn..." See in text (Act The Second)
"The Englishman's malady..." See in text (Act The Second)
"without ever stirring from home..." See in text (Act The Second)
Act The Third
🔒"that my duty as yet has been inclination..." See in text (Act The Third)
" I never nicked seven that I did not throw ames ace three times following..." See in text (Act The Third)
"Rattle..." See in text (Act The Third)
"Mrs. Langhorns..." See in text (Act The Third)
"Lady Betty Blackleg, the Countess of Sligo..." See in text (Act The Third)
"My name is Solomons; Mr. Solomons..." See in text (Act The Third)
"obstropalous..." See in text (Act The Third)
"sprightly malicious eye..." See in text (Act The Third)
"I think she squints..." See in text (Act The Third)
"examine the giant's force before I offer to combat..." See in text (Act The Third)
"Stick to that: ha! ha! ha! stick to that..." See in text (Act The Third)
"Just to be permitted to show them as relics..." See in text (Act The Third)
"plainly dressed..." See in text (Act The Third)
Act The Fourth
🔒"From a reverie..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"your constancy for three years..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"I shall expect an explanation..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"with baskets..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"that would but disgrace correction..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
" it's of all the consequence in the world..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"as if it was disguised in liquor..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"But here are such handles, and shanks..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"my aunt Pedigree's..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"I STOOPED TO CONQUER..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"But I owe too much to the opinion of the world, too much to the authority of a father..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"and I can never harbour a thought of seducing simplicity that trusted in my honour..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"since I have no fortune but my character..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"But I was in for a list of blunders, and could not help making you a subscriber..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"a silly puppy..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"I'll drink for no man before supper, sir..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"We all know the honour of the bar-maid of an inn..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"shadow me with laurels..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"What right have you to bid me leave this house, sir..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"I ordered them not to spare the cellar..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
"As a guinea in a miser's purse..." See in text (Act The Fourth)
Act The Fifth
🔒"you are now driven to the very last scene of all your contrivances..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"the whining end of a modern novel. ..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"I never attempted to be impudent yet, that I was not taken down..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"tall squinting lady..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"Do you think I could ever catch at the confident addresses of a secure admirer..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"I will make my respectful assiduities atone for the levity of my past conduct..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"Nor shall I ever feel repentance but in not having seen your merits before..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"Prudence once more comes to my relief, and I will obey its dictates..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"all the parish says you have spoiled me, and so you may take the fruits on't..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"Do you think I could ever relish that happiness which was acquired by lessening yours..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"I must remain contented with the slight approbation of imputed merit..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"But if you had run me through the guts, then I should be dead, and you might go kiss the hangman..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"all my happiness in him must have an end..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"he never sat for the picture..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"This fellow's formal modest impudence is beyond bearing..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"Really, sir, I have not that happiness..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"My son is possessed of more than a competence already..." See in text (Act The Fifth)
"hereditary..." See in text (Act The Fifth)