Assignment Paper no 2 : Anti-Sentimental Comedy

Assignment   

Name              : Pina Gondaliya

Course            : M.A. Sem – 1 

Paper no         : 2 The Neoclassical Literature 

Topic              : Characteristics of Anti-Sentimental Comedy
with reference to “She Stoops To Conquer”

Email id          : Pinagondaliya09@gmail.com 

Enrollment no : 2069108420200012

Submitted to   : Smt.S.B. Gardi Department of English   
          M.K.University.

Introduction :

First we look at how the word of comedy is drive. The word
“Comedy” IS derived from the French word comedie,which in turn
is taken from the Greeco-Latin word Comedia. The word comedia
is made of two words Komos, which means that revel and aiden
means to sing.

Definition of comedy :

According to the Oxford Dictionary, comedy means is a branch of
drama, which deals with everyday life and humorous events. It
means that a play of light and amusing type of theatre. Generally we
can defined  Comedy as a play with a happy ending. The most
important function of comedy is to provide pleasure and
entertainment to the readers. The reader is forced to laugh at the
follies of various characters in the comedy. 

            


 
                                   



            

Sentimental Comedy	Anti-Sentimental Comedy
Sentimental comedy is weeping comedy . Evoking of emotion. Sentimental Comedy in middle class character. In the play almost character are good  Nearer to tragedy  Best known sentimental comedy of Richards Steels , “ The Conscious Lover” “ School for Scandal” in the use of three type of irony.	Anti-Sentimental Comedy is laughing Comedy. Evoking of people vulgarity. Anti-Sentimental Comedy is High class people come . In the play character almost Sophisticated and arrogant. Nearer to comedy Best known Anti-Sentimental comedy of Sheridhan , “The Rivals” “She Stoops to Conquer” In the three elements that are existed in the sentimental play.

  Sentimental and Anti-sentimental comedy is written by Goldsmith and Sheridan. The sentimental comedy of 18th century was against the comedy of manners. Sentimental comedy is kind of comedy that achieved some popularity with respectable middle class audience in 18th century.We can say that Anti-sentimental comedy is reaction against sentimental comedy.Generally the Anti-sentimental comedy focuses on major character as lover and it is divided into subplot like the dramatic way and the relations with the pathos.

Anti-Sentimental  comedy :

Above we see that Anti-sentimental comedy is a reaction against sentimental comedy. The comedy of humour which goldsmith and Sheridan cultivate in eighteenth century was the reaction against the sentimental comedy of Clibber, Stheel, Kelly. Goldsmith opposed sentimental comedy because it place of laughter and humour. So, this way is new and success output in Anti-sentimental comedy, it takes old forms of    manner, which is also called, generally for Anti-sentimental comedy.

Anti- Sentimental Comedy is going to old forms, it is a low force, situational humour. It is high polished in restoration comedy. It is a kind of comedy representing complex and sophisticated code of behaviour current in fashionable circles of society, where appearance counts for more character. Its plot usually revolves around intrigues of lust and greed, the self-interested cynicism of the characters being masked by decorous preteens. 

Anti-Sentimental Comedy is comedy of manners less the vulgarity and profanity. We know that it deals with the relation and intrigues and many more things.

Characteristics of Anti-Sentimental Comedy :

Characteristics of Anti-Sentimental Comedy

Amusing intrigues and situations Satirical comedy  Marriage for love and money Wit of language and verbal dialogue  Face and disguise  Emotions have boundaries

Here we can see some characteristics of Anti-sentimental comedy. Anti-sentimental comedy includes wit, laughter,farce, irony, disguise. Let we see the characteristic in brief.

Wit is a form intelligent humour, the ability  to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Author choose words very clearly which produce fun. Laughter is the soul of comedy and the main function of comedy is to give laughter which Anti-sentimental comedy fulfills but not sentimental comedy. The third characteristic of Anti-sentimental comedy is farce. The main aim of farce comedy is that entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated. While the irony is the usage of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning which helps to create laughter. 

The last characteristic is disguise which used in Anti-sentimental comedy as an important tool. It is something like to modify the manner or appearance of a person through wig, glasses, makeup,costume or other ways. 

Now let us we see the “She stoops to conquer by Oliver Goldsmith .

She Stoops to Conquer  by Oliver Goldsmith :  

Oliver Goldsmith was undoubtedly a Irish novelist , Author and famous playwright. He took up several menial jobs before hitting it right being a hack writer for a publisher in london. He is reckoned till date are “ The vicar of wakefield”, “The Deserted village”, Good natured Man”, and “She stoops to conquer”. This play was first performed in London in 1773. It has been adapted into a film several times and also has title “ Mistakes of a night”. First performed in London in 1773.

Character of this play : 

First we see tha main and minor characters of this play .

Charles Marlow : Charles marlow is son of Sir Charles marlow and
protagonist of the play. He was a lover of kate hardcastle.

Mr Hardcastle     : Mr Hardcastle is the main character of the play
,who is the father of miss kate castle.     He loves all old things, like
old manner,old friends, old rules and old clothes etc. 

Mrs Hardcastle   : Mrs. Hardcastle is wife of mr hardcastle. We can
say that mrs. Hardcastle is a very greedy woman and highly
fashionable. 

Miss Kate castle   : miss kate castle is a daughter of Mr. Hardcastle.
She is close to her father. Her father loves to old things so she
wearing a simple old fashioned clothes. She is beloved of marlow.

Tom Lumkin        : Tom is son of mrs. Hardcastle from her first
husband. He misbehave with his second father mr. Hardcastle. 

Hasting :      Hasting is friend of marlow and lover of constance.

Constance  : Constance is a niece of Mr. Hadcastle and beloved of
hasting. 

Sir Charles Marlow : He is a friend of mr. Hardcastle and father of
marlow. 

Summery  : 

She Stoops to conquer is a Anti-sentimental comedy satire against
sentimental comedy. Goldsmith wanted to criticise sentimental
comedy of Richard Steel in his contemporary era. So , he wrote
“She Stoops to conquer” his second play as an example of pure
comedy, anti-sentimental comedy. “She stoops to conquer” is the
best example of anti-sentimental comedy not only because it has
characteristic and element of Anti-sentimentalism comedy but also it
has spirit of anti-sentimentalism which we can easily find in
Goldsmith’s play. 

She stoops to conquer play starts with Sir charles marlow arranged
the meeting between kate, and his son Charles marlow.
Mr. Hardcastle wants to his daughter’s marriage with his friend’s
son charles marlow. Now marlow and his freind hasting come to
meet kate but at night they goes to the elehouse named three jolly
pigeons at there they meet tony lumpkin who is step-son of
mr. Hardcastle. Marlow asked him about house of Mr. Hardcastle
but Tony is very mischievous he told morlow that they are very far
from their destination and they should stay at near inn and the inn
which he shows is the house of Mr. Hardcastle. 

Marlow and hasting goes to Mr. Hardcastle’s house but they don’t
aware about the house of Mr. Hardcastle they misunderstand it as an
inn and marlow treat lower class people very badly. Marlow very
badly behave with Mr. Hardcastle. Kate comes to know about the
trick of tony and she wants to know the real character of marlow so
she disguise herself as bar-maid. They both fall in love with each
other. There is also a sub-plot of love between hasting and
constance they both make plan to elope, but constance refuse it
because she wants her jewels which her aunt keep it. Mrs. Hardcastle
wants that she marry her son Tony because she wants to keep that
jewels in family, but Tony didn't want to marry with constance so
he helps constance to take jewels from his mother and at the end sir
charles marlow comes and solves all mistakes. 

We can say that ‘She stoops to conquer’ is a best example of
anti-sentimental comedy. We find all the characteristics of
anti-sentimental comedy in this play.  

1. Amusing intrigue and situation

We can see the first characteristic of anti-sentimental comedy
intrigue and situation in the play of She stoops to conquer.
Tony lumpkins creates intrigues in this play. His tricks against
marlow and hastings. This tracks are the main source of wit and
humor. We can see that Tony's intrigues give motion to drama.
He introduced Mr. Hardcastle’s house as an inn and Mr. Hardcastle
as an innkeeper. This tricks contributes a lot to the comic impression
of the play. There is one more trick played by tony and miss.
Constance is an orphan and live with her aunt. Mrs. Hardcastle wants
that tony marry constance because she has a jewel box.
But constance loves hastings. Tony comes to know that constance
and hastings love each other. Then Tony still jewels box from his
mother and help constance and hastings to runaway.

2. Satirical Comedy and Irony :

The second characteristic of Anti-sentimental comedy is a Satire and
Irony, we can also see in this play. We found satire on class conflict
in this play .Marlow is satirized as an english preoccupation and
emphasis on class distinction. He is not comfortable with polite
class but he is comfortable with barmaids. He wants to be able to
when she meets her for marriage but he can easily able to talk when
she comes as servant . Irony can also find in the play. When she
talks of mrs. Hardcastle with hastings about high society in london.

3. Marriage for Love and Marriage for Money :

Marriage for love and marriage for money is one another
characteristic of the anti-sentimental comedy. We can see this
characteristic in this play. We can say that Mrs. Hardcastle is a very
greedy woman. She loves money and jewels. Mrs. Hardcastle wants
to his son’s marry constance because she has some jewels of miss
constance. But constance love with hastings and tom also help them.
Mrs. Hardcastle wants constance marry her son because of that
jewel box. So, here we can say that money is the reason of marriage.
Other side constance marry hastings because they love each other.
The marriage of kate and marlow because of love. So, here we find
both love for marriage and love for money.

4. Wit of Language and verbal dialogue :

In act 3 we find that tony and hastings are talking about the Jewels.
Tony steal jewell and passes on them. And then speak,

“Ask me a question and I’ll tell you no fibs”

The meaning of the line is if one asks a strange or nonsensical
question the listener will probably respond with a similar strange
or nonsensical answer.  We can see here wit of language and verbal
dialogue.

To sum up : 

Goldsmith writes very few Anti-sentimental comedy but whatever
he contribute its great and still has the same value and because of
their efforts the comedy which is more like tragedy names
sentimental comedy lost its name and weeping comedy is gone and
true comedy which provides laughter to audience is become famous.