Section B: NON - AFRICAN DRAMA OLIVER GOLDSMITH - SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER Consider the attitude of Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle towards Tony Lumpkin.

Answer Details

In Oliver Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer, Tony Lumpkin is the son of Mrs Hardcastle by her first marriage and the stepson of Mr Hardcastle. The married couple hold opposite attitudes towards him, and this contrast is a source of both comedy and plot.

Mrs Hardcastle's attitude: doting and indulgent.

• She loves Tony blindly and spoils him, treating him as a delicate darling even though he is a grown, boisterous young man.
• She excuses and denies his faults, pretending he is sickly and immature in order to keep him under her control and to delay his inheritance.
• She schemes to marry him to her niece Constance Neville so that Constance's jewels remain in the family, showing that her fondness is partly self-interested.
• Her over-fondness makes her the victim of Tony's own tricks, including the famous drive around the garden.

Mr Hardcastle's attitude: disapproving and critical.

• He regards Tony as idle, mischievous and ill-mannered, forever loitering at the Three Pigeons alehouse among low company.
• He disapproves of the boy's lack of learning and refinement and blames his wife's pampering for spoiling him.
• His stern, sensible view stands in sharp contrast to Mrs Hardcastle's blind indulgence.

Conclusion. Goldsmith sets the indulgent mother against the exasperated stepfather to generate comic tension and to expose the folly of over-fond parenting. Ironically, the same mischievous Tony whom Mrs Hardcastle coddles and Mr Hardcastle scorns becomes the mainspring of the play's happy resolution, outwitting his mother and helping the lovers to their unions.