people. Mrs. Hardcastle, however, believes he is dying of a dread disease.

Mrs. Hardcastle wants to enjoy the high society life in London and complains that Mr. Hardcastle doesn't like to entertain. Because of her social ambitions, she wants Tony to marry the wealthy and well-connected Constance Neville, though Tony has no interest in her.

Mrs. Hardcastle is a limited woman who lacks self-knowledge. She dotes too much on her son and sees him as she would like him to be rather than as he is. She tries to project her own marriage wishes on him and has a hard time perceiving him as his own person, with a will separate from her desires.

Mrs. Hardcastle is a parody of a social climber who spoils her son and places too much value on outward status and not enough on seeing clearly the realities around her.

Mrs. Hardcastle's main complaint against her husband is that he almost never takes the family into town to "rub off the rust a little." Mrs. Hardcastle is a fashionable and sociable woman, obsessed with these qualities to the point of greed and vanity. She dislikes the plain mansion they live in—even claiming it resembles an inn in a moment of foreshadowing—and thinks the company they receive is uninspiring compared to the people they could meet with in the city.

By contrast, Mr. Hardcastle is a proudly plain man with an aversion to fuss and fashion. He prefers both the countryside and all things old-fashioned, to the point where he only lets his daughter, Kate, wear fashionable modern clothes during the day if she agrees to put on more traditional fare at night. This difference in preference creates conflict between the husband and wife.

Mrs. Hardcastle's grievance connects to the play's theme of country life versus city life. For people like Mrs. Hardcastle, the city is associated with fashion and glamor while the countryside is associated with plainness and dreariness. However, the author subverts this idea by presenting the country-bred characters like Tony and Kate as far cleverer and more resourceful than the city dwellers.

From the first scene of the play, the Hardcastles are shown in conflict over the question of their preferences. Mrs. Hardcastle loves the city. She enjoys going into town and meeting with people. She also grumbles about the state of their mansion, claiming it looks more like an inn than a regular house and that because of this, no one comes to visit them.

Mr. Hardcastle prefers the countryside, specifically because he likes everything old-fashioned. He finds the fashions of the city foolish, dismissing them as "fopperies." He cannot even stand to see his daughter Kate in the newest fashions, only permitting her to wear them during the day so long as she agrees to wear old-fashioned clothes in the evening. Ultimately, Mr. Hardcastle is also less vain and greedy than his wife, taking pleasure in simpler things, as he expresses in the play's opening scene:

I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine; and I believe, Dorothy (taking her hand), you'll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife.

When it comes to this difference of opinion, the play takes Mr. Hardcastle's side on the matter. The city becomes associated with decadence and greed, as illustrated by Mrs. Hardcastle's willingness to force Constance to marry her son Tony for the sake of keeping the young woman's inheritance within the family. It is the country-bred characters like Tony who prove cleverest of all.