Illustration of Kate Hardcastle in high society attire on the left, and dressed as a barmaid on the right

She Stoops to Conquer

by Oliver Goldsmith

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Discussion Topic

Marlow's hypocrisy in She Stoops to Conquer

Summary:

Marlow's hypocrisy in "She Stoops to Conquer" is evident in his contrasting behavior towards women of different social classes. He is confident and flirtatious with lower-class women but shy and awkward around upper-class women, revealing a double standard in his attitudes and actions.

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What is the theme of hypocrisy in Marlow's character in She Stoops to Conquer?

The character of Marlow in this comedy is a fascinating one due to his crippling shyness and inability to communicate with women of his own class and station, but he shows himself more than able to communicate with women of a lower class. He says himself that this is the result of his constant movement whilst growing up. He has exchanged very few words with women of his own class, but has spent most of his life in various inns, and so is quite at ease talking to women who are lower in station than him.

It would be unfair, however, to call him a hypocrite. Marlow, apart from the disparity of his behaviour between Kate as a gentlewoman and Kate in her disguise as a servant, is not intentionally hypocritical in the same way that characters such as Mrs. Hardcastle are. In fact, Kate effectively manages to "tame" Marlow somewhat, making him realise that his love for her is based not just on lust and his greater station in life but on regard and respect. Note what he says to her in Act V:

I will stay, even contrary to your wishes; and though you should persist to shun me, I will make my respectful assiduities atone for the levity of my past conduct.

There is nothing hypocritical about Marlow in this speech as he declares his love for Kate, whom he believes to be a serving woman, and thereby dares his father's censure and displeasure. In short, Marlow is fooled and deceived by Kate, but through this he is allowed to be redeemed as a character, and both Kate and the audience feel that he is a much better individual by the end of the play than he was at the beginning. There is no element of hypocrisy in his character.

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What reasons lead to Marlow's hypocrisy in She Stoops to Conquer?

During the first interview between Kate and Marlow, Kate was able to pinpoint on the fact that Marlow has an issue. The issue is that Marlow feels very uncomfortable when he speaks to women of his same social status (upper-class women). Yet, he is completely comfortable talking and mingling with lower class women.

Upon meeting his potential fiancee Kate Hardcastle, Marlow's issues immediately surface; yet, rather than taking his stuttering, lack of focus, and inability to look at her in the face as an insult, Kate plays with Marlow's weakness and finds it entertaining.

Part of her playfulness is evident when she makes a comment on the social hypocrisy that she believes is rampant in their day and age.

In this hypocritical age there are few that do not condemn in public what they practise in private, and think they pay every debt to virtue when they praise it.

Kate perceives Marlow's lack of comfort and she says this in order to elicit his point of view. Marlow continues to stutter and keeps being unable to make any sense of his answers. He agrees in that in their society people only act with virtue when they talk about it, but in their private lives they do as they wish. Yet, he also adds on a separate note, and with extreme difficulty,  that sometimes the want of courage to do something makes people act differently than what they really are. Kate agrees by saying

I agree with you entirely; a want of courage upon
some occasions assumes the appearance of ignorance, and betrays us when we most want to excel. I beg you'll proceed.

Yet, Marlow cannot really proceed and shifts the conversation by suggesting that they go for Miss Neville in the adjacent room.

This being explained, there is no indication that Kate Hardcastle thinks that Marlow is a "hypocrite". She brings up the topic of hypocrisy as a way to taunt Marlow into seeing himself as a hypocrite because, after all, he can only be who he really is under specific circumstances; other than those circumstances, Marlow is his real self.

Kate knows this. Yet, notice how she softens the topic of hypocrisy and changes it to the possibility of "lacking courage". This means that, although Marlow's double personality is hypocritical in nature, Kate still understands the reasons behind it: it is not that Marlow intentionally changes personalities to hurt or praise people; he simply lacks to courage to accept who he is and who others are instead of judging people at face value.

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Why is Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer hypocritical?

Marlow in this comedy by Goldsmith is certainly a very strange character. On the one hand, he is unable to communicate meaningfully with a member of the opposite sex if they are from his own class. However, he is more than able to express himself if he is talking to a servingwoman or a female servant. When he talks with his friend, Hastings, about this phenomenon, he explains that he has not learnt what Hastings describes as "a requisite share of assurance," or confidence and self-belief, that he has never had the opportunity to learn that with people of his own class:

My life has been chiefly spent in a college or an inn, in seclusion from that lovely part of the creation that chiefly teach men confidence. I don't know that I was every familiarly acquainted with a single modest woman--except my mother--but among females of another class, you know--

Marlow's strange behaviour that is so different depending on the class of the woman he is with therefore is a result of his strange upbringing and the way that he was always on the move, and that he never had the opportunity to get to know women of his own class. The final "you know" of the above quote suggests that the "other class" of females he is talking about are actually women who are willing for him to have his way with them. This of course results in hilarious comedy when Marlow mistakes Kate for such a woman.

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