Concealment and Revelation

The primary engine of the play is one of dissimulation. Characters in the play control how they represent themselves or each other for varying reasons. At the beginning of the play, Tony misrepresents his father’s house to Marlow as an inn. Hastings and Constance then maintain this deception for their own plans. Constance also misrepresents her own affections in order to pacify Mrs. Hardcastle. Meanwhile, Mrs. Hardcastle herself misrepresents her own age and Tony’s age as legal leverage against Constance. Mr. Hardcastle is unwittingly misrepresenting his own hospitality as that of an innkeeper’s. Marlow is conflicted and anxious about his own social status, leaving him flustered around upper-class women and unable to commit to lower-class ones. Kate, for her part, misrepresents her identity in order to win Marlow over.

These deceptions, particularly when devised by Tony, are an abundant source of comedy and irony. As a dramatic function, these characters’ actions also speak to a larger issue at hand, which is the problem of the freedom to be oneself. Their reasons for misrepresenting themselves tend to revolve around unshackling themselves from constraint. In Kate’s case, however, she used deception to unshackle Marlow rather than herself.

Tony’s deceptions stand out from those of the other characters. Unlike the deceptions of others, his aren’t flat-out lies. In fact, they often seem to obliquely suggest the truth. They are revelations concealed by plain sight. For example, when he “redirects” Marlow and Hastings, he actually leads them precisely to their destination. The remarks he makes about the Hardcastle home are also, in some sense, true. The house does indeed look like an inn and Hardcastle is indeed a rich landlord apt to please and regale others with military stories. This pattern continues when he tells his mother to demoralize Constance by saying that the jewels have gone missing and that he can bear witness to it. The irony is that, despite his deception, he has expressed the truth.

In this way, Tony contrasts with his mother, who deceives completely for her own gain while lacking the perspicacity to see the truth of the situation. Tony’s deceptions are perceptive and are perhaps better described as repurposed truths. This modus perhaps finds its fullest expression during the climax, when Tony drives Mrs. Hardcastle around in a circle: He does not really lead her astray; rather, he leads her back home without her knowing.

Class Distinctions

Though the play offers no overt critical investigation of social class, the distinctions of class figure in the natural world of the play. Various people of the country are mentioned and country people of lower-class backgrounds are usually given names that belong to farm animals (e.g., Hogsby). It is possible to argue, however, that the play’s concern with disguises and appearances could count as the play’s critique of social classes. 

Consider, for example, Marlow’s arc throughout the story. From one perspective, Marlow’s humiliations are a product of other people’s deceptions. Conversely, it is also plausible that his humiliations are a consequence of his assumptions and attitudes around class. He is dismissive of Mr. Hardcastle merely because he thinks he is an innkeeper. He also stammers and then becomes contemptuous of Kate when he perceives her as an upper-class woman. He is then romantically precocious with her when he thinks she is a bar-maid. Moreover, he is resistant to pursuing his own attractions in order to conserve his social standing. Throughout these encounters, it appears that Marlow lacks the ability to see through social class and assess people on an individual basis. This is in stark contrast...