The School for Scandal: a sentimen­tal comedy? (by Richard Brinsley Sheridan­)

The School for Scandal

1. Introduction:

The scope of this paper is to conduct a literary analysis of the late 18th century play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, called “The School for Scandal”. The play deals with topics such as hypocrisy and gossip in the higher class society of London in the 1770s and depicts the aristocracy's affectation by telling the story of Sir Joseph Surface, who is held in high esteem for his supposed sentiments.

A detailed classification of the play will make clear if “The School for Scandal” can therefore be categorized as Sentimental Comedy or as satiric comedy of the Restoration. The paper comprises an explanation and interpretation that will clarify characteristics of the two types and its connection to “The School for Scandal”. Does the play tend towards one of the two types or is it a transitional play?

2.Sentimental Comedy and its 'Evil Sibling', the Restoration Comedy

This chapter will deal with Frye's comedy classification, the genres of Sentimental and Restoration Comedy and its evaluation. For examining “The School for Scandal” and its comedy genre, a closer look on comedy in general is indispensable. In Northrop Frye's work “Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays” he defined comedies and divided them into different types, two of them being the major forms: Romantic Comedy and Satiric Comedy.

Tragedy and comedy contrast rather than blend, and so do romance and irony, the champions respectively of the ideal and actual. On the other hand, comedy blends insensibly into satire at one extreme and into romance at the other; romance may be comic or tragic; tragic extends from high romance to bitter and ironic realism” (Frye 162).

Accordingly, romantic comedy and satiric comedy are two types standing very much in opposition to each other. Satire can be specified by characters exposing their follies, obsessions, [ .] or events not understood by the character themselves [ .].[1] Romantic Comedy in contrast “is characterized by the acceptance of pity and fear, which in ordinary life relate to pain, as forms of pleasure” (Frye 37).

Concerning the figure conception, in Romantic Comedies “virtuous heroes and beautiful heroines represent the ideals and the villains the threats to their ascendancy”(Frye 186). This is why such comedies are also called “genteel comedy”, because of its gentleman-like characters. Interestingly Frye observes the high amount of fixed character types. He discerns that there is no complexity favoured in Romantic comedy as characters tend to be either for or against the quest, which is why he compares its characters to either black or white pieces on a chess game.[2]

Another dissimilarity between the two comedy types is its motivation. While Romantic Comedy can be rather seen as entertaining, morally good comedy form with protagonists possessing good qualities to which the audience should identify and sympathize with, the motif of Satiric Comedy is rather corrective and didactic, dealing with violations of norms.

Satire .asserts the validity and necessity of norms, systematic values, and meanings that are contained by recognizable codes. (Mack 85)

Hence it can be stated that by exposing vices and hypocrisy of the characters the reaffirmation of values becomes an essential topic. The audience is therefore supposed to reject the immoral, often bawdy and vicious actions and traits of characters on stage. How the spectators respond to this is up to themselves by all means but often there is even an epilogue with a clear didactic objective.

By making clear that the seen actions are supposed to be ridiculed and laughed at and that these conditions need correction, this becomes very clear. Thrall describes satire as being “"a literary manner which blends a critical attitude with humor and wit to the end that human institutions or humanity may be improved “, which “attempts through laughter not so much to tear them [men] down as to inspire a remodeling.”[3] Consequently with satires the audience is taught a lesson .....[read full text]

1)     The universe

2)     Man

3)     Woman

4)     Parents

5)     Children

6)     The lower orders: servants, peasants, foreigners, the poor […] (Ellis 11)

Thus a man with sentimental qualities represents a good model for people in society. Ellis also determines it as “the belief that man is naturally good, morally-self sufficient, and universally benelovent“ (Ellis 11). As a consequence characters in sentimental comedies were affected by the new code of sensibility and therefore above all morally-good.

Such characters in contrast were not to be mentioned in Restoration Comedies and if so, only as a target of satire. In Restoration Comedies these figures are typified as being foolish and their behaviour as affectionate and artificial, though from the surface it might appear elegant and cultured.

[…] the aim of Restoration Comedy seems to not only disregard but also to ridicule the morals of the Puritans in its plots full of sexual intrigue and in its castigating the institution of marriage. (Maureen)

According to this the subjects of Restoration Comedies are above all Aristocrats and their hangers-on. It mostly deals with vicious characters, who do not have the proper attitude to sexual morality, who often have affairs and commit adultery. So it puts moral norms to an extreme. Considering this and the fact that these morally bad characters are being ridiculed through a satirical wit, Restoration Comedy can be determined as a type of satire.

Critiques such as Thomas Macaulay evaluated the content and proceeding of Restoration Comedy as merely negative.

We find ourselves in a world, in which the ladies are like very profligate, impudent and unfeeling men, and in which the men are too bad for any place […]. We are surrounded by foreheads of bronze, hearts like the nether millstone, and tongues set on fire of hell. 439

Thus it is primitivity, vulgarity and sexual immorality which makes Restoration Comedy a dubious genre of comedy. According to him it is “a disgrace to our language and our national character. It is clever, indeed, and very entertaining; but it is, in the most emphatic sense of words, 'earthly, sensual, devilish.'” (439).

In contrast Oliver Goldsmith, a writer and critique, was a defender of satires as such from the Restoration Period and a critique of the highly emotional sentimental comedies. In his work “An Essay on the Theatre” he criticized sentimental comedy and described it as “a kind of mulish production”, for the reason that “if we are permitted to make comedy weep, we have an equal right to make tragedy laugh, and to set down in blank verse the jests and repartees of all the attendants in a funeral procession.” Accordingly sentimental comedy is from his view an illegitimate hybrid, a genre without tradition that only experiments.

He makes clear that the traditional drama genres tragedy and comedy should not mix. He disapproves of sentimental comedy by reason of its acceptance of weeping and pity which is normally a characteristic of tragedy in the traditional sense. He goes on with criticizing other similarities to the traditional tragedy, such as the high-.....

All in all it becomes clear that Restoration Comedy and Sentimental Comedy are very much opposed to each other and had both its critiques. Writers like Goldsmith attack Sentimental Comedy due to the fact that they rather bring an audience to tears than offer them laughter, while Steele and Macaulay criticize Restoration Comedy's lack of moral and ethic values.

But to which of the two types does Sheridan's play “The School for Scandal” belong to? This will be examined in the next chapter.

3. “The School for Scandal” – a Sentimental Comedy?

“The School for Scandal” is set in 18th century London and deals with its fashionable society and their liking of gossip. Therefore the play offers a glimpse in the social manners of its time. Joseph Surface is believed to be a man of sentiment due to his manners and his use of language, while his rather vicious brother Charles. seems to virtuous to others and behaves in accordance with the code of sensibility but in the course of the play it turns out that in fact his believed vicious brother Charles is a man of sentiment.The real nature of Joseph becomes more and more uncovered, he is in fact a double-dealing, deceptive deluder.

typisch für restoration comedy:

→ immorality

→ manners (also called “comedy of manners”)

→ behaviour and language: artificial, polished dialogue as very elegant, but insincere and empty

→ characters: aristocrats and their hangers-on

→ affectation as target of satire:

→ rivals

→ behaves to the new code of sensibility but is given with a critical psychological analysis (possessiveness)

→ pretends that he feels sympathy for other people

→ he is an egotist and hy.....

But sentiment in the eighteenth-Century has changed from its direction. Sentiment is not „used to show the tender or fine feeling, as pity, love, sadness, or imaginative remembrance of the past“ like its real meaning (Procter 1013). The society used the term „sentiment“ to show someone's goodness to look for people's attentions. 11

Ellis, Frank. Sentimental Comedy: Theory and Practice. Great Britain: Cambridge UP, 1991.

4. Conclusion:

All in all the drama “School for scandal” by Sheridan is a rather anti-sentimental play that attacks the artificial behavior and sentiments. It satirizes the fashionable society with its materialism, gossip and affectionate behavior. As sentimental comedies do normally not include satire at all, it is clearly not a sentimental play.

Nonetheless there is some sensibility included. Though Joseph Surface is a typical character of restoration comedies, he speaks in the language of sensibility, typically used in sentimental comedy. He pretends to act like a generous, honorable man but in fact he is a dishonest and double-dealing person who initiates intrigues on his brother Charles in order to break up the relationship between Charles and Maria, with whom Joseph himself is secretly in love.

So there is an antagonist full of follies and vices like in a restoration comedy. Consequently he is not a real man of sentiment but tries to hide his real, villain nature.

Furthermore there are other typical characteristics why “The school for scandal” is rather a satirical restoration comedy: While in a sentimental comedy typically the relationship between master and servant is more like that of friends, here there is Joseph who calls down his servant all the time. He can be compared to Dorimant in Etherage's play “The man of mode”, which is a representative example of a restoration comedy.

Joseph is not only full of follies and vices but as well seduces Sir Peter's wife Lady Teazle. So he entices a married woman sexually and also deceives a friend of his. Generally he uses women as a kind of instrument, similarly to the case of Dorimant in “The man of mode” who holds several mistresses for the sake of power and sexual intercourse and who acts highly competetive like a .....

Mack, Maynard. "The Muse of Satire." Yale Review 41 (1951): 85.

Thrall, William, Addison Hibbard, and C. Hugh Holman, eds., A Handbook to Literature. New York: Odyssey Press, 1960.

Roche, Mark William. Tragedy and comedy: a systematic study and a critique of Hegel. 206F

(Steele, Spectator No. 65).

DIDACTIC MOTIF, CRITICISM OF SENTIMENTAL COMEDY:

[Epilogue, spoken by Lady Teazle]

Bend all my cares, my studies, and my vows,

To one dull rusty weathercock – my spouse!

So wills our virtuous bard – the motley Bayes

Of crying epilogues and laughing plays!

Old Bachelors, who marry smart young wives,

Learn from our play to regulate your lives. 77

DIDACTICISM:

[Epilogue, spoken by Lady Teazle]

Save money – when I just knew how to waste it!

Leave London – just as I began to taste it! 77

CRITICISM OF FASHIONABLE LONDON

[Epilogue, spoken by Lady Teazle]

The transient hour of fashion too soon spent,

Farewell the tranquil mind, farewell content!

[…] Farewell all quality of high renown,

Pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious town 78

→ regretful of leaving country for London society

DIDACTICISM:

[Epilogue, spoken by Lady Teazle]

No more in vice or error to engage,

Or play the fool at large on life's great stage. 78

SE.....

→ revenge to her having been the sacrifice of gossip

→ depicts the immoral, vicious society of the time

SNEERWELL CHARACTERIZING JOSEPH AND SIR PETER:

LADY SNEERWELL II have found him [Joseph] out a long time since. I know him to be artful, selfish, and malicious – in short, a sentimental knave; while with Sir Peter, and indeed with all his acquaintance, he passes for a youthful miracle of prudence, good sense and benelovence. 2F

SNAKE: […] he [Sir Peter] praises him [Joseph] as a man of sentiment.

LADY SNEERWELL True – and with his assistance of his sentiment and hypocrisy, he has brought Sir Peter entirely into his interest with regard to Maria; while Charles has no friend in the house, though, I fear, he has a powerful on in Maria'S heart, against whom we must direct our schemes. 3

AFFECTATION:
MRS. CANDOUR: Lord, do you think I would report these things? - No, no! Tale-bearers, as I said before, are jst as bad as the tale-makers! […] I can not bear to hear people attacked behind their backs; and when ugly circumstances come out against our acquaintance, I own I always love to think the best. - By the by, I hope 'tis not true that your brother is absolutely ruined? 6

FOP:

CRABTREE: […] he has a pretty wit, and is a pretty poet too; .....