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The characters of the play are entangled in amorous intrigues and have nothing more important to do than to pay social visits, learn fashionable dances, devour romances from the circulating libraries and fight duels. As is characteristic of a comedy of manners, the play attempts a superficial portraiture of the manners of characters and does not seek the underlying psychological motives or the basic passions. The Rivals has a complicated plot.
Sheridan manipulated the plot with the stock devices of the comedy of manners— mistaken identity, rebellious young lovers, tyrannical parents. There are three love affairs in the play— the
Absolute- Lydia love affair, the Faulkland- Julia love affair and the Mrs.Malaprop- Sir Lucius love affair. These three affairs develop simultaneously and the reader’s interest keeps shifting from one to the other with remarkable rapidity.
The comedy of manners abounded in witty and sparkling dialogue. Sheridan’s “Humour, quaint and sly” can be enjoyed in the verbal skirmishes between Sir Anthony and Captain
Absolute. The scene in which Mrs. Malaprop reads Beverly’s letter addressed to Lydia describing herself as “the old weather- beaten she- dragon” to Captain Absolute, the …show more content…
His attempt to master some French dancing steps and his declaration that he has “true-born English legs” is so ridiculous that he is in constant danger of dwindling into a farcical character. The presentation of
Sir Lucius as the pugnacious bully ready to fight with his finger on his trigger is overtly satirical.
The manner in which he instigates Bob Acres to the duel, “Can a man commit a more heinous offence against another than to fall in love with the same woman?” not only reflects his character but also exposes the hollowness of dueling.
Sheridan revived the comedy of manners in the eighteenth century. However, he carefully avoided the immorality, indecency and licentiousness of the Restoration comedy of manners.
Described by Nettleton as “a dramatic artist, not a deep interpreter of life.. [who] brilliantly touched the surface without sounding the depths”, Sheridan sought wit rather than humour, brilliance rather than depth, satire rather than sympathy, art rather than nature and paved the way for later comic geniuses like Oscar
Sheridan manipulated the plot with the stock devices of the comedy of manners— mistaken identity, rebellious young lovers, tyrannical parents. There are three love affairs in the play— the
Absolute- Lydia love affair, the Faulkland- Julia love affair and the Mrs.Malaprop- Sir Lucius love affair. These three affairs develop simultaneously and the reader’s interest keeps shifting from one to the other with remarkable rapidity.
The comedy of manners abounded in witty and sparkling dialogue. Sheridan’s “Humour, quaint and sly” can be enjoyed in the verbal skirmishes between Sir Anthony and Captain
Absolute. The scene in which Mrs. Malaprop reads Beverly’s letter addressed to Lydia describing herself as “the old weather- beaten she- dragon” to Captain Absolute, the …show more content…
His attempt to master some French dancing steps and his declaration that he has “true-born English legs” is so ridiculous that he is in constant danger of dwindling into a farcical character. The presentation of
Sir Lucius as the pugnacious bully ready to fight with his finger on his trigger is overtly satirical.
The manner in which he instigates Bob Acres to the duel, “Can a man commit a more heinous offence against another than to fall in love with the same woman?” not only reflects his character but also exposes the hollowness of dueling.
Sheridan revived the comedy of manners in the eighteenth century. However, he carefully avoided the immorality, indecency and licentiousness of the Restoration comedy of manners.
Described by Nettleton as “a dramatic artist, not a deep interpreter of life.. [who] brilliantly touched the surface without sounding the depths”, Sheridan sought wit rather than humour, brilliance rather than depth, satire rather than sympathy, art rather than nature and paved the way for later comic geniuses like Oscar