She Stoops to Conquer

by

Oliver Goldsmith

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Mrs. Hardcastle Character Analysis

A vain, greedy, sentimental, and manipulative woman, Mrs. Hardcastle has lived all her life in the countryside but is obsessed with what is fashionable in the city. She has spoiled her son Tony and hopes to control him for as long as possible, even going so far as to lie to him about his age in order to keep him under her thumb. She is the guardian to her niece, Constance, whose father and mother are dead, and hopes to force her to marry Tony to keep Constance’s fortune in the family.

Mrs. Hardcastle Quotes in She Stoops to Conquer

The She Stoops to Conquer quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Hardcastle or refer to Mrs. Hardcastle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Mistakes and Deceptions Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

MRS. HARDCASTLE. I vow, Mr. Hardcastle, you're very particular. Is there a creature in the whole country but ourselves, that does not take a trip to town now and then, to rub off the rust a little? There's the two Miss Hoggs, and our neighbour Mrs. Grigsby, go to take a month's polishing every winter.

HARDCASTLE. Ay, and bring back vanity and affectation to last them the whole year. I wonder why London cannot keep its own fools at home! In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stage-coach. Its fopperies come down not only as inside passengers, but in the very basket.

MRS. HARDCASTLE. Ay, your times were fine times indeed; you have been telling us of them for many a long year. Here we live in an old rumbling mansion, that looks for all the world like an inn, but that we never see company. Our best visitors are old Mrs. Oddfish, the curate's wife, and little Cripplegate, the lame dancing-master; and all our entertainment your old stories of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough. I hate such old-fashioned trumpery.

HARDCASTLE. And I love it. 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.

Related Characters: Hardcastle (speaker), Mrs. Hardcastle (speaker)
Related Symbols: Inns
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1 Quotes

HASTINGS. (To HARDCASTLE.) For my late attempt to fly off with your niece let my present confusion be my punishment. We are now come back, to appeal from your justice to your humanity. By her father’s consent, I first paid her my addresses, and our passions were first founded in duty.

MISS NEVILLE. Since his death, I have been obliged to stoop to dissimulation to avoid oppression. In an hour of levity, I was ready to give up my fortune to secure my choice. But I am now recovered from the delusion, and hope from your tenderness what is denied me from a nearer connection.

MRS. HARDCASTLE. Pshaw, pshaw! this is all but the whining end of a modern novel.

Related Characters: Constance Neville (speaker), George Hastings (speaker), Mrs. Hardcastle (speaker), George Hastings
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mrs. Hardcastle Quotes in She Stoops to Conquer

The She Stoops to Conquer quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Hardcastle or refer to Mrs. Hardcastle. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Mistakes and Deceptions Theme Icon
).
Prologue Quotes

MRS. HARDCASTLE. I vow, Mr. Hardcastle, you're very particular. Is there a creature in the whole country but ourselves, that does not take a trip to town now and then, to rub off the rust a little? There's the two Miss Hoggs, and our neighbour Mrs. Grigsby, go to take a month's polishing every winter.

HARDCASTLE. Ay, and bring back vanity and affectation to last them the whole year. I wonder why London cannot keep its own fools at home! In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stage-coach. Its fopperies come down not only as inside passengers, but in the very basket.

MRS. HARDCASTLE. Ay, your times were fine times indeed; you have been telling us of them for many a long year. Here we live in an old rumbling mansion, that looks for all the world like an inn, but that we never see company. Our best visitors are old Mrs. Oddfish, the curate's wife, and little Cripplegate, the lame dancing-master; and all our entertainment your old stories of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough. I hate such old-fashioned trumpery.

HARDCASTLE. And I love it. 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.

Related Characters: Hardcastle (speaker), Mrs. Hardcastle (speaker)
Related Symbols: Inns
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
Act 1 Quotes

HASTINGS. (To HARDCASTLE.) For my late attempt to fly off with your niece let my present confusion be my punishment. We are now come back, to appeal from your justice to your humanity. By her father’s consent, I first paid her my addresses, and our passions were first founded in duty.

MISS NEVILLE. Since his death, I have been obliged to stoop to dissimulation to avoid oppression. In an hour of levity, I was ready to give up my fortune to secure my choice. But I am now recovered from the delusion, and hope from your tenderness what is denied me from a nearer connection.

MRS. HARDCASTLE. Pshaw, pshaw! this is all but the whining end of a modern novel.

Related Characters: Constance Neville (speaker), George Hastings (speaker), Mrs. Hardcastle (speaker), George Hastings
Page Number: 59
Explanation and Analysis: