The School for Scandal: Irony 8 key examples

Mrs. Candour’s first appearance in The School for Scandal is a hilarious example of situational irony, setting up one of the biggest themes of the play: the lines between rumor, wit, and cruelty. From the moment she enters Lady Sneerwell’s home, Mrs. Candour begins to gossip about the people in her life: 

Mrs. Candour: And at the same time, Miss Tattle, who was by, affirmed, that Lord Buffalo had discovered his lady at a house of no extraordinary fame; and that Sir H. Boquet and Tom Saunter were to measure swords on a similar provocation.—But, Lord, do you think I would report these things?—No, no! tale-bearers, as I said before, are just as bad as the tale-makers. 

Joseph: Ah! Mrs. Candour, if everybody had your forbearance and good-nature! 

Mrs. Candour: I confess, Mr. Surface, I cannot 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?

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Joseph Surface’s attempts to get close to Lady Teazle in order to facilitate his relationship with her husband Sir Peter (and therefore his ward, Maria) backfires when he discovers she is considering taking him on as a lover, in a wonderful example of situational irony:

A curious dilemma my politics have run me into! I wanted, at first, only to ingratiate myself with Lady Teazle, that she might not be my enemy with Maria; and I have, I don’t know how, become her serious lover. Sincerely I begin to wish I had never made such a point of gaining so very good a character, for it has led me into so many cursed rogueries that I doubt I shall be exposed at last.

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When the moneylender Moses is introduced, Sir Oliver and Sir Peter inquire about the inner workings of his business practices. As they do so, the pair make thinly veiled antisemitic jabs at Moses and his profession through the use of verbal irony: 

Sir Oliver: Hey!—what the plague!—how much then? 

Moses: That depends upon the circumstances. If he appears not very anxious for the supply, you should require only 40 or 50 per cent; but if you find him in great distress, and want the moneys very bad, you may ask double. 

Sir Peter: A good honest trade you’re learning, Sir Oliver! 

Sir Oliver: Truly, I think so—and not unprofitable. 

Moses: Then, you know, you haven’t the moneys yourself, but are forced to borrow them for him of an old friend.

[...]

Sir Oliver: He is forced to sell stock at a great loss, is he? Well, that’s very kind of him.

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Sir Oliver’s disguised interaction with his nephew Charles Surface in Act 4, Scene 1 is an instance of dramatic irony:

Sir Oliver. Well, well, anything to accommodate you;—they are mine. But there is one portrait which you have always passed over. 

Careless. What, that ill-looking little fellow over the settee? 

Sir Oliver. Yes, sir, I mean that, though I don’t think him so ill-looking a little fellow, by any means.

[...]

Charles. No, hang it; I’ll not part with poor Noll. The old fellow has been very good to me, and, egad, I’ll keep his picture while I’ve a room to put it in. 

Sir Oliver. The rogue’s my nephew after all! [Aside.]—But, sir, I have somehow taken a fancy to that picture.

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In an example of situational irony, when Lady Teazle complains to Joseph that she is being suspected of adultery in Act 4, Scene 3, Joseph reveals his lack of morality by suggesting that the only way to alleviate her guilty conscience is to actually commit the sin of which she is accused:

Ah! my dear madam, there is the great mistake: ’tis this very conscious innocence that is of the greatest prejudice to you. What is it makes you negligent of forms, and careless of the world’s opinion?—why, the consciousness of your own innocence. What makes you thoughtless in your conduct, and apt to run into a thousand little imprudences?—why, the consciousness of your own innocence. What makes you impatient of Sir Peter’s temper, and outrageous at his suspicions?—why, the consciousness of your innocence. 

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Act 4, Scene 3 of The School for Scandal, otherwise known as the “screen scene,” is the most sensational and well-known scene in the entire play. Uproarious and chaotic in equal measure, it is also a quintessential example of dramatic irony. In the passage below, Sheridan utilizes staging and timing to hilarious effect, playing each character’s differing amounts of knowledge against both each other and the audience’s fuller awareness of the entire picture:  

Sir Peter: Come, you shall not refuse me: here, behind this screen will be—Hey! what the devil! there seems to be one listener there already—I’ll swear I saw a petticoat! 

Joseph: Ha! ha! ha! Well, this is ridiculous enough. [...] Hark’ee, ’tis a little French milliner—a silly rogue that plagues me,—and having some character to lose, on your coming, sir, she ran behind the screen. 

Sir Peter: Ah! you rogue! But, egad, she has overheard all I have been saying of my wife. 

Joseph: Oh, ’twill never go any farther, you may depend upon it. 

Sir Peter: No! then, faith, let her hear it out.—Here’s a closet will do as well.

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Sir Oliver disguises himself as Mr. Premium the moneylender to test the character of his nephew Charles Surface in Act 4, Scene 1. Similarly, he dons another disguise in Act 5, Scene 1 in order to ascertain the heart of his other nephew, Joseph. This time, he poses as a poor relative named Mr. Stanley and suggests that he's in need of charity. As in Sir Oliver’s first attempt at reconnaissance, the audience is fully aware that “Mr. Stanley” is nothing more than a disguise. Thus, the interaction between uncle and nephew below is an instance of dramatic irony:

Joseph: My dear sir, you were strangely misinformed. Sir Oliver is a worthy man, a very worthy man; but avarice, Mr. Stanley, is the vice of age. I will tell you, my good sir, in confidence, what he has done for me has been a mere nothing; though people, I know, have thought otherwise, and, for my part, I never chose to contradict the report. 

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The first half of Act 5, Scene 2 is an example of dramatic irony. Mrs. Candour, the maid, Benjamin Backbite, Lady Sneerwell, and Mr. Crabtree all gather to postulate on what they think may have happened between the Teazles and the Surface brothers in Act 4. Each of their suggested versions of events grow more and more outlandish with every false re-telling, culminating in Sir Benjamin’s ludicrous invention of a duel: 

Sir Benjamin: Well, I’ll not dispute with you, Mrs. Candour; but, be it which it may, I hope that Sir Peter’s wound will not— 

Mrs. Candour: Sir Peter’s wound! Oh, mercy! I didn’t hear a word of their fighting. 

Lady Sneerwell:. Nor I, a syllable. 

Sir Benjamin: No! what, no mention of the duel?

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