A Stylistic Analysis of Oliver Goldsmith s She Stoops to Conquer

In the 18th century England comedy of manners was quitepopularas a way of entertainment for every level of the society through its violations of social standards and decorum, the use of stock characters, intrigues, love games and witty dialogues. However, beneath the laughter that aroused through such comical devices the playwrights intend to satirize the manners and morality of the Restoration society. Within this frame, Oliver Goldsmith s She Stoops to Conquer (1771) is quintessence of comedy of manners tradition through which Goldsmith aims at criticizing the hypocrisy and artificial manners of the contemporary society. In this work, the use stylistic approach paves the way for a better understanding of the playwright s hidden criticism through a scrutinized analysis of the dialogues between the characters, which are pivotal comical devices in the comedy of manners tradition. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze Goldsmith s She Stoops to Conquer within the frame of stylistic approach in order to show how money and social status determine manners, discourses and the relationships of the Restoration society. In this regard, discourse analysis and conversation analysis will be employed in this paper to shed light on hypocrisy and artificiality of the characters. The paper will elaborate on the discourse of the characters through speech acts , presupposition, conversationalimplicatures , turn taking and politeness to reveal how money and social status change the manners of the characters.