The Rivals as a Comedy of Manners

The Comedy of Manners - exploited this particular genre of comedy to study and imitate in a
vein of humor and satire, the social mannerisms, conventions and artificiality of their
particular age and society through delightful observation and witty commentaries on the
prevalent temper, follies and external details of the life of certain men and women who were
the stereo-types of their depicted society.

R.B. Sheridans The Rivals is a perfect Comedy of Manners in the way it holds a mirror to
social life, modes and manners of the artificial, fashionable community of the 18 th Century
English society by making Bath, a health resort in England the center of the action of the
play. Through the characters of his play, Sheridan depicts in a very entertaining manner the
gay and easy lives of the well to do people of his age that were full of intrigues, gossips,
scandals, flirtations, frivolity and without any raging cares or serious problems of livelihood.
Almost all the characters of the play are entangled in love affairs and have nothing more
important to do than to pay social visits, learn fashionable dances, devour romances and
fight duels.

The country landlords like Bob Acres came to Bath to ape the latest fashions and
hair-styles.

Lydia Languish represents all those girls at Bath who filled their idle days with cheap
romances and dreams of romantic elopements.

Mrs. Malaprop is an amusing representation of the provincial ladies who tried

desperately to live up the smartness of the fashionable city of bath.

Moreover, Rivals is also filled with references to the circulating libraries of the
18th century society that were the fond resorts and romantic haunts of sentimental girls.

The orthodox view on female education prevalent at that time also comes to the
fore through the conversations of Sir Anthony Absolute and Mrs. Malaprop in
Act.1Sc.2.

The plot of the Rivals just like that of any other Comedy of Manners is slight and built on the
common stock devices of concealment, cross purposes, mistaken identity, tyrannical parents
who threatened to disown upon disobedience and so on. The dramatic effect owes not so
much to the plot but is based on the weaving of finely conceived highly theatrical situations
into a composite whole and well sustained dramatic suspense.

The characters of Rivals are mostly type characters in keeping with the tradition of Comedy
of manners.

Mrs. Malaprop with her nice derangements of epitaphs,

Lydia Languish with her singular taste,

Sir Anthony Absolute with his absolute temper,

Bob Acres with his foppery and foolish bravado and

Sir Lucius with idiotic chivalry are nothing but Sheridans delightful
caricatures of some of the human deformities common to the people
of his age.

Apart from all this, Rivals like a true comedy of manners is filled to the brim with wit and
intellect. The play is packed with witty repartees of wit and funny conversations that add to
the fun and mirth of the play in an abundant measure.

This flash of wit is especially noticeable in the conversation between Fag and his
master captain Absolute in Act2.Sc.1 about the particulars of quality lying

also in Act3.Sc3 where Captain Absolute deceives Mrs. Malaprop and Lydia through
his amusing double identity in the play.

Lastly, beneath the light scenes and gay inventions in Rivals, lies a mild stroke of satire
which forms the intellectual aspect of Comedy of Manners.

Through the Julia-Faulkland episode Sheridan has caricatured the sentimentality of

the age that had also gripped the theaters.

Lydias temperament in the play and her preference of elopement and scandals is
actually a satire on the sensational loving youth of the time.

Sheridan laughs at the obsession with contemporary fashion through Bob Acres and
the Act5Sc3 is delightful satire on dueling.

Mrs. Malaprops Character:

It has been very rightly opined by Mrs. Oliphant that in Sheridan, the gift of innocent
ridicule and the quick embodiment of the ludicrous without malice reaches to
such heights of excellence as have given his nonsense a sort of immortality.

The truth of this comment finds perfect reflection in Sheridans famous and much loved
creation, Mrs. Malaprop who with her parade of ridiculous pedantry, vulgar sociability,
laughable passion and most importantly, her nice derangements of epitaphs is perhaps the
best embodiment of the ludicrous but it is this very virtue of nonsense that makes her an
immortal creation in history of English humorous literature and makes her stand out as a
marvel of Sheridans theatrical art. She is the humorous aunt of the plays heroine Miss Lydia
Languish, who gets caught up in the schemes and dreams of young lovers and with her
misapplied words and mannerisms remains from the very start to the end a grand comical
entertainment and the source of much fun and farce.

Mrs. Malaprop is actually Sheridans delightful caricature of the provincial ladies of his age
who desperately tried to up to live up the smartness and fashion of the city. The essence of
this characters caricature lies in her language and how her select words are, as Julia puts
them ingeniously misapplied without being mispronounced. She fancies her oracular
tongue and nice derangements of epitaphs as her very prized attribute without the
slightest idea of the absurdity in her language arising out of her notorious misuse of words
and phrases. The peculiar mistakes of this humorous aunt with which she brightens the play
with a comical fire are known as malapropisms which have passed into the rules of rhetoric.
Here are some of her enjoyable mis-uses of words: Shes as headstrong as an allegory

(alligator) on the banks of the Nile, Im quite analyzed (paralyzed) for my part, Oh! It
gives me the hydrostatics (Hysterics) to such a degree! and so on.

Not only this, she attempts enthusiastically to impose her superiority and wisdom on others
by propagating her own theories but in doing so ends up making herself a pure clownish
figure since all her knowledge is half-baked and inappropriately applied. Throughout the
play she gives a large catalogue of all the things that do not befit a young woman such as
violent memories, preference and aversion, caparisons (comparisons) and what not. In her
unshrinking language she lectures on education of women before Sir Anthony and never
suspects that her words act as a raillery to her own self But above all Sir Anthony she
should be a Mistress of Orthodoxy that she might not mis-spell and mis-pronounce words so
shamefully as girls usually do and likewise that she might reprehend the true meaning of
what she is saying.

Mrs. Malaprops vanity makes her open to flatteries and pretend admiration which is why
she readily brands Captain Absolute as the The pineapple (pinnacle) of politeness when he
says kind words to her elegant manners and unaffected learning.

In the romantic love of Lydia and Beverly, Mrs. Malaprop plays the part of a watch dog or as
Ensign Beverly writes to his lady-love, a she dragon but her vigilance only uncovers her
continued dullness and her strictures only reveals her ignorance and vulgarity. However, she
is hardly the villain in the love-story of the romantic pair but can be best viewed as an old
weather beaten lady with egoistic ideas and outdated prejudices and nothing of serious or
sober understanding.

Much of the fun in The Rivals lies in the odd story of Mrs. Malaprops love where this old
wrinkled lady poses herself as teenaged Delia and carries on a love correspondence with an
Irish Knight. The whole love affair is a drollery and when her true identity is revealed and
every man rejects her she very dismally ejaculates Men are all barbarians.

The figure of Mrs. Malaprop is not entirely a Sheridan innovation and its seeds can be found
in Mrs. Slipshod of Fieldings Joseph Andrews and Tabitha Bramble of Smolletts Humphrey

Clinker. However, her character can be perceived without any reference to any source or
predecessor and in its conception Sheridan has indeed achieved a rare work of comic art.
Without this Mistress of language as Sir Lucius calls his Delia, this play would have lost
much of its charm and spark; much of its farcical liveliness and comic interest.