This project analyzes the significance of the main title "She Stoops to Conquer" and the subtitle "The Mistakes of a Night" from Oliver Goldsmith's play. The main title refers to the heroine Kate stooping to play the role of a barmaid and poor relation to conquer the hero Marlow's heart by helping him overcome his shyness. The subtitle refers to the many mistakes Marlow makes over the course of one night, mistaking the house for an inn and Kate's identities. The play provides references to both titles to emphasize the comedy of errors.

1. The Significance of The Main Title & The Subtitle In She Stoops to Conquer

2. This Project Seeks to Address the Following Aspects: An introduction to the project The significance of the main title in the play The significance of the subtitle in the play Some references to the two titles from the play

3. She Stoops to Conquer is one of the best plays to be written during the Restoration era by an Irish playwright, Oliver Goldsmith, in the 1770s. Goldsmith’s She Stoops To Conqueris still part of the comic repertory after more than 200 years, providing a combination of good-humoured comedy and satire on social affectations. The play, actually, has two titles, one is the main title ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ and the other is the subtitle which is ‘The Mistakes of a Night’. In each title we have significance that both of them can be a suitable and suggestive title for the play. Throughout the play we also come across references to each one of them. An Introduction to the Project

4. The Significance of the Main Title in the Play The main title of the play, which is She Stoops to Conquer, refers to the device or the trick of its heroine to conquer her lover by stooping to play the role of a barmaid and after that the role of a poor relation to the Hradcastle’s family. ‘She’ in the title refers to the heroine, Kate, who is a daughter of a rich man from the upper-middle class. Here she is stooping by playing the role of a barmaid. Actually, ‘Stoops’ is the main action in the play that the heroine stoops to win the hero over emotionally and to gain his heart and his love to make him love her.

5. In this play, however, the heroine is taking the device of pretending to be of a lower social class by playing the two roles: a barmaid and a poor relative to the family. Actually, she succeeds at the end of the play to conquer the hero’s heart by doing so. In fact, there is a real need to stooping here because Marlow, the hero, has a problem in his personality that he is shy in front of ladies of higher classes. Therefore, she comes to play her two roles and comes down to a lower position in order to make him courageous to talk to her as a lady. In this way, she gains his love and, at the same time, she helps him to overcome his personality problem.

6. The Significance of the Subtitle in the Play The subtitle which is ‘The Mistake of a Night’ refers to the several mistakes that Marlow committed during the course of a single night that starts from early afternoon to midnight. Marlow committed several mistakes; e.g. he mistakes Kate to be a barmaid, also mistakes her to be a poor relation to the family, and he mistakes the house itself, in which he is going to spend one night, to be an inn. Besides, the hero also mistakes the owner of the house, Mr. Hardcastle, to be an inn-keeper.

7. Actually, that is why the other mistakes follow. The barmaid is only found in an inn, but when he discovers the reality that he is not in an inn but in a real house, he commits the second mistake when Kate, the heroine, convinces him that he is in a real house, but she is not the daughter of the owner of this house; just a poor relation to this family due to the fact that he trusts her and believes her. Also, we have other mistakes connecting with other characters. Actually, this comedy is a comedy of errors because there are a lot of mistakes and errors committed by characters especially the hero and this is for the benefit of the heroine.

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