She Stoops to Conquer

“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?”

At the beginning of the play, Mrs. Hardcastle complains to her husband using a rhetorical question that they do not visit London enough. Her dialogue uses alliteration, repeating the “T” and “R” sounds to create a playful tone. She employs figurative language that compares living a quiet life in the country to a tool growing rusty, suggesting that she sees travel and visiting a more culturally diverse urban space to be a form of social upkeep, rather than simply a pleasurable luxury.

“As for disappointing them, I should not so much mind; but I can't abide to disappoint myself.”

Tony Lumpkin establishes himself as a selfish and pleasure-seeking character when he quips to his mother that he would prefer to go see the local working-class people in the tavern more than he would enjoy an evening at home. His statement features repetition of the word “disappoint” to comedically play with his mother's turn of phrase and imply that he is more concerned with fulfilling his own desires than he is with pleasing anyone else.