It is a wonderful opportunity for everyone to dive into other centuries’ cultures through literature. As such, The Rivals is a peculiar play of the comedy of manners genre by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, which was first performed in 1775 on January 17th. It shakes your understanding of the rivals and forces you to think over your own actions and deeds, look at yourself from another perspective and set yourself against the main characters to make sure your conduct is correct. This paper will focus on the play’s main points the author conveyed to the reader and the viewer and sociocultural issues of those times, just as those were represented ‘in particular the uncommon length of the piece … the first night’ (Sheridan, 2006). The play by this prominent playwright makes you wonder how is it possible to create such a farcical comedy of manners that still makes contemporary viewers laugh. Needless to say, the play was met by the audience greatly, and moreover, there appeared a term malapropism for the name of Mrs. Malaprop – the main comic character who confused the words and their meanings.
The play is a unique cobweb of lies, love, and intrigues, which makes it captivating and even breathtaking at some points. The setting is Bath not far from London, The main focus of the play is the two characters – lovers Lydia and Jack. In order to woo her heart, Jack disguises as ‘Ensign Beverly’ and tries to act out the love Lydia read in her romantic novels. Another character is Mrs. Malaprop – Lydia’s trustee and guardian. She represents the personage of the moralistic widow. Having two other admirers, Lydia gets into trouble with love affairs and the battle of the rivals. There are Bob Acres and Sir Lucius O’Trigger who have a claim on Lydia’s heart. Sir Lucius, for instance, chooses to express his interest through the love notes between Lydia and him and pays Lucy (Lydia’s maid) to do that. As the play’s plot uncovers, Jacks father – Sir Anthony –
arrives to Bath and has news for his son – he arranged a marriage for Jack, who claims he already has a beloved one. Though they have great quarrel, Jack afterwards hands it to his father and pays gratitude to purge his contempt because Sir Anthony chose Lydia as Jack’s would-be wife. Jack in his turn lies to Lydia saying that he pretends to be Sir Anthony’s son. Therefore Lydia makes a confession to Mrs. Malaprop that she is eternally devoted to Beverly and is not going to marry Jack Absolute, being totally unaware that those are one and the same person. Meanwhile, Bob Acres shares his knowledge with Sir Lucius that Beverly courts Lydia, though Lucius knows nothing about Acres being in love with the lady. That is why Lucius suggests Acres should call down the foe and kill him. Acres – being involved in the overall intrigue and lies – tells Jack that is going to challenge Beverly to a duel and asks to deliver a note to that foe.
Afterwards, Lydia gets to know that Jack and Beverly are the same person and does not hesitate to spurn Jack right away even with contempt. Thus, being in great pains of his soul, Jack seeks for emotional discharge and ultimately finds it in a duel with Acres and Sir Lucius, who in his turn became aware of a marriage between Jack and Lydia. However, the play has a happy and funny end, because Acres finds out Beverly is his friend Jack, Lydia denies any connection to Sir Lucius and admits she loves Jack dearly. Hence, Mrs. Malaprop owns up that she is the one who received and responded to Lucius’ notes, which totally shocks him. The play ends with Acres’ invitation to the party, more by token, Sir Anthony consoled Mrs. Malaprop.
It is interesting that Sheridan used his own biography in order to make the play so amazingly exciting (O’Toole, 1998).The elopement, two breathtaking duels , and misunderstandings with his own father make a clear point what forced a 22 year-old Sheridan compose such a tangled plot (Moore, 2010). Disregarding the personal motives, the play itself won a great recognition among the public and has been a canon of English dramaturgy since 1775 (Kelly, 2009). I loved the play, as well. The net of misunderstandings and misinformation make it nearly a detective story that thrills with its end-up scene of the duel. Moreover, it is remarkable how Sheridan managed to capture the reader’s attention and make him/her catch the breath when the duel just started because though you know it is a comedy of manners, still it is intriguing if the protagonists manage to arrive before the duel entails deaths. Though not only it is the end that astonishes the reader, the overall opening of the plot is just great with all its disguises that thwart the lovers.
Though we are talking about Sheridan’s times, namely, those were the times of Restoration comedies, he managed t capture the readers’ attention not by the lascivious manner of representation but rather with the help of people’s personalities and their subconscious analysis. Sheridan was an expert of the witty and satirical plays and did a wonderful job of objecting the popularity of sentimental comedy genre. It can be stated that he was a pioneer in some way. The play acted out on a scene is even more hilarious than simply reading it. Although much depends upon the actors play, still Sheridan’s plot is unique and makes every sophisticated viewer burst out laughing within the acts. The performance of The Rivals is wonderful, very entertaining, and captivating. Though many critics consider it to be an echo of Shakespeare: “a web of mistaken identities, scandalous servants, insults, stray letters, a few duels to the death and several weddings by the end” (Harris, 2003), it leaves an impression of a comedy stuffed with new contemporary motives unlike Shakespeare’s legendary works.
The best feature of the play, I think is the inability of young girls to understand what the true love is due to some psychological reasons and the desire of young men to bow the wishes of their chosen ones’ complexes. Sheridan’s times presupposed no television and entertainment except books and theatre, the cultural background entailed incorrect images of love by young ladies. So, although the play was written more than two centuries ago the same canons are apparent within the modern society. Moreover, the same lies and misunderstandings take place now, too. So, let me be completely unbiased and claim that Sheridan’s work is marvelous, up-to-date and hortatory for the youth to understand the life’s circumstances and for adults to analyze some previous mistakes and be able to make fun of them.
References
Harris, M. (2003) ‘No war, just laughs for these ‘Rivals’. Washington Square News. Web.
Kelly, L. (2009) Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life. London: Faber and Faber.
Moore, T. & Sheridan, R.B. (2010) Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honorable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Charleston: Nabu Press.
O’Toole, F. (1998) A Traitor’s Kiss: The Life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 1751-1816. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Sheridan, R. B. (2006) The School for Scandal, The Rivals, and The Critic. Stilwell: Digireads.