Re: She stoops to conquer ... origin/meaning?

Posted by Anne Bomar on April 18, 2001

In Reply to: Re: She stoops to conquer ... origin/meaning? posted by Bruce Kahl on February 28, 2000

In case anyone still cares a year later, the earlier correspondent wasn't quite right. The "She" of the title is a young woman who discovers that the young man her father wishes her to marry is extremely bashful around "nice" or upper-class women, but bold as brass around barmaids and college bedmakers (i.e., lower-class women). So, she dresses as and pretends to be the barmaid of an inn in an attempt to discover just what this young man is really like and to get him to actually look at her face {"no small advantage to a girl who brings her face to market" - Act III).
: :

: people sometimes use the phrase these days in essays and books, and I wonder just what they mean by it.

: Gotcha!
: Okay!
: The play has a theme of socio-economic class differences and one of the main characters is in love with a man who is a couple of layers below her status. So she "stoops" down class-wise to "conquer" her love interest by disguising herself. Determined to win his heart, she casts off her finery and dons the dress of a serving girl/waitress/barmaid.
: The work reminds me a bit of "The Importance of Being Earnest", another comedy of manners, class differences and mistaken identity.