An Introduction to the Play
Sheridan
The School for Scandal has been widely admired. The English critic
William Hazlitt was particularly effusive in his praise of Sheridan's comedies in general ("everything in them tells; there is no labour in vain") and of this play in particular:
| “ | The 'School for Scandal' is, if not the most original, perhaps the most finished and faultless comedy which we have. When it is acted, you hear people all around you exclaiming, "Surely it is impossible for anything to be cleverer." The scene in which Charles sells all the old family pictures but his uncle's, who is the purchaser in disguise, and that of the discovery of Lady Teazle when the screen falls, are among the happiest and most highly wrought that comedy, in its wide and brilliant range, can boast. Besides the wit and ingenuity of this play, there is a genial spirit of frankness and generosity about it, that relieves the heart as well as clears the lungs. It professes a faith in the natural goodness as well as habitual depravity of human nature. | ” |
Edmund Gosse called the play "perhaps the best existing English comedy of intrigue", while
Charles Lamb wrote that "This comedy grew out of
Congreve and
Wycherley," but criticized "sentimental incompatibilities" even while admitting that "the gaiety upon the whole is buoyant."
On the other hand, the play has also in modern times been criticized for some hints of
anti-Semitism, specifically "the disparaging remarks made about moneylenders, who were often Jewish." It is true that the moneylender Moses is portrayed in a comparatively positive light, but the way he is described (as a "friendly Jew" and an "honest Israelite" by Rowley in III.1) suggest that he is in some way to be considered an exception to Jews in general; also, his own usurious business practices as stated to Sir Peter are clearly less than exemplary
Another criticism that has been made of the play involves the characterization. A writer in the 19th century periodical Appleton's Journal states that
| “ | The great defect of 'The School for Scandal' — the one thing which shows the difference between a comic writer of the type of Sheridan and a great dramatist like Shakespeare — is the unvarying wit of the characters. And not only are the characters all witty, but they all talk alike. Their wit is Sheridan's wit, which is very good wit indeed; but it is Sheridan's own, and not Sir Peter Teazle's, or Backbite's, or Careless's, or Lady Sneerwell's. |
