Sentimental Economies in The School for Scandal
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- James E. Evans, Professor (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal, which premiered on
8 May 1777, demonstrates a central fimction of eighteenth-century literary texts, as
described by Mary Poovey: "to mediate value-that is, to help people understand
the new credit economy and the market model of value that it promoted."l The
play perfonns this cultural work through a discourse in which "the languages of
sensibility and economic theory, conventionally deemed to be separate and indeed
antagonistic," tum out "to overlap and coincide."2 In two of Sheridan's plots the
threat to the Teazles' marriage by Joseph Surface and the testing of Joseph
and Charles Surface by their Uncle Oliver-he includes scenes in which several
characters seem to express sensibility and in which patriarchal figures offer monetary
rewards to characters who actually possess it. As these scenes reveal new bases of
wealth-trade rather than the inherited property of gentlemen-better characters
reap the benefits. Yet Sheridan remains ambivalent about luxury, compelling Lady
Teazle to retrench while rewarding Charles in spite of his excesses. Framed by
the activities of the Scandal School, these plots mirror the cultural work of the
comedy itself, in which Sheridan, also manager of the Drury Lane Theatre in his
first season, sought money for his representation of sensibility. artfully embedded
in a satire of slander. In The Wealth of Nations, published the year before, Adam
Smith speaks of money as "the great wheel of circulation, the great instrument of
commerce," which "makes a part and a very valuable part of the capital ... of the
society to which it belongs."3 Smith's trope helps us appreciate how much the
characters and performances of Sheridan's play depend on circulation, not only on
the circulation of money (between nations, between generations, between spouses
and brothers, between tradesmen and customers, between audiences and manager),
but also on the circulation of scandal, cultural capital, and celebrity, especially the
celebrity of the actress who first portrayed Lady Teazle.
Sentimental Economies in The School for Scandal
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Created on 6/8/2011
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Additional Information
- Publication
- New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century 8 (2011): 51-63.
- Language: English
- Date: 2011
- Keywords
- 18th century drama, Economics, Capital, Wealth