She Stoops to Conquer

The epilogue by Dr. Goldsmith proposed some interesting thoughts. In the fourth line of this poem he states that "I have conquered him to conquer you." It seems here that he essentially strips away Kate's 'achievement' and credits the joining of her and Mr. Marlow to his writing the script and controlling the fate of the characters, not to any cleverness on her part. Really, Marlow stooped to conquer since he is unble to 'conquer' any women of higher class and therefore had to send his affections towards what he thought was a barmaid. This combines with the disguise in the play to emphasize the point that "our life is all a play, composed to please." Here Goldsmith is suggesting that we alter ourselves in different settings in order to fit the needs of the situation and the people it involves. We are constantly in character for fear that the world see our true selves, but at the same time, this role playing allows us the liberty to be our true selves. Disguise, as Kate has shown us, can oddly enough present a more accurate reality than reality itself.

I found Johnson's poem to be very depressing and very heavy reading. I'm not quite sure I got all of what he was saying but I think his point was essentially bashing pride and wealth and perhpas even knowledge because in the end we are all reduced to the same nothingness and therefore should not worry with those things. The more knowledge we have the more we are able to see the bad in the world and be depressed about it or try to act above it. I felt he was almost suggesting a state of naivety and idiotic oblivion to the world as opposed to one where we are taught to seek power and knowledge because these things supposedly make living harder on ourselves. I'm not so sure I agree with his thoughts because life is going to happen for an undetermined amount of time so even though one individual may pass through life that doesn't mean they can't contribute in a way that could perhaps make it more pleasant for future generations. Yes, there is a danger in becoming too enveloped in the things mentioned above but I also think its dangerous to be at Johnson's end of the spectrum and be unnaturaly and disturbingly cynical about life. He sees death as an escape and I have to wonder why it that he, instead of pondering the complete tragedy of life, did not just escape.