Choose one of the following and write a thoughtful, well-developed response for the Forum. Be sure to support all your conclusions by quoting relevant lines, phrases, words from the play-and explain how that evidence relates to your answer.
Analyze the auction scene, Act 4 scene 1. This is the first appearance of Charles in the play, though we have heard much about him. What have we heard? Are the rumors true? What don't the rumors reveal about him the scene does? Note the dramatic irony. 2. Analyze the screen scene, Act 4, scene 3, a fast-paced well-constructed one. What is the source of much of the comedy here? Be specific in your answer and use one or more of the Comedy theories to help. Note the dramatic irony. 3. One critic stated the play's "virtues are a good comic plot and brilliant conversation." Discuss The School for Scandal in the light of this remark by focusing on one scene or action. 4. Another critic was astonished by the "sheer range of satirical targets" in the play. Choose one of the following and find at least one example for it: What specifically about it is being satirized? The rumor-mill of fashionable drawing-rooms the labored witticisms of the conversations heard there Society poets Dieting Sentimental moralizing Money-lending and its regulation Sexual indiscretions of the great and good the emotional emptiness of fashionable life The figure of the "man of sentiment" 5. Sheridan ridicules much in the play, yet what are the positive values he champions and which characters have them?