Our thoughts of Lucius’ character are supported when he tells Lucy that he only wants Lydia for her money. Lucius says: “If I did not want money I would steal your mistress” showing more shallowness to his character. On stage Sir Lucius wears quite elaborate clothes, portraying his personality, even though he says he is poor. Sheridan’s purpose is to portray Lucius as a humorous character, but also a man who the audience would not sympathise with, even though he seems to have many problems: “I am so poor that I cannot afford to do a dirty action.” At this point the audience may think that Sheridan is against the Irish and is stereotyping them, but this is not Sheridan’s purpose, as we will find out.
In Act 3: Scene 4 we see O’Trigger with Acres who is distressed, as he has just learnt of Beverley and Lydia’s love affair. O’Trigger would also be annoyed about this, but does not show his actions, instead he proposes that Acres challenge Beverley, who is of course Acres’ close friend, to a duel: “We wear no swords here, but you understand me.” The purpose for Sir Lucius here is to propose a duel between the two other rivals: Acres and Absolute. The duel is the climax of the play and it had to be Sir Lucius who proposed it because of his name: O’Trigger. This name, as many in the play is an antonym showing another purpose for him. As we can see Sir Lucius is not just used as a tool to disparage the Irish.
Acres does not wish to fight in a duel, showing his cowardliness, but Sir Lucius will not hear of it portraying his brash personality. Acres does not wish to fight a stranger. Here we see dramatic as we know that Beverley is in fact Jack Absolute in disguise, who is Acres’ friend: “Breach of friendship! But I have no acquaintance with this man!” Sir Lucius will not listen to Acres and insists that he fights Beverley. Sheridan’s purpose here is to show the difference of personality between the two characters of Acres and Sir Lucius. Acres is very agitated while Sir Lucius seems to be very calm and collected: “Pray compose yourself!” He dictates to Acres what he should write in the letter to Beverley, challenging him to a duel. We see Sir Lucius as a domineering man who can take control. Sheridan is portraying a more admirable man, which shows the audience that he is not against the Irish.
In the next scene that Sir Lucius is present in: Act 4: Scene 3, we see a soliloquy from him. From this we learn that Sir Lucius has not had a perfect love life, as someone married the woman he was in love with. This may be the reason he moved to Bath from Ireland. Sheridan had to explain to the audience why Sir Lucius is in Bath and he does this through the character himself. As most Irish, Sir Lucius is very patriotic and he wishes to take part in a duel with Jack Absolute because he insulted Ireland: “you could not have forgot an affront you passed on me this week” The purpose of Sir Lucius in this scene is to further the plot to involve him in the duel. It also portrays the Irish as patriotic showing a pleasant country.
The final scene Sir Lucius is present in is the climax of the play: the duel. Lucius is confident that he will win the duel, showing his self-assured nature. He seems to know a lot about duelling portraying a fashionable man, as most men in the 17th century took part in duelling as a sport: “There now, that is a very pretty distance – a pretty gentleman’s distance.” Sheridan’s purpose for Sir Lucius in this scene is to provide humour. Sir Lucius thinks that Faulkland is Beverley when him and Jack Absolute enter the scene. He also asks Acres what he wants him to do with his body after the duel: “would you choose to be pickled and sent home?” The audience would find this humorous, as Acres would become even more worried about the duel than he already is. Sheridan’s main purpose for Sir Lucius, in this scene, is to provide humour, but also to encourage Acres to take part in the duel. He wants to portray Sir Lucius as a confident man who is brave and not afraid of a challenge.
As we have seen, Sheridan’s purpose for Sir Lucius is not to disparage the Irish. I would not agree that the portrayal of Sir Lucius is an ‘ungenerous attack upon a nation’, but I do not think that Sheridan portrays the Irish as a kind, caring country. Sheridan’s main purpose for this character is to portray humour as he does in his scenes with Acres, but he also adds to the plot by creating a third member of the rivals for Lydia’s heart, but also proposing the duel, which is the climax of the play. Sir Lucius would not be the audience’s favourite character, as he is shallow and not very intelligent, but Sheridan has not made him an extremely unlikeable character.
