In the beginning of Act one scene one, we are immediately introduced to the theme of gossip and scandal, by mainly the two characters, Lady Sneerwell and Snake. We are almost thrown into their conversation which causes us to become intrigued and involved. We gain a first hand view of how this society uses the gossip columns for their own personal gains, to ridicule, manipulate and for their own personal amusement. Although Snake and Sneerwell are very similar characters, we learn that he respects her very much as he addresses her as ‘ladyship’ and he tries to keep her content when he says ‘ she wants the delicacy of hint and mellowness of sneer which distinguishes your ladyship’s scandal,’ and ‘Everybody allows that Lady Sneerwell can do more with a word or look that many can with the most laboured detail’ saying that you can’t even compare Mrs Clackitt with Lady Sneerwell. He flatters her where as Lady Sneerwell is very blunt in how she expresses her opinions, she even says to snake at the beginning ‘how dull you are!” and when surface says to Lady Sneerwell that he does not trust Snake and that he could betray them, she doesn’t stand up or defend her friend. In the 18th century women were regarded as quite inferior, even though they were beginning to acknowledge that women needed to be given the right to grow intellectually, and that equality may exist between men and women, but they were still seen as physically and emotionally weaker. In this play women such as Lady Sneerwell and Mrs Candour, are seen quite dominant and superior, as they are the most scandalous and probably the main gossips, compared to Maria who is the most anti-gossip of all the characters. She is innocent and virtuous, and criticises those who spread gossip, she claimed that “’Tis strangely impertinent for people to busy themselves so” and “such reports are highly scandalous” where as Lady Sneerwell, who is spiteful, two-faced and who likes gossip about other people but not herself, believes that there is “no possibility of being witty without a little ill nature.” We learn that ‘paragraphs’ that Lady Sneerwell are checking, were entered into the newspaper and we done so in an anonymous manner. Joseph surface refers to some of her stories about Charles as having “taken a good effect on Maria,” Maria also believes that ‘the male slanderer must have the cowardice of a woman before he can traduce one’ which shows the reader that there was a gender division and women were seen as inferior, and for men to ‘slander’ or ‘gossip’ brings men down to the level of women. We as the reader also see that the effects of the scandal mongering are evident on Maria who is upset by the tales told about her and Charles and by Miss Letitia Piper’s repuatation, which was ruined by confusion over her sheep having twins. There are lots of references to scandals and gossip stories which are being circulated orally amongst the fashionable and wealthy, idle, privileged class, which the play focuses on for example Miss Gadabout eloping with Sir Filigree Flirt; Miss Prim being stopped by her uncle in running off with her dance teacher; Mrs Festino’s affair with Colonel Cassino; Mr and Mrs Honeymoon’s long overdue marriage ceremony. All of the gossip-mongering focuses on the love-lives of their peers and speculation on future liaisons.
Act one, scene one gives us a good insight into all the characters and Lady Sneerwell plays a significant role as she introduces themes, which run throughout the play. She informs the audience and snake that Joseph is a hypocrite. She is also determined to break the affection of Charles for Maria, for, although she accepts him as ‘that libertine’, she is herself in love with him. Snake on the other hand is also very significant, as together Lady Sneerwell and her henchman Snake plot a means to break up the romance between Charles and Maria. It is Snake's job to assist in disseminating the gossip that Lady Sneerwell creates. They are also important as they supply the reader with lots of background information and they set the tone of the play, as they are two people who revel in the spread of slander. It is evident that in the 18th century, it was necessary to use newspapers to expedite the dissemination of false information and malice, as the opening remarks show. A seemingly chance remark of Lady Sneerwell’s indirectly acts as a comment on her relation to Snake. She claims that in her youth she was damaged by the ‘envenomed tongue of slander’. Now in her middle-age she uses the venomous and rightly named Snake as the disseminator of lies which she directs against society. Their words cannot be trusted, to give information and the audience is expected to tune in with the convention that the people chosen to make the introductions in the first of the play are to be regarded as reliable. In a single pronoun the characteristics of their subject is described: Lady Brittle and captain Boastall are instantly comprehended; Mrs Clackitt’s name descends from an obsolete French verb clagueter, meaning to ‘chatter.’ Other names later materialise as substantial characters, Lady Sneerwell makes reference to ‘Sir Peter Teazle and his family,’ and Snake clarifies this remark, identifying Sir Peter’s towards, Joseph and Charles Surface.
The major themes of the play are stated in the beginning of act one scene one, such as the dissemination of scandal, the picture of a society governed by deceit and artifice; and the concepts of ‘sentiment’ and the ‘sentimental’. Scandal is spread orally and the journal called ‘town and country magazine.’ The theme of artifice and deceit is important. We may presume that much scandal is false, but Snake exemplifies this by writing his reports in a ‘feigned hand.’ Much of the deceitful talk is concerned with attachments of various kinds and the severing of these. Mrs Clackitt is credited with ‘six matches being broken off’, ‘four forced elopements’, ‘close confinements’ and ‘two divorces’. The conversation continues by dealing with three presumed affairs. Snake imagines that Joseph Surface and Lady Sneerwell are having an intrigue. However, Lady Sneerwell quickly points out that Joseph is not attached to her, but to Maria. Here Snake makes another false assumption about the pair, for Joseph has an interest only in Maria’s fortune and not in the girl herself. Lady Sneerwell goes on to speak of her own passion for Charles, a passion that has not been returned, and is unlikely to be as Charles is truly in love with Maria. Therefore, in the matter of three romances, little is as it seems, and onlookers are deceived. Whilst this conversation is in progress Lady Sneerwell is making up her face. This quiet act is in itself a form of deceit, for Lady Sneerwell changes the reality of her face into an artifice. The gap between appearance and reality is stressed when Lady Sneerwell speaks of Joseph Surface. Although he is praised by Peter Teazle as the Man of Sentiment, yet says Lady Sneerwell, she has ‘found him out a long time since’, and she goes on to reveal him as ‘artful, selfish and malicious.’ The audience is introduced to the theme of ‘Man of Sentiment’. Sneerwell alludes to Joseph as a ‘sentimental knave’ and Snake quotes Teazle’s belief that Joseph is the ‘Man of Sentiment’. Here a paradox is presented as each person uses the term in a different sense. A ‘sentimental knave’ is a person who makes moral generalisations.
Overall Lady Sneerwell and Snake are two interesting characters and Act one scene one already reveals a lot about their personalities. Lady Sneerwell is more significant in the rest of the play, but in Act one scene one, Snake is essential to encourage Lady Sneerwell to talk about her affair with Sir Peter and his family and the relationship between Mr Surface and Maria, and why she is so interested in him. They image society of that time and are quite humorous. Many people also believed in Lady Sneerwell’s view, that to be witty it involves a degree of malice and she obviously enjoys creating mischief and scandals. For her, the activity is revenge as someone wrote about her in the newspaper, she says “ I have since known no pleasure equal to the reducing others to the level of my own injured reputation,” even at the end of the act, she leaves the audience feeling intrigued and curious as to what she is going to do when she says “I’ll go and plot mischief-and you shall study sentiments.”
