Oliver Goldsmith's satire She Stoops to Conquer (1773), is the combination of a Restoration play and a sentimental comedy. The blending of these two styles of work was something very new for British comedy at its time and has placed this play in the memories of all who see and read it. The aspects of addressing the audience, character interactions, and brief moments of sentimentality impact the audience of the play by giving them a different approach to the elements of the satire all while exuding a serious central theme revealed through the sincere, sentimental emotions of the characters.
An aspect of She Stoops to Conquer that makes it notable among satires is that its characters are aware of the fact that they are actors playing created roles with intentions of making an audience laugh. In the play's prologue, Mr. Woodward makes an address in which he proclaims, "When the sweet maid is laid upon the bier, / Shuter and I shall be chief mourners here," (11-12). The character of Mr. Woodward acknowledges Ned Shuter, the actor who played the role of Hardcastle in a production of the piece done in 1772. Mr. Woodward again addresses this actor later in the prologue, "Poor Ned and I are dead to all intents," (15). With these two addresses to one of the production's actors, the character of Mr. Woodward reminds the audience that they are only seeing a play, performed by real people pretending to be someone else. This is a different approach than the one typically taken by most actors, who try to become another character and portray that character to an audience as if he is really that character. Also, the character of Mr. Woodward (or as viewed by the audience, at this point, the actor playing the character of Mr. Woodward) admits to the audience that his purpose and intention in the play is to get a comical rise out of the audience. He confesses, "To make you laugh I must play tragedy" (34), divulging the fact that he must play something else for the sole aim of making the audience laugh.
