WAEC Literature in English 2018 Theory — Question 14

Model answer

The jewels are of huge significance in the play. The importance of the jewels brings about the importance of inheritance in the play. Just as Tony's fortune rests on 1,500 pounds a year when he comes of age, Constance Neville's fortune also rests on the jewels which become her possession by the time she marries. Mrs. Hardcastle who is in the possession of these jewels, does not want to let go of them. She wants Neville to get married to Tony so as to retain the jewels in her custody. Constance Neville wants to elope with Hastings whom she so much loves. However, Constance Neville is bedeviled by Mrs. Hardcastle whose love for material things gets her adamant in the possession of the jewels. Mrs Hardcastle demonstrates her excessive love for material things when she ostensibly claims that the jewels have been stolen and tries to cajole Neville into believing that. She tries to convince Neville that she does not need the jewels: 'Indeed, Constance, you amaze me. Such a girl as you want jewels? It will be time enough for jewels, my dear, twenty years hence, when your beauty begins to want repair.' Neville replies and gives reasons why she needs the jewels: 'But what repair beauty at forty will certainly improve it at twenty, Madam.' The jewels are a significant factor in the development of the plot of the play. The plot continues as Tony and Mrs. Hardcastle keep on deceiving each other. When Mrs. Hardcastle falsely tells Neville that the jewels have been stolen, Tony also consents to that, meanwhile Tony has just stolen the casket of jewels behind Mrs Hardcastle. Tony plays practical tricks on Mrs Hardcastle as he feigns knowledge of the disappearance of the jewels and Mrs Hardcastle is happy with that. By the time Mrs. Hardcastle disappears and goes to check her bureau, she discovers that the casket has been stolen. Tony has just handed the casket to Neville and tells her to elope with it. This makes a fool of Mrs. Hardcastle. Tony continues to play tricks on Mrs Hardcastle till the end of the play. The jewels are significant as they aid the use of dramatic irony in the text. Young Marlow who is oblivious of the happening in the Hardcastle's house still believes that Mr. Hardcastle is the inn keeper while Mrs. Hardcastle is the wife. When the casket of jewels was handed to Young Marlow, he is only given so as to keep it. Unknown to Young Marlow, he returns the casket to Mrs. Hardcastle from whom the casket has been stolen. This is quiet funny and ironical. The desire to be in the possession of the jewels continues to rule Mrs. Hardcastle until the end of the play when she has no option than to relinquish them. Mrs. Hardcastle finally gets the jewels that details Neville and Hastings plan to elope through Diggory's carelessness and Tony's illiteracy. To thwart their elopement plan, she decides to take Neville to Aunt Pedigree in another town. But Tony is instrumental here as he is the only option for Mrs. Hardcastle's journey. He uses the opportunity to deceive Mrs. Hardcastle and makes her suffer stress as he takes her through a fictitious journey, claiming to be 40 miles away and to be somewhere around Crackskull Common where highway robbers do operate. Mrs Hardcastle's plan to whisk Neville off and to be in the possession of the jewels fails and she becomes the only unhappy person at the end of the play when her plan to marry Tony and Neville fails and she has no option than to relinquish the jewels to Neville who will be getting married to Hastings.