The School for Scandal

Newspapers were incredibly popular in Sheridan’s time, and The School for Scandal plays into the contemporary social engagement with news and gossip (See: Background), turning newspapers into a symbol of The Destructive Nature of Gossip and Scandal.

The characters often reference bits of gossip they read in the newspapers, while also providing additional information they claim to have gotten from inside sources. Other characters, like Lady Teazle and Peter, lament how their scandals, both true and false, might end up in the newspapers. For example, in Act V, Scene 2, Peter dreads the following day’s newspapers, which will surely include his argument with Joseph, Charles, and Lady Teazle.

Newspapers serve as a constant reminder of the “audience” within the context of the play while serving as a metatextual wink toward the physical audience that would have been watching. Each of the characters knows that someone like Mrs. Candour or Crabtree might spread a bit of news, embellishing it along the way, and landing an unsuspecting individual in a gossip column the next day. The characters’ fixation on newspapers also exposes the overconfidence of gossip and rumors, such as Crabtree and Benjamin’s discussion of whether Peter was stabbed or shot.