This study will examine symbolism and its role and significance in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal. Symbolism in the play will be examined in terms of its relationship to the characters and the light it sheds on the characters. Sheridan's play is a comedy about the viciousness of the human inclination to gossip and spread malicious rumors about others. As might be expected, the symbolism in the play is used in the service of that comic view of human nature. At the same time, however, the play should not be dismissed as a completely cynical look at a humanity lost in malice and deceit, for Sheridan also makes it clear that there is goodness in humanity as well. Still, he is not an angry writer using symbols to express that rage at humanity's vices. To the contrary, he even gently mocks his own imagined goodness in the Prologue to the play: "Is our young bard so young to think that he/ Can stop the full spring-tide of calumny?" (Sheridan 188).
Sheridan even refers to ink as a symbol for blood, implying in a sense that he spilling his own in an effort to stop scandalmongering, or at least to bring "smiles" to the faces of his audience: "He'll fight---that's write---a cavalliero true,/ Till every drop of blood---that's ink---is spilt for you" (Sheridan 188).
On first glance, it might appear that the play has a minimum of symbols. The fact is, however, that the first obvious symbol is the scandal college itself. The school for scandal stands for all of humanity, in the playwright's view, which seems to be addicted to spreading rumors and gossip, even if that gossip is made of whole cloth.
The school is meant to be a microcosm of humanity, which apparently suffers from a universal low self-esteem which drives its members to try to denigrate others to make themselves feel better about themselves. The question is whether humanity needs such a school, for people seem to be already proficient in scandalmongerin...