Play: The Good-Natur'd Man

Overview
The Good-Natur'd Man is a comic play by Oliver Goldsmith first performed in 1768. It presents a gentle, generous protagonist whose simple honesty and benevolence stand in stark relief against a social world given to affectation, greed, and petty ambition. Goldsmith blends satire with sentimental comedy to argue that innate goodness and sincerity are more admirable than polished manners or social cunning.
The tone alternates between light mockery and warm sympathy. Rather than staging broad farce, the play relies on character contrast and pointed dialogue to expose hypocrisy while preserving a humane, forgiving outlook toward human folly.

Plot
The central narrative follows a guileless gentleman whose readiness to help others makes him vulnerable to manipulation and social slights. Friends and would-be acquaintances, animated by self-interest or fashionable pretension, court him for their own advantage and mock his lack of artifice. Through a series of social encounters, misunderstandings, and false reports, the hero faces financial strain and social embarrassment, while those around him reveal their priorities and vanities.
Rather than resolving by cutting revenge or bitter exposure, the action moves toward the moral vindication of the protagonist. Conflicts are settled as truth and decency are gradually acknowledged, and the hero's steady benevolence prompts repentance or reappraisal in several characters. The conclusion emphasizes reconciliation and the recovery of order, leaving the audience with a sense that sincere goodness, though impractical at times, ultimately reshapes the community.

Themes and character contrasts
The play dramatizes the tension between natural virtue and affected politeness. Goldsmith ridicules social climbing, theatrical manners, and the mercenary calculations of fashionable life, showing how those traits erode trust and warmth. Opposed to these attributes is the central figure of unpretentious kindness, who refuses to trade integrity for advantage and thereby exposes the moral emptiness of more cultivated behavior.
A recurring theme is the social cost of generosity: kindness can be exploited, and candor can appear foolish. Goldsmith treats that cost with compassion rather than cynicism, suggesting that goodness has an intrinsic worth that eventually exerts a civilizing influence. Satire targets hypocrisy and pretension, but the play's moral force comes through personal example rather than harsh condemnation.

Style, tone, and reception
Goldsmith wrote with a clear ear for conversational comedy and a preference for character-driven situations over elaborate plotting. The dialogue mixes pointed satire with touches of pathos, and the play's pace allows comic scenes to illuminate moral contrasts. Rather than aiming for broad farce, Goldsmith cultivates a restrained wit and an expressive sympathy for human weakness.
Contemporary reception was mixed: the play enjoyed some popular appreciation but did not achieve the enduring fame of Goldsmith's later works. Critics found its sentimental leanings and moral earnestness less explosively comic than other Restoration and 18th-century comedies, yet many praised its humane outlook and deft character portrayals. Over time the play has been read as an important expression of Goldsmith's belief in the redemptive power of natural goodness amid a society given to artifice.