Kate Hardcastle is the central character who stoops to conquer, pretending to be a barmaid to win the heart of her shy beloved, who can only show his true personality among people of a lower class than himself. However, her best friend Constance also stoops in order to continue seeing her beloved Hastings. Constance tries to persuade her aunt, Mrs. Hardcastle, to approve her marriage to Hastings by allowing her to have her inheritance of jewels. Constance says to Mrs. Hardcastle that she, Constance, has been forced to stoop to lying since her father's death:
Since his death, I have been obliged to stoop to dissimulation to avoid oppression. In an hour of levity, I was ready to give up my fortune to secure my choice. But I am now recovered from the delusion, and hope from your tenderness what is denied me from a nearer connection.
Mrs. Hardcastle, however, is not feeling tender and wants Constance to marry Tony, though neither of them likes the other. Therefore, Constance has to continue to stoop to subterfuge to conquer her aunt; Tony takes Constance's jewels and gives them to her, so that she can marry Hastings, and he, Tony, can be off the hook for marrying her. Together, they pretend to Mrs. Hardcastle that the jewels have been stolen. Now that Constance has them, however, her path to marrying Hastings is clear.
Constance Neville "stoops to conquer," in that she attempts to hoodwink her aunt, Mrs. Hardcastle, to marry the man that she wants—Hastings—without forfeiting her inheritance. Although normally a kind and considerate young lady, Constance has to resort to subterfuge to escape the stifling restrictions of Mrs. Hardcastle's guardianship and get her hands on both Hastings and the precious jewels that make up her inheritance.
Though more worldly-wise and cosmopolitan than the somewhat provincial Mrs. Hardcastle, Constance has to stoop to a more direct method of escaping her aunt's control, namely elopement with Hastings. Sadly for her, the elopement doesn't come off, and Constance faces the prospect of being married off to Tony, a man she doesn't love at all. In wanting to marry for love rather than position, Constance is going against the prevailing standards of the time. In that sense, she "stoops" by defying what are considered the appropriate norms, as represented by Mrs. Hardcastle.
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