The Temple Beau - Themes

Themes

The play's rejection by the Theatre Royal proved beneficial to Fielding because it allowed him to experiment with his plays in ways that would be unaccepted at larger locations. This is not to say that the play was different from his first; The Temple Beau (1730), like Love in Several Masques (1728), exemplified Fielding's understanding of traditional Post-Restoration comedic form. The connections are deeper, and, as Harold Pagliaro believes, that "Though The Temple Beau is more complex in its intrigues than is Fielding's first play, both promote the ideal of love and marriage, showing money to be necessary for a happy marriage but bad as the primary reason for it."

The Temple Beau is straightforward unlike Love in Several Masques, and it relies on a simpler set of patterns: instead of triplicates, the images are repeated only once. Additionally, many of the characters are analogous to the roles of the characters within the other play (Wilding and Wisemore, Veromil and Merital, Valentine and Malvil, etc.). However, the plot of the two plays are different because Fielding focuses more on hypocrisy and how characters interact with Wilding. Bellaria's two aunts, Lady Pedant and Lady Gravely, representing immodesty and prudishness respectively, try to influence her actions; Bellaria is able to avoid the suggestions of both, and believes that one should not hide their love for another and should be passionate towards a virtuous man. When it comes to matters of gender, the play expresses a view of equality between the sexes that manifests in marriage. However, the play reveals that there are different standards for the genders even though the male characters may express concerns about these double standards.