Summary
Charles sells every painting of his ancestors except for a portrait of Sir Oliver. When "Mr. Premium" (Sir Oliver in disguise) offers to pay a large sum of money for it, Charles still refuses to sell it. After the deal is done, Charles sends a sum of money for the relief of Mr. Stanley, despite’s Rowley’s objections.
Sir Oliver thinks about Charles’ behavior when Rowley comes with the money Charles sent for Mr. Stanley. After this, Sir Oliver decides to go and visit Joseph as Mr. Stanley to see how he will behave.
Meanwhile, Lady Teazle is paying a visit to Joseph. A servant announces that Sir Peter has also come to call on Joseph, and Lady Teazle hides behind a screen. Sir Peter tells Joseph about the rumored relationship between his wife and Charles and also urges Joseph to marry Maria—much to Joseph’s displeasure, since he had just been trying to convince Lady Teazle to cheat on her husband with him.
Charles is announced, and Sir Peter decides to hide as well behind the screen. Sir Peter sees a woman behind the screen, but Joseph convinces him that it is just some random woman—a French milliner. Sir Peter hides in a closet instead.
Charles enters; and he and Joseph start talking about Lady Teazle, and how Charles thinks that Joseph and her are in a relationship. Joseph tries to get him off the subject, but Charles does not understand, so Joseph tells him quietly that Sir Peter is hiding in the room. Charles immediately lets Sir Peter come out, and Sir Peter apologizes for believing that there is something between his wife and him.
Lady Sneerwell is announced, and Joseph leaves to stop her from entering the room. Thinking it will be a good joke to reveal a woman hiding in the room to Joseph's own brother, Sir Peter pulls down the screen to finds that his wife behind it. She confesses that she came to Joseph with the intention of having an affair with him, but that after she found that Sir Peter wanted to let her have a large sum of money, she decided against it.
Lady Teazle leaves and Joseph tries to explain to Sir Peter why she was in the room. Sir Peter refuses to listen to him and they leave stage together arguing.
Analysis
Dramatic irony appears in two major scenes of this act. First, Sir Oliver completes his second nephew-visit in disguise. This visit, spread across multiple scenes, is quite dynamic; Sir Oliver ends Act III promising to himself and the audience that he will never forgive his nephew for selling the family's portraits, but by the end of Act IV he has completely forgiven Charles, since the young man refused to sell the portrait of Sir Oliver for any price. He has even come to see Charles as perhaps more moral than his brother, since Charles sends money after his relative Mr. Stanley as soon as he has some to give. The scenes between Charles and Sir Oliver in disguise as Mr. Premium are full of dramatic irony and humor because Sir Oliver does not do a particularly good job of acting the part nor hiding his emotional reactions, and yet Charles seems to be none the wiser, even when talking directly about Sir Oliver.
The second case of dramatic irony in this act comes from the series of people hiding in Joseph's rooms and then being revealed. The rising action and building of suspense in the scene directly follows the number of people, all tied together in a dense knot of love triangles and rumors. The climax, ironically, comes precisely from Sir Peter trying to make fun of his friend publicly: in attempting to do so by pulling down the screen that he believes is hiding a simple woman from the town, he actually publicly humiliates himself.
It is important to note the symbolism of the portraits in Charles's Surface's house, as well as the symbolism of the various other items he has sold. Since social class was so tied to wealth and lineage, Charles was not only disrespecting his family's memory by selling their goods, but also upsetting the usual respect for social class. While the portraits of the family are clear representations of the family members themselves, having a portrait made is also something only the wealthiest people and families would be able to do, and that these portraits go back for many generations shows the strong lineage of the Surface family. This can also be seen in Sir Oliver's shock at Charles selling the books from the family library: since education, especially higher education, was reserved for wealthy males at the time, selling the library can be seen as not upholding this archaic system of keeping knowledge in the upper class.
Similarly to Act III, repetition is used in Act IV in a conversation between Sir Oliver and Mr. Moses. However, instead repeating the words of Mr. Moses for comedic effect as Sir Oliver took on the role of a money-lender, the repetition in Act IV shows Sir Oliver attempting to make up his mind about Charles. Sir Oliver repeats the exact same line three times: "But he would not sell my picture" (p.144). In the end, the audience finds that Sir Oliver does see this as a good enough showing of love and loyalty to make the boy his heir. This could be seen as a commentary on the public weighing of peoples' morality: rather than putting all of their actions on a scale, perhaps great loyalty to one person or value makes them moral, at least in the eyes of those who value that same thing.
While Sir Oliver seems to believe Charles moral and worthy of his inheritance because of his loyalty, the audience may also feel that Charles Surface is a refreshing presence for his unwillingness to play social games, especially those of disguise and deceit. This can be seen in his action of pulling Sir Peter out of hiding as soon as he finds out the situation. This type of quick, almost abrasive honesty has perhaps only been seen so far in Act I Scene I when Lady Sneerwell laid out her intentions for Snake, but even that was a more private situation than this public act of openness.
