The School for Scandal has many central characters that all play key roles in the complicated plots and subplots. Lady Teazle and her husband Sir Peter Teazle, who is in charge of a ward named Maria, are major players. Rawley and Sir Oliver Surface are friends of Sir Peter. Charles and Joseph Surface are Sir Oliver's nephews. Sir Oliver has been away in India. Lady Sneerwell and Snake are the schemers. Mrs. Candour, Mr. Crabtree, and his nephew Sir Benjamin Backbite are minor players who feed on gossip. At the start of the play Charles is in love with Maria, Joseph is in love with Maria, Sir Benjamin is in love with Maria, and Lady Sneerwell is in love with Charles. Charles has a horrible reputation for being a gambler and a ladies' man. Sir Peter hates Charles and loves his brother Joseph. Rawley loves Charles and hates his brother Joseph. Sir Oliver is coming to town secretly with the help of Rawley in order to see which of his nephews is worthy of his money. Sir Peter and Lady Teazle are having a hard time with their marriage because she is very young and he is older. Lady Sneerwell is plotting with Snake and Joseph to make Sir Peter think that Lady Teazel is having an affair with Charles, so that Maria will not love Charles so Lady Sneerwell can marry Charles and Joseph can marry Maria. The play really starts to go crazy when Sir Oliver arrives. He wants to test his nephews and see what kind of people they are so he has sent a letter from an imaginary distant relative, Mr. Stanley, asking for money. When Sir Oliver arrives he pretends to be a money lender, Mr. Premium. He goes to Charles and offers to buy all the portraits of his ancestors. Charles will sell all the portraits except the one of Sir Oliver. This pleases Sir Oliver and he then sets out to test Joseph. He goes to Joseph and pretends to be Mr. Stanley, asking for money. Joseph says no and shoos him away because he is preoccupied. While trying to woo Maria, Joseph inadvertently got Lady Teazle, so he invites her to his house. She comes over, but suddenly Sir Peter shows up. Lady Teazle hides behind a screen while Joseph tells Sir Peter that Charles is not having an affair with his wife. Charles comes and Sir Peter hides in a box so that he can hear that Charles is not guilty. Joseph also tells Sir Peter that he has a French lady behind the screen. Charles comes in and says he is not having an affair, but indicates that Joseph is. Charles finds out that Sir Peter is hiding in the box and calls him out. Then Joseph has to go out to deal with another guest. Sir Peter and Charles decide to look at the French girl that Joseph has in his house. They pull down the screen and Joseph comes back just in time to see that Lady Teazle has been revealed to Sir Peter. They all stand in silence until Lady Teazle tells Sir Peter how touched she is by all the things he said while she was hiding. They vow to improve the marriage. The gossips of the town try to decide if it was Joseph or Charles who was having the affair with Lady Teazle. They all come together at Joseph's house and Sir Oliver reveals himself. He tells how he prefers Charles to Joseph and then Lady Sneerwell tries to say that Charles has gotten her pregnant. Fortunately, Snake reveals the truth about all the schemes and clears Charles's name. Charles and Maria are to be married and all is well.