Mask/deception/pretention/appearance vs reality

As in The Double-Dealer, covert motives and hypocrisy govern the action of the play. Old Lady Wishfort has loved Mirabell since he pretended to love her in order to woo her niece Millamant: Her ostensible motivation in opposing the young couple’s marriage is to protect her daughter from a deceiver, but her actual motivation is to avenge herself on Mirabell. Mirabell counters with an equally underhanded plan to foil Lady Wishfort’s plots with a decoy—his servant Waitwell disguised as wealthy suitor Sir Rowland. Waitwell is to prepare to marry Lady Wishfort, and Mirabell is to reveal his servant’s true identity and release her from the match on condition that she release Millamant’s fortune and grant Mirabell her hand in marriage.

Mrs. Marwood, at the center of the scheming, exploits Lady Wishfort’s dislike of Mirabell to pursue her own ends. Her ostensible desire throughout is to protect Lady Wishfort’s interests. Her actual desire, however, is to fan the flames of Lady Wishfort’s fury against Mirabell and to persuade her to disinherit Millamant in favor of Fainall, Mrs. Marwood’s lover. Fainall, meanwhile, means to denounce his wife (Lady Wishfort’s daughter) publicly for infidelity with Mirabell in an effort to blackmail Lady Wishfort into making over Mrs. Fainall’s estate to him. The blatant hypocrisy of his scheme becomes evident in the light of his true motivation: to have his wife’s fortune under the control of himself and his mistress, Mrs. Marwood. Congreve depicts a constant satirical tension between outward self and inward self, between the mask and the face behind it.

Deception is not only an interface between the characters and the world; it also serves to illustrate the characters’ view of themselves. Lady Wishfort’s attempt to turn back the years by painting herself a new face is an image whose symbolism reverberates throughout the play. It is a visual illustration of the affectations in which the foolish characters indulge. In the same vein, Petulant pays prostitutes to hire a coach and call on him in order to give the impression that he is in demand among ladies; and Mrs. Marwood makes a great show of hating men even while her actions are motivated by desire for them. All these characters are, metaphorically speaking, painting their own faces—cultivating appearances that are at odds with reality. Hence, Mirabell’s premarital condition to Millamant—“I article, that you continue to like your own face, as long as I shall, and while it passes current with me, that you endeavour not to new-coin it”—suggests a conscious rejection of the affectation and...

Who Loves Whom?

The Way of the World is a comedy about deception, greed, and love. The play opens with a scene of two fashionable young men, Mirabell and Fainall, playing cards at a chocolate house. Mirabell is distracted, waiting for a particular bride and groom to return. As the play progresses, it is revealed that Mirabell loves Millamant, the debutante niece of the aristocratic and eccentric Lady Wishfort. Lady Wishfort controls Millamant's fortune and will not hand it over until Millamant has married a man Lady Wishfort approves of. In his eagerness to impress Lady Wishfort and earn her approval, Mirabell became overly flirtatious, leading Lady Wishfort to think he desired her, despite her age, instead of Millamant. When the truth was revealed, Lady Wishfort felt so embarrassed she refused to agree to Mirabell's engagement to Millamant. Now, Mirabell has hatched a plot to force Lady Wishfort to agree to the engagement.

 

 

Plots and Counterplots

Mirabell's plan is to put his valet, Waitwell, in costume and pretend he is Sir Rowland, Mirabell's wealthy uncle. As Sir Rowland, Waitwell will woo Lady Wishfort and propose to her. Before the actual wedding, however, Mirabell will reveal the truth and promise not to humiliate Lady Wishfort by making the facts public if she agrees to his engagement to Millamant. To prevent Waitwell from double-crossing him and actually going through with the marriage, Mirabell arranges for him to marry Foible, Lady Wishfort's maid, beforehand. This is the happy couple Mirabell awaits on the day he plays cards with Fainall.

At the same time, Fainall, who is married to Lady Wishfort's daughter, is having an affair with Mrs. Marwood, Lady Wishfort's friend. They hatch their own plot to reveal Mirabell's plan and secure the inheritance money for themselves. The key detail of this plan is the information that while she was widowed and before she married Fainall, Mrs. Fainall had a romantic fling with Mirabell. Fainall believes this information would ruin Mrs. Fainall's—and by extension Lady Wishfort's—reputation, so he plans to blackmail Lady Wishfort. Their conversation further reveals that Mirabell chose Fainall to marry Lady Wishfort's daughter to protect her should she become pregnant from their romantic affair. Even after their affair ended and the Fainalls were married, Mrs. Fainall and Mirabell remain close friends, which is unusual since she is married to someone else.

Proposals and Revelations

That afternoon, Mirabell visits Millamant and proposes to her. She accepts, despite the fact that Lady Wishfort has arranged for her to marry her cousin, the drunken country bumpkin Sir Wilfull. "Sir Rowland" arrives, and although she had originally planned to welcome Sir Rowland as a suitor for her niece, Lady Wishfort basically throws herself at him once he shows the slightest interest. (Remember: Sir Rowland is actually Waitwell and has been put up to flirting with Lady Wishfort at Mirabell's request.) After overhearing the truth of Mirabell's plot while hiding in the closet and spying on Mrs. Fainall, Mrs. Marwood and Fainall set off to reveal the truth, humiliating everyone. At first, it seems their plan will work. Fainall reveals Sir Rowland's true identity, mortifying Lady Wishfort. Fainall also reveals the truth about Mrs. Fainall's previous romance with Mirabell, promising to divorce his wife and soil the family reputation unless Lady Wishfort transfers over her wealth, her daughter's fortune, and Millamant's inheritance to him.

More Plots and Revelations

While Lady Wishfort considers her options, Millamant secretly agrees to marry Sir Wilfull to save her inheritance. Mirabell plots a new way to win Millamant, which he reveals with the help of Foible and Mincing, two maids who witnessed Fainall and Mrs. Marwood's affair. When Fainall returns to demand Lady Wishfort's agreement to his terms, Millamant and Sir Wilfull reveal their engagement. The maids also reveal Fainall and Mrs. Marwood's affair. Lady Wishfort and Mrs. Fainall kick the villains out of their house, and Lady Wishfort agrees to break the engagement between Millamant and Sir Wilfull so Millamant can marry Mirabell.

 

Masks

Masks symbolize dishonesty in The Way of the World. Masks were worn as fashion during the 17th century and are a frequently used prop in Restoration Period plays, particularly in scenes of dishonesty or infidelity. In The Way of the World, characters wear masks in a foolish attempt to hide their true identities or feelings. Masks were falling out of fashion, however, as referenced by Mirabell's demand that Millamant never wear masks in their marriage—"that you continue to like your own face as long as I shall"—and Millamant's disgust at the idea that she would wear a mask, which she calls "detestable imprimis," at all. Perhaps because masks are no longer in fashion in the play, they are no longer functional: Marwood wears a mask at the end of Act II as she attempts to "cover" her affair with Fainall and the tears that result from their bickering. The mask fails to hide either, however, as Foible easily recognizes Marwood and her emotion. Similarly, Petulant wears a mask in a vain attempt to hide his identity as he flits around town, trying to make himself look more popular. Again, his friends easily recognize his true identity and mercilessly mock him behind his back. Mask-wearing characters attempt to use masks to hide their identities, but their failure to do so assures audiences that good will prevail in this farce.

Character Names

Congreve's character names symbolize their true nature. Some of the characters names literally define their personalities: Petulant, for example, means "trifling" or "superficial," which precisely characterizes the silly fop. Witwoud means "would have wit," which again perfectly characterizes Witwoud's desire to be seen as a "wit" like Mirabell. The word foible means "the weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point," which helps define the character Foible's relationship with Lady Wishfort. Although she doesn't have the status or power her ladyship has, Foible's intelligence makes her powerful.

Other character names rely on romance languages to fully understand their meaning: Millamant, for example, reflects her countless admirers: in French, mille means "thousand" and amant means "lover." Mirabell's name, on the other hand, hints at his both his own attractiveness and his love of Millamant's beauty: mira means "look" and bella means "beautiful" in Spanish.

Yet other names playfully nod to their definitions. In biblical times, the word "fain" meant to strongly desire or "fix one's heart upon." With this definition, Fainall translates to "desires everything," which hints at the character's greedy nature. Marwood breaks down into "mar," which means destroy, and "wood," or in this case, "would," suggesting her sneaky character would destroy you if given the chance. Wishfort's name reflects her exaggerated desperation for romance, suggesting she can only "wish-for-it."

 

 

Love and Romance

Central to The Way of the World is the romantic relationship between Millamant and Mirabell. To modern readers their relationship may seem confusing, even strange, but their witty exchanges and seeming absence of physical affection characterize the ideal relationship felt during the Restoration Period. Ideal relationships in the Restoration Period, such as Mirabell and Millamant's, were characterized by equality and independence—although society still judged women's purity more harshly than men's, as seen in the unbalanced treatment of Mrs. Fainall and Mirabell's affair, as Mrs. Fainall needed to be protected against "scandal" while Mirabell was essentially free to do as he pleased. Mirabell matches Millamant's wit and humor in ways her other suitors, Petulant, Witwoud, and Sir Wilfull, do not. Their pithy exchanges highlight society's desire for wit, particularly when contrasted with the banal crudeness of her other suitors, who are at various times described as drunk, vain, ignorant, and salacious. Millamant, as the archetypal heroine—she's beautiful, strong, clever, and independent—has no time for bumbling suitors like Sir Wilfull and stands in strong contrast to Lady Wishfort, who comically falls all over herself to impress Sir Rowland. Unlike Mrs. Fainall, who, until pressed at the very last moment, submits to the demands of a cruel husband, Millamant does not let Mirabell control anything. She lists all her demands before accepting Mirabell's proposal, including that she may wear what she pleases, socialize and communicate with whomever she chooses, never be forced to entertain his dull relations, eat when and what she pleases, and be allowed privacy in her room. These relationship demands would have been very fashionable (and controversial) during the Restoration Period as society fought against the conservative, traditional gender expectations that had so long existed.

Money and Greed

As the play purports, greed is "the way of the world." One cannot live without money, but the pursuit of it often corrupts relationships. None of the play's characters live without some level of greed. Each makes decisions to protect, earn, or steal fortunes. The central conflict of the play revolves around Millamant's sizeable inheritance and how it can be protected through marriage. As a stipulation of her guardianship, Lady Wishfort refuses to pass on Millamant's inheritance unless she marries a man of her approval. When Mirabell falls out of Lady Wishfort's good graces, he must concoct a complicated plan to both earn Millamant's hand and protect her inheritance. Even Millamant, who clearly loves Mirabell, likely wouldn't marry him without her money—she even goes so far as to engage herself to Sir Wilfull, a man who disgusts her, in an attempt to preserve her fortune.

Fainall and Mrs. Marwood's greed casts them as the play's villains because they seek to steal what is not theirs. Fainall marries Lady Wishfort's daughter for her money, which he spends on his mistress, Mrs. Marwood. He concocts plots to blackmail Lady Wishfort out of her own fortune and Millamant's inheritance, threatening to divorce his kindhearted wife should Lady Wishfort not comply with his demands. When his plans are discovered, Fainall remarks that "'tis the way of the world," suggesting that greed makes the world go round. Dedication to money with no love present would seem highly distasteful and unacceptable in the realm of the play; dedication to love without money would be difficult and impractical given their lives.

The Deceit and Style of Wit

The Way of the World is essentially a play of deceit. Nearly all of the characters plot against each other for their own gain. With the help of Mrs. Fainall, Foible, and Waitwell, Mirabell plots against Lady Wishfort in the hopes of winning Millamant's hand. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood plot against Mirabell and Lady Wishfort in the hopes of securing Mrs. Fainall's and Mirabell's fortunes. Waitwell disguises himself as a nobleman, Lady Wishfort slathers her face in makeup to hide her age, Witwoud hides his humble upbringing, and Mrs. Marwood wears a mask to hide her emotions. Mrs. Fainall hides her past affair with Mirabell, and Fainall maintains an illicit affair with Mrs. Marwood. No one is as they seem, and everyone has something to hide. In each of their plots, the characters attempt to outwit the other characters, showing their superiority. Because Mirabell wins his aim at the end of the play, Congreve clearly casts him as the wittiest character.

The wit of each character can be seen through the style in which Congreve writes their dialogue. Mirabell, the cleverest, is given the most style. His sentences are flowing and refined, filled with illustrative images and figurative language. In contrast, ignorant Petulant's sentences are short, crass, and often need an interpreter: "By this hand, if they were your—a—a—your what-d'ee-call-'ems." When Mirabell and Millamant speak about their engagement, they are both given long passages in which they cleverly define their terms. This contrasts with the short, clipped conversations between spouses Waitwell and Foible, whose marriage, although a pretense, provides only as much romantic depth as their physical passion for each other.

Greed and infidelity are two behaviors that Congreve dramatizes in

"The Way of the World" ,  how these two behaviors are portrayed in films or on TV in our own contemporary American society. 

 

 

The Way of the World by English playwright William Congreve premiered in London  in 1700. Considered one of the best Restoration comedies, it is still performed occasionally today but was controversial in its time due to its bawdy themes and sexual explicitness, which had fallen out of favor in its time. Focused on the adventures of a pair of lovers, Mirabell and Millamant, the story follows their plan to marry and the many steps they must take to obtain the approval of Millamant’s bitter aunt, Lady Wishfort. At the same time, supporting characters, including friends, servants, and others, are engaging in their own schemes and affairs. Like many Restoration comedies, the play serves as a satire on the culture of its time. Its themes include criticism of high society and the niceties of courtship, as well as the nature of love and the role of money in marriage. In many ways, The Way of the World is about the clash of the old with the new. Despite its sexually explicit themes, it is considered a more nuanced play than many others in the genre.

A five-act play, act one begins as as Mirabell and his friend, Fainall, have just finished playing cards. A footman arrives and tells Mirabell that his servant, Waitwell, and Lady Wishfort’s maid, Foible, have just been married. Mirabell tells Fainall how much he loves Millamant, and Fainall encourages him to marry her. However, Mirabell learns that if Lady Wishfort marries, he’ll lose a large chunk of Millamant’s inheritance. The only way to get this money is if he manages to convince Lady Wishfort to consent to their union.

Act two begins in St. James’ Park, as Fainall’s wife, known only as Mrs. Fainall, and her friend Mrs. Marwood are talking about their hatred of men. Fainall arrives and accuses Mrs. Marwood (with whom he is secretly having an affair) of being in love with Mirabell (which is true). Meanwhile, Mrs. Fainall, who is Mirabell’s secret lover, tells Mirabell that she hates her husband. She plots with him to trick Lady Wishfort into giving her blessing to the wedding. Millamant soon arrives, angry about an altercation between Mirabell and her aunt the previous night, and tells Mirabell she disapproves of his plan. As she leaves, Waitwell and Foible arrive, and Mirabell conspires with them about his plan to trick Lady Wishfort.