The comedy of manners chiefly reflects the society and the pretences of the post- Restoration( 1660)England. These comedies show the rich aristocratic people as promiscuous, fashionable, mischievous and of loose morals. The masterpiece among such witty comedies is William Congreve’s “The Way of the World”(1700). The central themes are love, marriage, intrigue, illicit relationship and wealth in inheritance. The play is in no sense a misnomer and it is a reliable document of contemporary lifestyle and mannerisms.
In Congreve’s play, love is a fickle fashion rather than a profound passion. Mirabell first courts the daughter of Lady Wishfort and then the Lady herself. Finally he woos Millamant, Wishfort’s wealthy niece. He marries the daughter of Wishfort to his friend Fainall when she gets pregnant. The lustful old widow Lady Wishfort is desperate to marry Sir Rowland, actually Waitwell in disguise. Millamant either qgpignores or insults her lover Mirabell in public. The love presented here is without intensity or mutual respect.
Marriage is no more a sacramental ritual but a device of plotting in the hands of Congreve. There is no real love but only affectation between husbands and wives and extra-marrital affairs abound. Fainall is the lover of Mrs Marwood while Mrs Fainall strolls privately in the garden with Mirabell. A husband talking friendly to his wife becomes a common talk but illicit affairs are accepted and often appreciated. Such affairs are not considered shameful at all since ” … ’tis but the way of the world”.The intended marriage between Lady Wishfort and Sir Rowland is driven by lust and the wedding of Waitwell and Foible takes place to support Mirabell’s plan. Even the marriage of Mirabell and Millamant is not without conditions and she thinks wifehood to be inferior and miserable.
Greed for money comes to the fore as a core issue in this drama. This avarice makes Mirabell court Lady Wishfort, her daughter and her niece. Though Mirabell truly loves Millamant, his monetary gain in this marriage cannot be overlooked. Fainall marries Wishfort’s daughter and remains silent despite knowing her affair only for her money. He threatens Wishfort to extract money from her and it is by saving this money and the honour that Mirabell becomes the hero at the end.
Intrigues in this play are also overwhelming in number. The league of Fainall and Mrs Marwood and the feigned marriage between Sir Rowland and Lady Wishfort are two among all the machinations. The two masterminds Mirabell and Fainall clash, one intrigue is planned to counter another and nearly everybody is knowingly or unknowingly involved in these tricks.
The fashion and artificiality of the post-Restoration society are heavily criticized by Congreve. Females kill their time by gossiping, receiving and visiting friends and males by drinking or playing cards. The ladies love scandal-mongering and in the cabal nights, in Pope’s words, ” At every word a reputation dies”( The Rape of the Lock, Canto III). Millamant is busy either in dressing herself or in being accompanied by suitors. She pins her hair with poetic loveletters. Nobody reveals his true face. Illicit lust breeds mutual distrust and jealousy between Mrs Fainall and Mrs Marwood. Petulant passes vulgar comments on ladies and Witwoud doesn’t recognise his half brother Sir Wilful. Hypocrisy and lust drive the society instead of moral values and virtues.
Thus this play honestly reflects the manners of the time and criticizes the pitfalls of society with latent suggestion of correction. Not a single character is beyond the effect of the artificial and hypocritical ways of the world and the more innocent ones are victim to folly, while others surrender to vice. Truly, ” In The Way of the World, we have Congreve at his happiest”( Compton Rickett).
