The Way Of The World

William Congreve's play “The Way of The World” is a restoration comedy. It was written and performed during the end of Restoration, the period in which Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 (Charles II’s father, Charles I, was beheaded on charges of treason on January 30, 1649, after a lengthy civil war and England briefly become a commonwealth with Oliver Cromwell as its leader.) In 1700, the nation was still struggling to define succession. King William III, a Dutch prince was brought over from Hanover in 1688, to rule the Protestant nation alongside his wife/cousin, Queen Mary, an event known as the Glorious Revolution. The pair essentially took the throne from the then-reigning Catholic King James II, Mary’s father, who fled to France. They promised to rule the nation well by upholding its Protestant tradition, something many citizens felt James II wasn’t doing. Congreve weaves much of this political detail into his poem through its preoccupation with marriage, capital, and laws.

About the Author

William Congreve was born on 24 January 1670 in Bardsey, England. He was an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period. He is known for his clever, satirical dialogue and influence on the comedy of manners style. His major plays were: The Old Bachelor (1693), The Double-Dealer (1693), Love for Love (1695), and The Way of the World (1700). His career as a playwright was short-lived and he entered retirement early. He never married but was involved with several famous actresses, many of whom starred in his plays. Congreve was involved with Anne Bracegirdle, an actress to whom he gave many major roles in his plays. She played the role of Millamant in The Way of the World. He died on 19 January 1729 in London, England.

As there are so many characters in the play so this flowchart will help you to remember all the characters and their relationship with each other.

About the Play

The play begins in between and many of the important incidents have already taken place in the lives of the main characters which Congreve reveals throughout the play.

Edward Mirabell who is the protagonist of the play is a fashionable, intellectual and clever man who is popular among the ladies of the town. He was Mrs.Fainall's ex and now is in love with Millamant and he wants to get married to her. But there are some people who don’t want his plan to be successful. Mr. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood tried to ruin his plan. Only a few people were there in support of Mirabell to achieve his love for Millamant and they were his servant Waitwell, his servant’s wife, Foible, and his former lover and still good friend, Mrs. Arabella Fainall. He showed "true wit".

Millamant is the heroine of the play as she is a smart, beautiful, independent woman. She loves poetry. She is different from other female characters which can be clearly seen in the “proviso scene”. She also loves Mirabell but she didn’t express it in front of the public. She mainly supports her aunt Wishfort in all things and doesn’t initially offer much resistance to her aunt’s proposition to marry her off to first Rowland and then her cousin, Sir Wilfull, in order to thwart Mirabell. When she does agree to marry Mirabell, she sets multiple conditions to assert her continued independence within the marriage, which Mirabell, after setting some conditions of his own, readily accepts. She also makes Mirabell jealous by spending her time with two fools, Witwoud and Petulant, she isn’t romantically interested in them. She also shows “true wit” in the play.

Foible who is the servant of Lady Wishfort. She is a smart and eloquent woman and Mirabell is very pleased with her service. She is the only character who genuinely support Mirabell’s plan to marry Millamant. She deeply respects Mrs. Fainall. In a secret ceremony, she got married to Mirabell ‘s servant, Waitwell. She is very happy and often teases her husband.

Lady Wishfort who is a wealthy, old widow, mother of Arabella Fainall, and aunt to Millamant, Witwoud, and. She is a vain and silly woman who tries to act younger than she actually is. She truly describes the artificiality of that time as she herself puts a lot of makeup to hide her wrinkles. She is the leader of “cabal-night”. She is incharge of arranging her niece’s marriage and protecting her dowry until she gets married as there was a matriarchy.

True wits v/s False wits

From the “Dedication” of the play, Congreve talks about the wits. He says that the reader’s critical eye is responsible for the little success of the play. He talks about the false wits and says that all the characters which are not able to imitate well fall under this category and they need the audience’s love and sympathies. Petulant and Witwoud rather all the characters except Mirabell and Millamant fall under the category of "false wit".

Congreve shows the marriage of two true wits that is Mirabell and Millamant and through this, he critiques courtly love, hypocrisy, and marriage as a financial institution. Though the characters who fall under “false wit” helped the play to move forward. Both “true wit” and “false wit” complement each other to make the play complete in itself.