7/19/2017 M Ali Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of Manners

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Friday, 21 December 2012

5 Reasons of Weakness in Spoken E
Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of
Manners
The comedy of Manners emerged during the age of Dryden, the age of
Restoration. Therefore it is also called Restoration Comedy. The
Restoration comedy of manners reached its fullest expression in The
Way of the World (1700) by William Congreve, which is dominated
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by a brilliantly witty couple. This sort of comedy is called comedy of
manners for the writers in the restoration theatre have shown the Search

manners and morals of the ways of life of the higher class aristocratic
M Ali Notes Trailer _ contents on liter
fashionable society, however, not of the lower class or middle class society.
The themes of the Restoration comedy of manners are love, marriage,
adulterous relationships amours and legacy conflicts; and the characters
generally include would be wits, jealous husbands, conniving rivals and
foppish dandies. It relies for comic effect in large part on the wit and
sparkle of the dialogue- often in the form of repartee, a witty
conversational give-and-take which constitutes a kind of verbal fencing
match. Now let us evaluate Congreves The Way of the World as a English Study Hub
comedy of manners.

The society depicted in The Way of

the World is the upper class
fashionable society of London. The Follow on Facebook
action of the play takes place in three
places. The first is the chocolate House About Me
which was used for socializing and Muhammad Ali
entertainment during the Restoration. The View my complete profile
second is St Jamess Park in London where
the upper class people walked before
dinner. Witwould says, Contents
Well all walk in the park; the ladies Adonais (1)
talked of being there. Alexander Pope (1)
The third is the house of Lady Wishfort, an An Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1)
Andrew Marvell (3)
aristocratic woman.
Areopagitica (1)
Christopher Marlowe (2)
Most of the male and female characters of the play are cultured,
Classics (1)
talented, formal, artificial, fashionable, depraved, cold and courtly. Their Coleridge (2)
qualities are actually a part of Restoration age culture. Daniel Defoe (1)
Don Juan (1)
The Restoration period was an age of loose morals and, and was Dr. Faustus (2)
Drama (11)
devoid of moral values. The Way of the World contains this current
Francis Bacon (3)
through the illicit love and adulterous relations e.g. relation between Gulliver's Travels (1)
Fainall and Mrs. Marwood, between Mirabell, the hero, and Mrs. Fainal. History of England (2)
Mirabell married Mrs. Fainall off to Fainal, being afraid of her being John Bunyan (2)
John Dryden (1)
pregnant. Fainalls illicit relationship with Mrs. Marwood having been
John Keats (2)
exposed, Fainall faces the situation fearlessly and shamelessly:
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7/19/2017 M Ali Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of Manners

If it must all come out, why let them know it; its but the way of the John Milton (1)
John Webster (1)
world.
Jonathan Swift (1)
Even Mrs. Marwood and Lady Wishfort secretly loved Mirabell. Jonh Donne (1)
Joseph Addison (1)
Unhappy conjugal life can be treated as another characteristic of Linguistics (9)
the time which is expressed through the relation between Mr. and Mrs. Literary Theory and Practical Criticism (4)
Lord Byron (1)
Fainall. One of them feels uneasy in the presence of another. Mrs. Fainall
M Ali (1)
expresses her uneasiness in St Jamess park in the presence of her Macbeth (2)
husband- Matthew Arnold (1)
He turned sort upon me unaware, and had almost overcome me. Metaphysical Poetry (3)
Novels (3)

The Way of The World also exposes the worldliness and greed of Oedipus the King (2)
Philosophy (16)
the young men of the time. Mercenary motives led them to seek rich
Poetry (17)
heiresses in marriage Mr. Fainall marries Mrs. Fainall, a widow, for her Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1)
property. Mirabell does not want to marry Millament without her property. Preface to Shakespeare (1)
Pride and Prejudice (1)
This mercenary tendency led them to intrigue which was the order Prose (9)
Riders to the Sea (2)
of the day in social and domestic life. Mirabell, in order to obtain Milament
Robinson Crusoe (1)
with her whole legacy, pretends to woo Lady Wishfort. He marries his Romantic Poetry (10)
servant to Wishforts maid and sends his servant as Sir Roland to Lady Samuel Johnson (1)

Wishfort so that the servant can make a marriage contact with the lady. By Shakespeare (2)
Shelley (1)
this intrigue, Mirabell makes Lady Wishfort agree
Sheridan (1)
Upon condition that she consents to [his] marriage with her niece, Short Story (1)
And surrender[s] the moiety of her fortune in her possession. Sophocles (1)
Even Sir Wilfull, an exception to other characters of the play, joins the web Syllabuses (1)
T S Eliot (1)
of intrigues in the play. Moreover, Fainall makes the legacy-conflict deeper
The Duchess of Malfi (1)
through his cruel condition to Lady Wishfort. The Garden Party (1)
The Idea of a University (1)
In The Way of The World, we are acquainted with the vanities, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock (1)
affectations and fashions of the time. Mirrabell satirically remarks in The Pilgrim's Progress (2)
The Rape of the Lock (1)
the proviso scene on womens fondness of wearing masks, going to the
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (2)
theatre with or without their husbands knowledge, idle gossip, slandering The Rivals (1)
the absent friends etc. In her contact with Mirabell, Millament proves her The Spanish Tragedy (1)
habit of late rising, contemplation in solitude general laziness etc. She The Way of the World (1)
Thomas Gray (1)
says,
Thomas Kyd (1)
Ill ye abed in a morning as long as I please. Victorian Literature (2)
Mirabell also ridicules pregnant womens wearing tight dresses in order to William Blake (1)
maintain their figure which can actually deform their children. Moreover, William Congreve (1)
William Wordsworth (3)
intelligent women like Millament allowed a crowd of admirers to a school
Wuthering Heights (1)
of fools to gather around them in order to show their demand and worth.
Millaments vanity is revealed in causing her lover pain to have a sense of
power:
Ones cruelty is ones power.
Above all, Lady Wishfort, a higher class fashionable lady, seeks a husband
in her age of fifty five. Mirabell ridicules her saying,
The good lady would marry anything that resembled a men.

And the make up and dressing up of women of the society is expressed in

the speech of the footman about Lady Wishfort of the house-
I can not swear to her face in a morning, before she is dressed.

The upper class people could give up anything only to

maintain/save the family name and fame. Lady Wishfort wants to
conceal the scandal of her daughter by any means. She says,
Ill compound, Ill give up all, myself and my all, my niece and her
all- anything, everything for composition.

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7/19/2017 M Ali Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of Manners

The Way of The World brings before us witty Restoration ladies

and gentlemen even their servants and fools are witty. As a result, the
dialogue is throughout witty which is something unrealistic.. Therefore the
play, like other plays of its kind, is called an artificial comedy.

In this play, Witwould and Petulant are presented as fops and false
wits, the so-called fine gentlemen. Their pastime is to accompany ladies
and passing vulgar remarks at them. They are Millaments suitors for
fashions sake. Their air and activities amuse us. Sir Wilfull, Witwoulds
brother, calls Witwould, the fashions a fool; and youre a fop, dear
brother. Petulant hires women to come and ask for him at the chocolate
house. Fainall says about his purpose,
This is in order to have something to brag of the next-time he
makes Court to Millament, and swear he has abandoned the whole
sex for her sake.

From Footmans speech we know about frequent changing of

servants in that society. Asked by Willfull about how long he is here, the
Footman replies,
A week sir: longer than anybody in the house, except my ladys
woman.

The city dwellers do not want to relate themselves with their country
relations. Witwould pretends not to know his half- brother Wilfull, and
comments,
tis not modish to know relations in town.

Complicated plot construction is also regarded as a quality of

comedy of manners. In this play, the five acts contain sixty five scenes in
total, and there are very complicated relations among the characters. Such
as, Mirabell, the hero is loved by Millament, Mrs. Fainall, Mrs. Marwood,
and even Lady Wishfort secretly.

The discussion above makes it very much clear that The Way of the
World presents a faithful picture of the manners of the restoration and the
eighteenth century social picture. The presentation is full of comedy and
satire. Thus the play is a good example of restoration comedy of manners.

Posted by Muhammad Ali at 00:16

22 comments:

16 June 2013 at 14:07

Thank you very much, about this information.

Reply

Sama Alfayoumi 7 July 2013 at 01:43

it's clear and important information.. thank you

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Sama Alfayoumi 7 July 2013 at 01:44

thank you it is useful information.

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surya kala 23 October 2013 at 23:35

nice aspect of view..............

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7/19/2017 M Ali Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of Manners
Reply

surya kala 23 October 2013 at 23:37

a clear cut explanation...........

Reply

arundhuty roy 14 January 2014 at 13:04

A very useful material have ever read.....

Reply

Lipi Rahman 26 February 2014 at 13:40

Thank you Sir.

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Lipi Rahman 26 February 2014 at 13:40

Thank you Sir.....

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Antara Mukhopadhyay 13 October 2014 at 18:36

Thanks a lot..
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Nirmal J 10 November 2014 at 02:47

Useful material...n content structured in the right way

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7/19/2017 M Ali Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World: Restoration Comedy of Manners
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Abhijit saikiah AB 25 February 2015 at 21:19

Thanks a lot. Found it useful.

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ashley d'cruz 6 April 2015 at 12:28

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Aman Hossain 30 January 2016 at 22:55

thank you very much sir.

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Monir Hossain 24 February 2016 at 12:09

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Unknown 3 March 2017 at 09:38

Thank you so much.really it very easy discussion to understand .......

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