Way of the World

The Way of the World (1700) is the fourth and last comedy of William Congreve. By modern critics, The Way of the World is regarded as Congreve’s best work, among other things because of its thematic complexity, its brilliant character creation and its stylistic grandeur. By his contemporaries, however, the play was received in a lukewarm way. It was far less successful than Congreve’s previous comedy Love for Love (1695).

Disappointed with this comparably bad reception of the play, Congreve retired from his dramatic career. He continued writing libretti for opera, however, and was involved as theatre manager. Together with the death of John Dryden, Congreve's silence marked the end of Restoration Comedy proper. In the years to follow, the genre was replaced by Sentimental Comedy, where the focus is rather on moral values and sentimental feelings.

Modern critics have ascribed the failure in success of The Way of the World to the fact that Congreve failed to adapt his own, personal wit to the various characters of the play. The witty, very polished way language does not seem to fit some of the characters in the play, especially the Witwouds and Lackwits. Furthermore, putting the main focus of the play on wit seems to have led to a loss of naturalness in character, dialogue and also effectiveness of plot. Congreve’s polished, graceful style of writing on the other hand has also been listed as one of the many strengths of the play.

Plot

The gallant Mirabell wants to marry the rich and attractive Millamant, but his goal is prevented by a row of obstacles. Half of Millamant’s dowry depends on the consent of her aunt, Lady Wishfort. Lady Wishfort, however, is in love with Mirabell herself and refuses to consent to the marriage. In order to achieve his aim, Mirabell devises an intrigue: Lady Wishfort shall be manoeuvred into a false marriage, which will only be resolved, if she grants the lovers the dowry. Fainall, Lady Wishfort’s son-in-law, however, informs Lady Wishfort about this plot and thus foils it. Furthermore, he wants to blackmail Lady Wishfort himself, by threatening to make public an affair that his wife, her daughter, had with Mirabell before getting married. Lady Wishfort shall grant him her entire fortune, which he wants to use in order to lead a comfortable life with his mistress Marwood. After a number of intrigues and counter-intrigues between Mirabell and Fainall the conflict is finally resolved. It turns out that Mirabell is in the possession of a certificate in which his former mistress Mrs. Fainall has transcribed her entire fortune to him – a measure of protection against the greedy Fainall. This means that Fainall is financially dependent on Mirabell and has to give up his intrigues against him and Lady Wishfort. Lady Wishfort, grateful to Mirabell for saving her daughter’s reputation, finally consents to his marriage to Millamant.

As confusing as the constellation of characters and actions may seem at first glance, the underlying structure of The Way of the World is actually quite simple. Mirabell and Fainall both put pressure on Lady Wishfort in order to gain money for a comfortable life with the woman they love. Because of the several intrigues, mysteries and withheld pieces of information that only become clear during the course of the play, however, The Way of the World is experienced as confusing by many first-time watchers.

Main Themes

One of the most crucial questions Congreve deals with in The Way of the World is which role contracts play in personal relationships, particularly in marriage. In 1651 Thomas Hobbes had published his philosophical treatise Leviathan in which he postulates a contract in society as the means of taming the inherently hostile human nature. John Locke had further specified the nature of the contract (and the nature of society this contract secures) in his seminal Two Treatises on Government (1689). In The Way of the World Congreve takes an ambivalent position towards contract theories. In the play, contracts are on the one hand depicted as means of protecting one’s own interests against the greed of others (in the case of the Fainalls). On the other hand they are seen as a means of blackmailing and exploiting others (in the case of Lady Wishfort and her stipulations for Millamant). The position that Congreve seems to take is that successful relationships between human beings depend on mutual trust as much as on contracts.

Sources

Black, Jeremy. An Illustrated History of Eighteenth-Century Britain: 1688-1793. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1996.
Nettleton, George Henry. English Drama of the Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1642-1780). New York: Cooper Square, 1968.
Niederhoff, Burkhard. "The Way of the World". Kindlers Literatur Lexikon Online. Ed. Heinz Ludwig Arnold. 2009. J.B. Metzler. 02. Dec. 2009. Link <http://web13.cedion.de/nxt/gateway.dll/kll/c/k0141400.xml/k0141400_030.xml?f=templates$fn=index.htm$q=[rank,500%3A[domain%3A[and%3A[field,body%3Away%20of%20the%20world]]][sum%3A[field,lemmatitle%3Away%20of%20the%20world][field,body%3Away%20of%20the%20world]]]$x=server$3.0#LPHit1>