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The Way of the World

by William Congreve

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Female Characters in The Way of the World: Portrayal, Status, and Potency

Summary:

In William Congreve's The Way of the World, female characters are portrayed with complexity and strength, reflecting both their frailties and potency. The play, set in the Restoration era, highlights the influence of women like Lady Wishfort and Millamant, who assert their desires and negotiate their futures, despite societal constraints. Congreve presents women as equally driven by love and ambition, often subverting traditional gender roles. The characters' autonomy and desire for freedom underscore the play's modern, almost feminist undertones, challenging the era's norms.

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How are the female characters' frailties and potency portrayed in The Way of the World?

Even so sir; 'tis the Way of the World.

William Congreve's 1700 comedy is considered one of the greatest plays from the Restoration era, even though it was not a success in its initial performances. What is striking to a contemporary reader is how evenly matched the sexes are and how well-developed the female characters are. Part of this may be attributed to female actors finally appearing on stage, so playwrights were creating roles for women for the first time in the English theater.

Almost all of the characters in the playboth men and women are driven by love, desire, and money, so Congreve is gently poking fun at how easily people are led astray by their emotions. Before the action of the play begins, Lady Wishfort has been romantically misled by Mirabell. Mrs. Fainfall, in the dramatis personae, is described as being "formerly friend to...

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Mirabell" and her husband is having an affair with Mrs. Marwood. It's a bit of a jumble. However, the women are also strong-willed and assertive, so they are hardly victims of the men's capriciousness and lust. An example of this is Mrs. Fainall's line;

If we will be happy, we must find the means in ourselves, and among ourselves. Men are ever in extremes. (2.1.)

This is a remarkably modern, almost feminist sentiment in a 400 year old play. As Mrs. Fainall and her companion, Mrs. Marwood, continue their discussion, they both note the importance of freedom.

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Comment on the depiction and status of female characters in Congreve's The Way of the World.

What is striking to a modern reader/audience about William Congreve's comic drama is how equally the sexes are depicted. The play premiered in 1700 and is considered one of the finest examples of Restoration comedies—the Restoration, of course, referring to the period in seventeenth-century England marked by the reopening of theaters after the Puritan rule, the return of the monarchy, and the first appearance of women on the stage. One could speculate that Congreve's female characters are so vivid, intelligent, and nuanced because he was writing for actual female actors instead of the boys who previously played these roles.

The status of the women in the play is seemingly equal to that of the men. They are strong-willed, witty, and self-aware, and they know what they want. A good example of this is the discussion between Mrs. Fainall (an intriguing name given the play's themes of deceit and dissembling) and Mrs. Marwood. The women are discussing love in a remarkably direct, even cynical way, with Marwood noting how important freedom is to her, while Fainall talks about the fickleness of men in love. What complicates their discussion is that Marwood is having an affair with Fainall's husband, something that Congreve doesn't pass judgement on. They have intellectual freedom and are depicted as free to love whom they want to, even if money sometimes complicates things.

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How does Congreve depict female characters to expose their status in The Way of the World?

The Way of the World contains four substantial roles for women and, even more unusually for the time, the women frequently dominate the stage and have many of the most memorable lines. Although the men, particularly Mirabell, are portrayed as libertines, the women are no more faithful or virtuous. Even an absurd character like Lady Wishfort is shown as an independent agent, pursuing her own desires rather than subordinating herself to a man.

The most famous scene in the play is IV.v, in which Mirabell and Millamant negotiate the conditions of their future marriage. This is often called the "proviso" or bargaining scene, and it is Millamant who initially makes most of the provisos, first stipulating:

I’ll never marry, unless I am first made sure of my will and pleasure.

However, Congreve makes it clear that Millamant's situation is an unusually fortunate one. The humor of the scene lies precisely in the fact that Millamant's words subvert the audience's expectations of the way in which a woman would address her future husband. Her demand for coolness and distance rather than affection are the reverse of what one would expect. Even in her relatively powerful position, Millamant knows that however many provisos she heaps upon Mirabell, she will "by degrees dwindle into a wife," which Mirabell, in sharp contrast, will be "enlarged into a husband."

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How does The Way of the World portray the condition of its female characters?

The Way of the World is a play by William Congreve. It was first put on stage in 1700. It follows the couple Mirabell and Millamant, who want to get married.

This play shows very clearly the role of women at the time. As we can clearly see, women are seen as inferior to men, and they are not allowed to live life to their full potential. Their role is clearly seen to be at home, looking after the household, giving birth to children and looking after them. Therefore, a woman’s sole goal in life was to find a husband, to get married, and to start a family. We can see this very clearly through the character of Lady Wishfort, who is desperate to finally find a husband and get married. This is because, at the time, a woman’s happiness was solely defined by the happiness achieved by having a husband and through the husband’s achievements, rather than happiness as a product of a woman’s life or her own achievements.

Mrs. Fainall is another example through which we can learn about the situation of women in the eighteenth century. Her husband is having an affair and therefore wishes to divorce. However, he wants this divorce by falsely accusing Mrs. Fainall of having had an affair. If this divorce had gone through, it would have not only meant the social ruin, but also the financial ruin of Mrs. Fainall. In those days, a court would always have sided with the man in a divorce case, meaning that Mrs. Fainall would have lost all her financial assets to her husband. It turns out that Mrs. Fainall had given her money to Mirabell, which means her husband had nothing to gain financially from a divorce. This is why he then chooses to not divorce her after all, as he was only hoping to get hold of her money. This further underlines how a divorce would have been financially devastating for women at the time.

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