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 by a brilliantly witty couple.” This sort of comedy is called comedy of manners for the writers in the restoration theatre have shown the ‘manners’ and ‘morals’ of the ways of life of the higher class aristocratic 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 Congreve’s The Way of the World as a comedy of manners.
The society depicted in The Way of the World is the upper class fashionable society of London. The action of the play takes place in three places. The first is the chocolate House which was used for socializing and entertainment during the Restoration. The second is St James’s Park in London where the upper class people walked before dinner. Witwould says, “We’ll all walk in the park; the ladies talked of being there.”
The third is the house of Lady Wishfort, an aristocratic woman.
Most of the male and female characters of the play are cultured, talented, formal, artificial, fashionable, depraved, ‘cold’ and ‘courtly’. Their qualities are actually a part of Restoration age culture.
The Restoration period was an age of loose morals and, and was devoid of moral values. The Way of the World contains this current through the illicit love and adulterous relations – e.g. relation between Fainall and Mrs.
The society depicted in The Way of the World is the upper class fashionable society of London. The action of the play takes place in three places. The first is the chocolate House which was used for socializing and entertainment during the Restoration. The second is St James’s Park in London where the upper class people walked before dinner. Witwould says, “We’ll all walk in the park; the ladies talked of being there.”
The third is the house of Lady Wishfort, an aristocratic woman.
Most of the male and female characters of the play are cultured, talented, formal, artificial, fashionable, depraved, ‘cold’ and ‘courtly’. Their qualities are actually a part of Restoration age culture.
The Restoration period was an age of loose morals and, and was devoid of moral values. The Way of the World contains this current through the illicit love and adulterous relations – e.g. relation between Fainall and Mrs.