CHARACTERIZTION OF THE WAY OF THE WORLD

                     CHARACTERIZTION   OF  THE  WAY OF  THE  WORLD

William Congreve  was born at Bardsey , near Leeds. He came of an old straffordshire family and is regarded as the most brilliant of the writer of Restoration comedy. William Congreve  was educated at Kilkenny  school and at Trinity college, dublin, in Ireland.Conggreve’s masterpiece,  “THE WAY OF THE WORLD” was  produce, with a brilliant cast. This play , however ,failed on the stage and did not evoke the response it was expected to get . it was written to please its author’s fastidious taste, not to conform to the prevailing fashion of the age. THE WAY OF THE WORLD didn’t find favour with the audience . Congreve was the basically an author who did not know how to write for the stage. It is but obvious that congreve never really understand the fundamental principles of human behaviour. In ‘love for love ‘ he seems to be struggling for a true admiration of the playwright’s art in spite of his failure to define or make clear angelica’s character and motives but in  THE WAY OF THE WORLD  he has dwindled into the dramatic confusion.

Lady Wishfort is a fifty-five year old widow who desperately seeks men in her life. She is Mrs. Fainall’s mother and Millamant’s aunt. She detests Mirabell because he pretended love to her while wishing to win Millamant all the time. She seems to be afarid of her advancing age and pathetically tries to retain the lost beauty of her youth . She controls Millamant’s fortune and potential for happiness. Lady Wishfort is very fastidious and choosy about her make-up and appearance . She does not take lightly her discomfiture  at Mirabell’s hands and his hostility toward her therefore she wants Foible to keep off him as she feels that he has poison in his tongue and can corrupt any body’s morality.She amuses us by her anxiety and her manner in which sir Rowland will deal with her and how she should welcome him in her house . One thing that goes in her favour is that she is a cordial persona and greets all her visitors with genrosity and warmth . Though a countryman with rough manners, sir wilfull is welcomed cordially after his long journey and offered a drink. Mrs. Marwood is given a special treatment and her advice is valued by her. But Lady  Wishfort can be an old cantakerous hag when annoyed or provoked.
“Out of my house ,out of my house , thou viper ! Thou serpent “ she says to foible ,”Thou bosom traitress that I raised from nothing …….While you were catering for Mirabell, I have been broken for you ? What, have you made a passive bawd of me ?This exceeds all precedent ! I’ll couple you ! Yes, I’ll baste you together, you and your philander…..”

She can  at times act in a very comic manner. Her account of how she brought up her daughter protecting her form the influence of all males is hilarious.Lady Wishfort is a simple minded, gullible women who fails to fathom either human nature or human character. There is no subtlety of any kind in her. No suspicion crawls her mind when Foible tells her that sir Rowland went fantical over her picture and is extremely excited to meet her and marry her. When Foible is delayed in returing home because she was detained by Mirabell, Lady Wishfort promtly accepts Foible’s cooked up explanation for her late return. She takes Marwood’s friendship at its face value, and belives every lie told by that woman till she is fully exposed in the last act of the play. Thus Lady Wishfort proves to be a gullible person and gullibility is a comic trait both in life and in literature.  Mirabell is a handsome young man who is in love with Millamant, a pretty damsel and Lady Wishfort  niece. He appears to be an ideal restoration beau, a blend of the gracious and cynical. He possesses the virtues and vices of his times and had many girlfriends. He clearly married off one Mrs. Fainall to save his skin as he feared her pregnancy due to his profligate relationship with her. Mirabell is a succeessful schemer, better than Fainall and bring about his doom. He is romantically involved with Millamantand pretend passionate love for Lady Wishfort to accomplish his end. He is an accomplished gallant. Though the hero of the play, Mirabell, is not without his disagreeable features. He courts love to the aunt in order to evade the main purpose of his making love to her niece.This iscertainly an offence against good manners and decency. Furthermore he has another plan, which is not decent any more. It is rather a prevented version of his court to the aunt.His servant becames a poser to the knight and courtly manners to win Lady Wishfort as his wife,This is despite his being married already.In his court Mirabell had gone too far, short of only going to bed with Lady Wishfort. When Fainall accuses him of not being truly in love with Millamant as he took notice of her faults and shortcoming he describes his passion in a witty manner. Her follies, says he, ‘are so natural, or so artful, that they become her.’And he scrutinized them so meticoulously that after some time he got so used to them that he fell in love with them and began to like Millamant despite her faults, nay for her faults.Mirabell is the Restoration rake in the process of being transformed into a wit of the age of sense and sensibility. His predominant characteristic as a truewit is his judgment rather than fancy, and he is more addicted to sententiae than to similitudes. He is capable of finely balance phrases, but his remarks are characterized by subtlety of though and elegance of expression rather than by striking figures of speech. He is not so attractive a figure as Valentine, for the playful attitude of the truewit is sobering into a concern with the sound conduct of life. If there is a flow in Mirabell, it is not his supposed cynicism,but his sobriety.Millamant a young charming dame passionately in love with Mirabell and equally loved by him.She is the first cousin of Mrs. Fainall, considered to be the most charming heroin in restoration comedy, she is beautiful, tantalizing, annoying and teasing at times. She is highly witty but sweet. There can be no malice in her. Mrs. Marwood is a parody of Millamant. She is sure of her feminine power.She condemns the lack of knowing the art of writing letters on part of people. She uses letter written in verse to pin up her hair. In a teasing wit she tells Mirabell that she like to give him pain because that gives her a sense of power. She calls him, ‘sententious Mirabell’ and exhort him not to look brave like solomon when he had to divide the child.Millamant ‘s character find its true manifestation in love. Mirabell and she are the worthy partners.Thought deeply in love she would not admit her love to him because to do so would be to lose one’s effective power in love. Her wit somehow eclipes her love for Mirabell but it makes the proviso scene so very successful.Witwoud and Petulant are Millamant’s  admiers and suitors. However they are not seriously involved. Witwoud informs us that Millamant laughs at Petulant and so far as he himself is concerned he admires her for the sake of fashion and he will never break his heart for her. Witwoud poke fun at Petulant behind his back. According to him Petulant never speaks the truth he also gives a mocking account of the manner in which he attracts the attention of others by sending women to ask for him in public places and these women are on his permanent payroll.Both Petulant and Witwoud are the favorites of women as they are regarded as one of their own kind and their entry is not restricted to cabal-night, in fact, they are the esteemed members. Women talk more freely in the presence of Petulant and he happens to know more of their plans and intrigues. Witwoud picks up a quarrel with Mirabell on being a suitor to Millamant and when Mirabell threatens to cut his throat, he indicates the throats of other to be cut as well. He undoubtedly refers to Mirabell’s uncel who is to come to town shortly. When Mirabell  presses for more information he directs him to Petulant.Witwoud  shows his talant for “similitudes” which are, however, irritating to Millamant. “like months about a candle”,”as a favourite in disgrace”,”as a physician of a good air”,”like a screen before a great fir’- indeed, Witwoud is never at a loss for a similitude. After he has been affronted by Millamant,  be takes his revenge when she herself employs a similitude. He says to her, “Madam, truce with your similitudes”. “Those characters which are meant to be ridiculed in most of your comedies, are of fool so gross,that in my humble opinion they should rather disturb than divert the well-natured and reflecting part of an audience; they are rather objects of charity than contempt; and instead of moving our mirth, they ought very often to excite our compassion. This reflection moved me to design some characters, which should appear ridiculous not so much through a natural folly (which is incorrigible, and therefore ,not proper for the state )as through an affected wit ; a wit, which at the same time that it is affected, is also false.” He goes on to complain that some of his audience failed to distinguish between a Witwoud and a true wit.Fainall a man about town Fainall is friendly to Mirabell but only superficially.He actually dislikes Mirabell. FAINALL is an opportunist.He married his wife, Mrs. Fainall, daughter of Lady Wishfort solely for money. Fainall is charaterized by intense distrust and suspicious of other ‘ motives. He married for Mirabell. He willingly closes his eyes to the immorality of his wife primarily to pursue his own affair with Mrs. Marwood. Mr. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood  show themselves to be utterly unscrupulous. They can go to any length to secure Lady Wishfort  and Millamant‘s fortune. Mr. Fainall would not mind his wife continuing her affair with Mirabell so long as it does not affect his scheme of things.His Marwood but also the control of her money. He is a man without honour and honesty. Mrs. Marwood a young attractive women, slightly older than Mirabell but cunning and scheming. She is Fainall’s mistress. A right match for Mr. Fainall! Along with Fainall, she perfomes the role of the antagonist. Mrs. Marwood  reveal to Lady Wishfort that Mirabell’s  love for her is only a cover for his real love for Millamant. Mrs. Marwood  again thwarts Mirabell’s plot by revealing the true identity of sir Rowland through an anonymous letter. Her secret affair with Fainall is revealed by Foible and mincing in the condcluding act of the play. She spoils Mirabell’s plan twice. Hypocrisy is a necessary ingredient of her character.Mrs.Marwood is a malicious and vicious woman. She would like to keep Fainall in her grip while at the same time wishes to settle scores with Mirabell. She threatens Fainall to divulge his secret affair with her to his wife and to the world..Mirabell knows his part well and handlshis servants accordingly. He keeps Waitwell and Foible ingood humour and keeps them on their toes by his praising and bribing them. Mrs. Marwood is an important instrument in the play. She overhears Mirabell’s  plan of sending his servant, Waitwell, in the guise of sir Rowland  to woo Lady Wishfort from the mouth of Mrs. Fainall and this arms Fainall potently. Her revenge against Mirabell is complete when she reveals it to the Lady but not before commenting on Foible’s duplicity, smartness and dare devilry:
‘O Man, Man ! woman , woman ! The devil’s an ass.’ ,quiteforgetting her own.
Mrs. Marwood is driven by that in same jealousy which is often more bitter and nearer to the surface in illicit love than in the marriage tie. Mrs. Marwood is Fainall’s mistress and at the same time in love with Mirabell too thus Mrs. Fainall has double reason to be jealous of her. Mrs. Fainall , Arabella languish now Mrs. Fainall is Lady Wishfort ‘s daughter. Widows early marries Fainall but in the interlude she carried an illicit relationship with Mirabell and fearing prgnancy married Fainall in order to give it a semblance of legitimacy.Mrs. Fainall is still in love with Mirabell though it is pretty clear to her that no permanent relationshipwith him is possible. She acts more as his ally. She joins with Mirabell in making fun of her mother; ‘I believe my lady will do anything to get a husband ‘. She also cooperates with Mirabell in his plan to get Millamant with her fortune.Mrs. Fainall is more sinned against than sinning. She remains loyal to Mirabell and even helps him in his courtship to Millamant. She is troubled by the fact that she is not loved by her husband . ‘he will willingly dispense with the by being seen to walk with his wife.’

Lady Wishfort is very fastidious and choosy about her make up and appearance. She is a cordial persona and greet all her visitors with generosity and warmth. She teach her daughter principle of virtue and inculcate in her from that young age the very dislike and hatred of men. She is a simple minded , gullible women who fails to fathom either human nature or human character.Mirabell is a handsome young man who is in love with Millamant. Mirabell is a successful schemer and successful contriver. Millamant is beautiful , tantalizing, annoying and teasing at time.she is highly witty but sweet.she is the ideal heroine of the comedy of heigh life.