Introduction
William Congreve’s The Way of the World premiered in 1700 at London’s Theatre Royal, and it remains one of the finest achievements in English drama. Think of it as the original reality TV—full of scheming relatives, romantic complications, and sharp-tongued characters who say precisely what they think. However, unlike today’s entertainment, Congreve wraps his social commentary in brilliant language that both entertains and enlightens.
This isn’t just a play about love and marriage. It’s a surgical examination of how people behave when money, status, and desire collide. Congreve shows us characters navigating a world where appearances matter more than truth, where marriage is a business transaction, and where wit is the ultimate survival skill. The fascinating part? Much of what he observed over three centuries ago still rings true today.
About the Author
William Congreve (1670-1729) lived during one of the most vibrant periods in English theater. Born in Leeds to a middle-class family—his father was a cavalry officer—Congreve studied at Trinity College, Dublin, where he befriended Jonathan Swift. He moved to London as a young man, and by his mid-twenties, he’d already made his mark with successful plays like The Old Bachelor (1693) and Love for Love (1695).
Congreve wasn’t just a playwright. He was a notable Renaissance figure: a poet, translator (with a particular affinity for Ovid), and later in life, a naval administrator. A riding accident left him with a permanent limp, though he joked it made him “a better listener.” When The Way of the World received a lukewarm initial reception—audiences found it too complex—Congreve essentially retired from playwriting. He was only 30 years old.
He spent his later years writing opera librettos and socializing with literary giants like Alexander Pope and Joseph Addison. His lasting contribution to English literature? He created intelligent female characters who held their own against men, demonstrating that comedy could be both entertaining and thought-provoking.
Justification of the Title
The Way of the World—it sounds simple, almost shrugging. That’s precisely the point. The title captures a certain resigned acceptance of how society actually operates, not how it should operate. It’s “the way things are.”
Congreve borrowed this realistic, somewhat cynical view from French moralists like La Rochefoucauld, who believed self-interest drives most human behavior. In the play, characters lie, scheme, and manipulate not because they’re evil, but because that’s how their world works. Marriages are business mergers. Wit is currency. Virtue is often just for show.
However, here’s the twist: the title also carries an ironic connotation. While it suggests social conventions trap us, the play’s heroes—Mirabell and Millamant—actually outsmart the system. They indicate that intelligent and honest individuals can bend “the way of the world” to their advantage. As Congreve writes in his prologue: “The world’s the stage; the stage the world.” We laugh because we recognize ourselves—flawed, ambitious, forever trying to get ahead.
Historical Background
When Charles II returned from exile in 1660, he didn’t just restore the monarchy—he unleashed a cultural revolution. The Puritan government had closed all theaters, viewing them as immoral. Charles II reopened them, and suddenly London had a thriving theater scene featuring sex, satire, and skepticism. For the first time, women appeared on stage as actresses, which caused its own scandals.
The Way of the World appeared in 1700, right at the end of this golden age. By then, moral reformers were pushing back hard. The Society for the Reformation of Manners sought to reform these “indecent” plays. Congreve wrote against this tide.
The play reflects the real social tensions of its time. England’s growing merchant class was challenging the old aristocracy. Political intrigue from the recent Glorious Revolution (1688) had made everyone suspicious of everyone else. Trust became a luxury. In the play’s elegant drawing rooms, we see the actual world of London’s elite—where fortunes depended on inheritances and marriages were strategic alliances.
Congreve drew inspiration from the coffeehouse culture at Will’s, where writers gathered to exchange ideas, as well as from the libertine atmosphere of the royal court. His play captures a society rebuilding itself after political upheaval, where survival required both cunning and charm.
Plot Summary
At its heart, The Way of the World is about Mirabell, a reformed playboy, trying to marry the witty Millamant. However, there’s a significant obstacle: Millamant’s aunt, Lady Wishfort, controls her £6,000 fortune and won’t approve the match. Lady Wishfort dislikes Mirabell because he once pretended to court her (to get closer to Millamant), and she discovered the deception.
Making matters worse, Fainall—once Mirabell’s friend—schemes to seize Lady Wishfort’s entire estate. Fainall is married to Mrs. Fainall, who happens to be Mirabell’s former lover. Fainall plots with his current mistress, the bitter Mrs. Marwood, to blackmail Lady Wishfort.
Mirabell counters with his own scheme. He disguises his servant Waitwell as “Sir Rowland,” a fake nobleman who will court Lady Wishfort. The plan: after she falls for “Sir Rowland,” expose the deception, and she’ll be so embarrassed she’ll approve any legitimate marriage proposal.
Meanwhile, Mirabell and Millamant negotiate their famous “proviso scene”—a marriage contract in which they discuss terms such as separate bedrooms and personal freedoms. It’s remarkably progressive for 1700.
The plot thickens with eavesdropping, betrayals, and reversals. When Fainall tries to extort Lady Wishfort’s fortune, Mirabell reveals he has proof of Fainall’s adultery (secured through clever spying). Marwood’s treachery gets exposed. Lady Wishfort, grateful for being saved from ruin, finally blesses the union of Mirabell and Millamant.
Ultimately, intelligence and honesty prevail over greed and deception.
Act-by-Act Summary
Act I
The play opens in a chocolate house—think of it as the Starbucks of 1700 London, where fashionable people gathered to gossip. Mirabell talks with his friend about his love for Millamant, but she’s proving to be tricky to win over. She teases him mercilessly, showing off her quick wit.
We meet Petulant and Witwoud, shallow socialites whose affected behavior establishes the satirical tone. We also learn about Fainall’s unhappy marriage and his affair with Mrs. Marwood. Millamant sweeps out dramatically, leaving Mirabell to plot his next move.
Act II
The setting shifts to St. James’s Park. Mirabell continues pursuing Millamant through witty verbal sparring. She insists on maintaining her independence in marriage—a radical idea for the time. Their conversation reveals both genuine affection and a battle of wills.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Fainall warns her mother, Lady Wishfort, about fortune-hunting suitors. Foible, the maid, shares gossip and secrets. Fainall and Marwood reveal more about their illicit relationship and their plot to destroy Mirabell.
Act III
At Lady Wishfort’s house, preparations begin for “Sir Rowland’s” visit. Foible coaches the 49-year-old Lady Wishfort on how to be seductive—the scenes are both hilarious and slightly sad, as we see her desperate attempt to reclaim youth.
Mirabell hides to spy on the proceedings. Fainall begins his blackmail attempt, using Mrs. Fainall’s past affair with Mirabell as leverage—Marwood, consumed by jealousy, plots to expose Foible’s role in the scheme. The act builds to comic chaos as Waitwell arrives in disguise, flattering Lady Wishfort outrageously.
Act IV
This act contains the play’s most famous scene: the “proviso” discussion between Mirabell and Millamant. They negotiate the terms of their marriage with remarkable honesty. She demands the right to sleep late, choose her own friends, and avoid being called “pet names” like “wife” or “spouse.” He asks her to avoid certain affectations and not to get too friendly with female confidantes who might give bad advice.
It’s simultaneously romantic, practical, and revolutionary—two people trying to build an equal partnership in an unequal world.
Back at Lady Wishfort’s house, the disguise plot continues while Fainall escalates his demands. Marwood eavesdrops, gathering information for betrayal.
Act V
The climax arrives at Lady Wishfort’s house, where Fainall attempts to seize power, demanding control of the estate. However, Mirabell reveals his countermove: Mrs. Fainall had previously signed over her property to Mirabell in trust, thereby protecting it from her husband.
Marwood’s betrayals are exposed through testimony from Foible and others. Lady Wishfort, realizing Mirabell saved her from Fainall’s scheme, gratefully approves of his marriage to Millamant. The lovers reconcile, and wit triumphs over villainy.
Gist of the Play
The Way of the World is fundamentally a battle of intelligence in a society that treats marriage as a form of commerce. Mirabell’s pursuit of Millamant reveals the era’s contradictions: marriages arranged for financial gain, relatives scheming for inheritances, and everyone presenting false faces to the world.
But the play offers hope. Unlike typical arranged marriages of the period, Mirabell and Millamant genuinely care for each other. Their proviso scene suggests that companionate marriage—based on mutual respect and negotiation—can exist even in a corrupt system.
Congreve shows us that while society’s “way” is deeply flawed, individuals with sufficient wit and honesty can carve out authentic connections. Deception proliferates throughout the play, yet honest communication (between the right people) ultimately prevails.
Main Characters
Mirabell: The hero, a reformed rake who combines strategic thinking with genuine feeling. He’s made mistakes—he’s had affairs, he’s manipulated people—but he’s learned from them. He represents Congreve’s ideal: intelligent enough to play society’s games but sincere enough to want something real.
Millamant: The play’s brilliant centerpiece. Beautiful, witty, and fiercely independent, she refuses to become just another wife. Her famous proviso scene shows a woman demanding autonomy in an age when women had few legal rights. She’s not easy to love because she won’t make herself easy. She’s a fully realized character, not a prize to be won.
Lady Wishfort: The comic antagonist. This aging widow desperately clings to vanity while trying to control her niece’s fortune. She’s grotesque in her attempts to appear young, yet something is touching about her loneliness. Congreve shows us both the absurdity and the humanity of someone terrified of irrelevance.
Fainall: The villain, driven by greed and resentment. Trapped in a loveless marriage (partly of his own making), he tries to seize wealth through blackmail and manipulation. His downfall serves as a warning against letting bitterness and ambition corrupt your moral compass.
Mrs. Marwood: Fainall’s mistress and co-conspirator. Her malice stems from unrequited love for Mirabell. She’s the dark mirror of Millamant—equally intelligent but twisted by jealousy into something destructive.
Supporting Characters
Mrs. Fainall: Mirabell’s former lover, now stuck in a terrible marriage. She’s pragmatic and resilient, quietly strong despite her circumstances. She represents the reality for many women who made one wrong choice and spent their lives paying for it.
Waitwell: Mirabell’s loyal servant who plays “Sir Rowland” in the disguise plot. His ability to convincingly perform as a nobleman satirizes class pretensions—is nobility really just good acting?
Foible: Waitwell’s wife and Lady Wishfort’s maid. She works both sides, serving her mistress while helping Mirabell’s scheme. Her double-dealing adds complexity to the servant class, showing they’re just as capable of manipulation as their betters.
Witwoud and Petulant: Two ridiculous fops who represent fashionable society at its emptiest. They speak in elaborate phrases that mean nothing, care only about appearances, and provide comic relief while satirizing social pretension.
Mincing: Foible’s assistant, who speaks in an affected manner that parodies upper-class speech patterns.
Major Themes
Marriage as Contract vs. Companionate Love: The Proviso Scene Revolutionizes How We Think About Marriage. Instead of the husband owning the wife, Mirabell and Millamant negotiate terms. They’re building a partnership based on mutual respect, honest communication, and reasonable boundaries. This was radical thinking in 1700.
Wit and Deception: In Congreve’s world, everyone wears masks. But there’s a crucial distinction between harmful deception (Fainall’s blackmail) and strategic maneuvering (Mirabell’s schemes to protect people he cares about). The play suggests that in a dishonest society, some deception becomes necessary for survival—but your ultimate goals matter.
Gender and Power: Women in this play wield considerable influence despite legal limitations. Millamant controls her own destiny through wit. Foible manipulates situations from her position as a servant. Even Lady Wishfort, ridiculous as she is, holds financial power. Congreve shows women finding agency in a system designed to limit them.
Social Hypocrisy: Everyone presents a polished surface while hiding messy realities. The aristocrats aren’t morally superior to servants; they have better clothes. Marriages look proper while concealing affairs, financial desperation, and mutual contempt.
Fortune and Merit: Should money and status depend on birth or ability? The inheritance plots highlight how arbitrary it is that Lady Wishfort controls a fortune simply through marriage and widowhood, while intelligent, capable people like Mirabell must scheme to secure their futures.
Literary Techniques
Congreve’s writing sparkles with technical brilliance:
Epigrams: Short, sharp witticisms that pack maximum punch. Example: “Here she comes in faith full sail, with her fan spread and streamers out”—describing Millamant’s dramatic entrance in vivid, memorable language.
Dramatic Irony: We watch characters eavesdrop on each other, are aware of disguises they don’t recognize, and see plots collide. This creates tension and comedy as we anticipate revelations.
Rhyming Couplets: Congreve often ends scenes with paired rhyming lines that sound elegant while making pointed observations. This gives the dialogue a polished, musical quality.
Foil Characters: Millamant and Marwood are both intelligent, passionate women—but one uses her qualities constructively, the other destructively. Mirabell and Fainall were once similar rakes but took different moral paths. These contrasts sharpen our understanding of each character.
Metatheatrical Elements: Characters occasionally acknowledge they’re performing roles, blurring the line between stage and reality. This reminds us that social life itself is a kind of theater.
Classical Allusions: References to mythology and literature add layers of meaning, showcasing the characters’ education (or, in some cases, their pretended education).
Unity of Action: The plot stays tightly focused on interconnected schemes, with minimal digressions. This creates intensity and forward momentum.
Meaningful Quotes
“I hope you do not think me prone to any iteration of nuptials.” (Millamant, Act IV)
Translation: “I hope you don’t think I’m eager to marry repeatedly.” Millamant mockingly suggests she won’t be a serial bride. This jab at society’s judgment of widows who remarry asserts her right to control her own romantic life.
“Ay, ay, I have experience: I have a wife, and so forth.” (Fainall, Act II)
Dripping with sarcasm. Fainall reduces his marriage to “and so forth”—as if his wife is barely worth mentioning. This bitter comment highlights the emptiness of marriages formed for financial gain rather than genuine affection.
“Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure:
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.” (Prologue)
This proverbial warning sets the stage for the play’s ironic exploration of marriage. Rush into love, regret it forever—except Mirabell and Millamant subvert this by carefully negotiating their union instead of rushing in unthinkingly.
“I would have Liberty to— Pay and receive Visits to and from whom I please; to write and receive Letters, without Interrogatories and Wry Faces on your Part.” (Millamant, Act IV)
Millamant demands freedom to socialize, correspond, and live without being questioned or judged. In an era when husbands legally controlled their wives’ activities, this is a revolutionary statement of personal autonomy.
“These articles subscrib’d, if I continue to endure you a little longer, I may by degrees dwindle into a Wife.” (Millamant, Act IV)
With characteristic wit, Millamant suggests that marriage will diminish her—”dwindle into a Wife.” But by demanding articles (terms), she’s actually ensuring she won’t disappear into wifely submission.
Critical Appreciation
The Way of the World represents Restoration comedy at its finest. While other playwrights of the era—Etherege, Wycherley—wrote entertaining but often shallow works focused on sexual adventures, Congreve elevated the genre with intellectual depth and emotional sophistication.
The structure demonstrates masterful craftsmanship. Five acts are built like classical music: the exposition establishes conflicts, rising action complicates them through disguises and schemes, the climax reveals truths, and the resolution restores order—but a changed order, where merit triumphs over birth.
The language dazzles. Congreve‘s dialogue combines the elegance of heroic couplets with the wit of the street. Every line serves multiple purposes: advancing the plot, revealing character, making social commentary, and entertaining. The proviso scene alone deserves its fame—it’s simultaneously a romantic courtship, a philosophical debate, and a feminist manifesto.
Critics initially struggled with the play. Some found it too complex, with too many subplots. Jeremy Collier, a moral crusader, attacked Restoration comedies (including Congreve’s work) for corrupting public morals. Later critics called it “too witty for its own good.”
But these criticisms miss the point. The complexity mirrors life’s complexity. The moral ambiguity reflects reality—people aren’t purely good or evil; they’re complicated. Modern scholars appreciate what early audiences missed: the play’s proto-feminist elements (women negotiating for power), its examination of class mobility (servants manipulating aristocrats), and its sophisticated view of marriage as requiring ongoing negotiation rather than simple submission.
Feminist critics, such as Laura Brown, have championed the way Congreve creates genuinely intelligent and complex female characters. Millamant isn’t a stereotype; she’s a fully realized person who refuses to be diminished by marriage. Even Foible, a servant, demonstrates agency and intelligence.
The play also works as social history. It captures a specific moment when old aristocratic values collided with new merchant-class ambitions, when political intrigue made everyone suspicious, and when marriage was openly discussed as a form of economic transaction. Congreve documents this world with an anthropologist’s eye while judging it with a moralist’s conscience.
If the play has weaknesses, they’re minor. Some servant subplots verge on slapsticks. Fainall’s villainy can feel one-dimensional. But these elements serve the whole, providing relief from the intellectual density and highlighting the heroes’ moral complexity by contrast.
Ultimately, The Way of the World endures because it captures timeless human truths. We still scheme for advantage. We still wear social masks. We still struggle to find genuine connection in a world of surface appearances. Congreve doesn’t preach; he observes with amused sympathy, inviting us to laugh at ourselves. That’s why, 325 years later, the play feels fresh—because human nature hasn’t changed much after all.
Why This Play Matters Today
Historical Importance
As the culmination of Restoration comedy, this play bridges the bawdy 1670s with the more sentimental drama of the 1710s. It influenced later playwrights, such as Richard Brinsley Sheridan (The School for Scandal) and Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest), who borrowed its wit and social satire.
The play also documents a crucial cultural shift: from the libertine excess of Charles II’s court to the growing moral conservatism of the early 18th century. It preserves the language, social customs, and concerns of its era like a time capsule.
Modern Relevance
Relationship Negotiations: The proviso scene speaks directly to modern relationship therapy and communication strategies. Mirabell and Millamant discuss expectations, boundaries, and deal-breakers before marriage—exactly what counselors recommend today. In our world of prenuptial agreements and relationship contracts, their negotiation seems prescient.
Social Media Performance: The play’s exploration of public versus private selves resonates in our Instagram age. Characters constantly perform for audiences, craft careful images, and navigate reputation management—sound familiar?
Gender Dynamics: Millamant’s fight for autonomy within marriage mirrors ongoing discussions about equality in relationships. Her refusal to surrender her identity to become “just a wife” speaks to contemporary debates about gender roles.
Economic Inequality: The inheritance plots and marriage-as-merger theme reflect today’s conversations about wealth concentration, class mobility, and how money shapes relationship choices.
Authenticity vs. Strategy: We still struggle with the question the play poses: In a world requiring strategic self-presentation, how do you maintain authentic connections? It’s the eternal tension between being smart and being real.
Study Tips
Read Aloud: The dialogue was written for performance. Reading aloud—especially the proviso scene—helps you hear the rhythm and wit.
Track the Schemes: Draw a diagram of who’s plotting what against whom. The interconnected schemes can get confusing on first read.
Annotate Key Quotes: Mark memorable epigrams and important thematic statements. These make excellent essay material.
Watch a Production: Find the BBC’s 1985 version or other adaptations. Seeing actors perform the wit and timing brings the play alive.
Historical Context: Read some background about Restoration England—the politics, social structures, and theater culture. Understanding the world helps you understand the play.
Character Map: Create a visual showing relationships, including past affairs, current marriages, and family connections. It isn’t very easy!
Theme Tracking: As you read, note when themes appear—marriage, deception, wit, gender, money. See how they develop and intersect.
Key Relationships to Understand
Mirabell and Millamant: This is adversarial attraction at its finest. They’re intellectual equals who challenge each other. Their relationship defies the stereotype of the submissive woman and dominant man. They negotiate rather than one surrendering to the other.
Fainall and Marwood: Toxic passion born from mutual bitterness. Neither truly loves the other; they’re united by resentment and greed. Their relationship shows how jealousy and ambition destroy everything they touch.
Lady Wishfort and Foible: The Mistress-Maid Relationship Reveals Class Tensions. Foible appears subservient while actually manipulating her mistress. It’s a fragile bond where each uses the other.
Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall: A past affair transformed into an alliance. They’ve forgiven each other and work together, demonstrating that mature individuals can maintain a friendship after romance ends.
Millamant and Mrs. Fainall: Although less developed, their relationship as niece and cousin (by marriage) reveals genuine female friendship amid the scheming.
Conclusion
The Way of the World isn’t a museum piece gathering dust in university syllabi. It’s a living, breathing examination of how we navigate social complexity, pursue authentic connection, and balance self-interest with genuine affection.
Congreve, writing at 30 with a wit as sharp as any in English literature, created something that transcends its era. Yes, it captures Restoration England with documentary precision. However, it also speaks to universal human experiences: the fear of vulnerability, the desire for love without sacrificing independence, and the challenge of being honest in a world that rewards deception.
The play whispers an uncomfortable truth: the way of the world hasn’t changed as much as we’d like to think. We still scheme. We still perform. We still negotiate between what we want and what society expects of us. However, Congreve also offers hope—Mirabell and Millamant demonstrate that intelligence and honesty can prevail, not through naive idealism, but through clear-eyed negotiation and mutual respect.
So, here’s to these brilliant fictional lovers from 1700, still teaching us how to be both strategic and sincere, both witty and genuine. In a world of surfaces, they remind us that what matters most is finding someone who sees through your performance—and loves you anyway.
Selected Bibliography
Primary Text:
- Congreve, William. The Way of the World. Edited by Brian Gibbons, Methuen Drama, 2000.
Critical Studies:
- Holland, Norman N. The First Modern Comedies: The Significance of Etherege, Wycherley, and Congreve. Harvard University Press, 1959.
- Hughes, Derek. English Drama, 1660-1700. Oxford University Press, 1996.
- Powell, Jocelyn. Restoration Theatre Production. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
Online Resources:
- Folger Shakespeare Library‘s digital edition and teaching resources
- British Library’s Restoration Theatre archives and manuscripts