Introduction:
The Way of the World is one of the finest Restoration comedies that presents a sharp satire on the moral weaknesses of fashionable society. Through witty dialogues, humorous situations, and realistic characters, William Congreve in The Way of the World exposes the folly, affectation, and hypocrisy of the upper-class people of his age. The characters pretend to be wise, refined, and virtuous, but in reality they are selfish, artificial, and deceitful. Congreve ridicules their false manners, empty pride, and double standards in order to reveal the corruption hidden beneath the polished surface of society. Thus, the play becomes a brilliant social satire that entertains the audience while criticizing the moral and social defects of Restoration society.
Meaning and Aim of Satire:
Staire aims at correcting human folly, vice or wickedness by exposing and ridiculing it. Since the aim of satire is correction, poverty, natural, physical, deformity or disease, or sheer folly, cannot be its proper objects. They are objects of pity and not of laughter. On the other hand, affectation, hypocrisy, social vanity and conceit are fit objects of satire, for such weaknesses can be reformed and corrected, if the dramatist can expose and ridicule them and thus make us laugh at them.
Congreve’s Theory of Satire in The Way of the World:
Congreve very well realised this and that is why he says in the dedication to ‘The Way of the World’ that the characters, “Who are meant to be ridiculed in most of our comedies, are fools so gross, that in my humble opinion, they should rather disturb than divert the well-natured and reflective 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 stage) or through an affected wit; a wit, which at the same time that it is affected, is also false.” Thus, it is affectation, and not natural folly, which he has satirised in the play. The point would become clear, if we consider it with reference to the more important characters in the play.
Satire on Lady Wishfort’s Affectation and Hypocrisy:
Take for example, Lady Wishfort. She is an old lady of fifty-five, but she has the sexual appetite of a young woman in her prime. Her sexual desire is degraded, it is the ‘green sickness’ of a second childhood. She has lost her youth and beauty, but she makes liberal use of cosmetics to repair the ravages of time. Thus, she affects youth and beauty, both of which she has lost, and it is this affectation which has been ridiculed and stirised. Moreover, while she is yearning for sex and marriage she pretends that she is not eager for marriage, but that she would marry Sir Rowland only to save a precious life, she says to him: “But as I am a person, Sir Rowland, you must not attribute my yielding any sinister appetite, or indigestion of widowhood; nor impute my complacency to any lethargy of continence. I hope you do not think me prone to any iteration of nuptials.”
Hypocrisy of Mrs. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood:
Both Mrs. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood affect (pretend to hate mankind, but they are both women of loose character who live an immoral life with other men). Mrs. Fainall has been the mistress of Mirabell and she still loves him, and Mrs. Marwood is the mistress of Fainall and she hates Mirabell only because he has repulsed her love. Yet they are hypocrites enough to say that they hate men and cannot bear the sight of them. This. hypocrisy is clearly brought out by the following dialogue:
Mrs. Mar: You hate mankind?
Mrs. Fain: Heartily, inveterately.
Mrs. Mar: Your husband?
Mrs. Fain: Most transcendently, aye, though I say it, meritoriously. Mrs. Mar : Give me your hand upon it :
Mrs. Fain: There
Mrs. Mar: I join with you; what I have said has been to try you.
Mrs. Fain: Is it possible? Dost thou hate those vipers, men?
Mrs. Mar: I have done hating them, and am now to despise them; the next thing
I have to do, is eternally to forget them.
Mrs. Fain: There spoke the spirit of an Amazon, a Penthesiles.
Mrs. Mar: And yet I am thinking sometimes to carry my aversion further.
Mrs. Fain: How?
Mrs. Mar: Faith, by marrying, if I could but find one that loved me very well. and would be thoroughly sensible of ill-usage, I think I should do myself the violence of undergoing the ceremony.
Mrs. Fain: You would not make him a cuckold?
Mrs. Mar: No; but I’d make him believe I did, and that is as bad.
Mrs. Fain: Why had not you as good do it?
Mrs. Mar: Oh, if he should ever discover it, he would then know the worst, and be out of his pain; but I would have him ever to continue upon the rack of fear and jealousy.
Exposure of Mrs. Marwood’s Pretension:
This hypocrisy and pretension has been ridiculed and exposed, for the very next moment, at the very mention of Mirabell, Mrs. Marwood changes colour, thus revealing that she is desperately in love with him.
Satire on Restoration Society and Social Vanity:
Vanity, conceit, hypocrisy and affection in various forms mar the social life of the Restoration era; and it is on them that the dramatist has focussed his attention. Husband and may be at daggers drawn with each other, but they must make exaggerated pretences of love when in public. This pretension of love is carried to such an extreme that even ordinary courtesy shown to each other by a husband and wife in society is considered scandalous, for it is a sure indication that in reality they hate each other and constantly quarrel at home. That is why Millamant would not like to be called ‘names’ in public. In this artificial and unnatural society, love and courtship are the blessed state from which a woman like ‘Millamant’ dwindles into a wife’, with great unwillingness. In this unnatural society, youngmen can gain a standing if they acquired a reputation of being loved and followed by a number of women. This social vanity has been satirised through Petulant who hires women to call on him in public places or goes to the extent of ‘calling upon himself’. We are much amused by such affected ways of this ‘genteel world fashionable gallantry’ and their ‘mistresses’ carry on with each other even after marriage, and use marriage only as a screen for their extra-marital adventures. In this respect, even Mirabell is a hypocrite, for he has Mrs. Fainall as his mistress and thus defiles her marriage bed, though the advice which he tenders is, ……
From hence let those be warned, who mean to wed!
Lest mutual falsehood stain the bridal bed;
For each deceiver to his cost may find,
That marriage frauds too oft are pain in kind.
He does not practice what he preaches or professes.
Satire on Pretension of Wit:
Another social affectation which has been satirised and held up to ridicule is the pretension of wit. There are fops, like Petulant and Witwould, who are fools in reality, but who pretend to be witty. They become objects of laughter as they try to show their wit in season and out of season. They indulge in similitude (use of comparisons, similies etc.) to show their wit, but in reality they only reveal their folly. Such exaggerated and excessive pretension to wit characterised the fops of the age, and this particular vanity and affectation has been satirised through the two fops or Witwouds in the play.
Conclusion:
In short, Congreve’s satire is aimed at social affectation, hypocrisy and vanity and not at any natural weakness or deformity. His satire is mild and gentle and not indignant as that of the roman Juvenal or the English swift. Congreve ridicules and amuses, and thus makes us wiser and better at the same time that he entertains.