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William Congreve's The Way Of The World

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Restoration era was between 1660 A.D and 1700 A.D. It was during the reign of Charles II. Upon the death of Oliver Cromwell (a Puritan), Charles and his entourage returned from exile in 1660. Monarchy was restored by installing Charles II as their ruler. It was during this time that theatres were brought back which was once barred by the Puritans. The literature back then painted about the life of Restoration period. From many literature works, William Congreve’s The Way of the World is one of those satire works where the social life is mirrored. Drabble (2008) said “In these Congreve shows himself the master of Restoration comedy, studying the social pressures on love and marriage with wit and subtlety” (p.228). The play depicts the life styles …show more content…

Firstly the play is a social mirror to of the Restoration period because in William Congreve’s The Way of the World two classes from five classes were depicted. Heinz (2013) classified the restoration social classes into five and there are Royalty, Lords Temporal, Gentlemen, Freeholder, Merchant class and lower …show more content…

And the play also depicted how the higher class bossed and bullied the lower class people. The high society manipulated their servants to achieve their ulterior motive. In the play Waitwell, valet of Mirabell listens to what his boss says. He accepts to marry Foible and impersonate Mirabell’s uncle to court Lady Wishfort as per Mirabells desire. Lady Wishfort uses her maid Foible as emissary to find a husband for her. The high class society women tend to be showy in nature and this is represented by Lady Wishfort. She asks how she looks before Sir Rowland comes and asks for songs and dances to be presented for Sir Rowland. Secondly, during the era the high classes uses chocolate house and park for recreational and pleasure. Being in such places was fashion then. Men indulge themselves in drinking chocolate and playing cards in chocolate house. Pepys (1661) has written in his diary that he rose and went out with to drink his morning, chocolate to settle his stomach. Women were found gossiping, playing cards in their parlor and having walks in the park with their male counterparts. These fashions are showcased

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A separate peace by John Knowles is book that takes place at a boarding school and a big part of it is looking at how tragedy can change a characters personality. Gene Forrester the protagonist and narrator of the novel is a great example of this. At the beginning of the book he is envious of his best friend Phineas and will do anything to be the best, but as the book goes on and tragedy strikes all he feels is guilt. Before the tragedy of Finny breaking his leg gene is envious of him.

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wearing the same clothes every single day. It is obvious to compare them to the lower classes of the Elizabethan men. But high school is just one place to observe this, another would be walking down the streets of Hollywood. There, you are able to find people in every class of society. You can see the very rich and wealthy all the way down to the lowest of classes.

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How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? In his play The Importance of Being Earnest (1895, London St. James’ theater), Oscar Wilde portrays the attitudes and society of Victorian upper class through character interactions within the ‘Bunburyist’ adventures of Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing. The play’s comedic elements, in addition to the portrayal of power structures, are used as an effective medium to challenge the viewer to reflect upon Wilde’s criticism on institutions and values of the aristocracy. In conjunction to this, deeper analysis can be conducteds about marriage in Victorian aristocracy and their attitudes to members of other social groups.

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Elizabethan and Jacobean England was an exceptionally hierarchical society, where social order and class remained stringent and impermeable. King Lear and Twelfth Night are examples of how William Shakespeare dramatically engaged with these stratified boundaries by focusing on the characters who attempted to transgress and subvert them. However, as one investigates these social shackles, a ‘social order paradox’ can be found according to Whitney Graham. Graham defines this as, ‘the way in which he effectively critiques and challenges the claim that social hierarchies are inherently rigid, while he, at the same time, simultaneously reinforces and supports these very notions contextually. Thus, though Shakespeare creates worlds in which characters

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Oscar Wilde wrote his plays against the backdrop of the Victorian English society. It therefore helps to discuss the salient aspects of the Victorian society. Victorian England is known for many paradoxes -- glaring contrasts between the rich and the poor, insistence on morality on the one hand and the practice of cynicism on the other, blooming creativity pitted against blatant constriction, imperial grandeur since Britain was then ruling almost one fifth of the total surface of the earth and domestic squalor since the majority of people did not have decent means of livelihood, and finally collectivity dictated by tradition opposed to the rapidly developing individualism. The class system denied the talented members of the lower classes access to social and economic advancement. The upper classes alone had the privilege of working in the government, the armed forces, and the church, while trade was monopolized by the rising middle class.

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The rigid class system in Middle Age Europe was a primary factor that determined the course of events. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, there are underlying issues throughout the plot involving classes of the characters, and their roles within their class. While for the time period, it was common for those in lower classes to be looked down upon, Shakespeare uses many mediums to slyly challenge this idea. Throughout the play, Shakespeare makes the class differences obvious, yet creates certain character dynamics which challenge preconceptions. Twelfth Night is centered around a distinct and rigid class system, yet Shakespeare comments on its negative impacts, and yearns for a more fluid system, in order to create a more just and fair world.

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In the Victorian era, gender inequality was daily life. Men were most often the dominant power in a relationship whereas women were expected to be pure and innocent. In an era of arranged marriages, women belonged to their husbands and were attached to their households. However, Wilde has questioned these gender roles and created rather independent and powerful female characters in the play. Though Lady Bracknell and Jack have to give their consent as an approval of marriage to their wards, Gwendolen and Cecily, women show dominance over men in each relationship.

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Social class played a key role in the Elizabethan Age; without social hierarchy society would have fallen apart, the people did not know of anything else other than the role of classes. Each class had different situations of life, some were wealthy and had nice homes while others were poor and living off of the streets. The class rankings were given to each individual by situations such as birth, fame, wealth, and known skills(“Elizabethan Era.”). One could only move up a class by the Queen's approval, obtaining sudden wealth, going into debt, losing your job, and many other specific conditions(“Elizabethan Era - The Lost Colony.”). For instance, marriage between two people from separate classes could alter social class and was often frowned upon.

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While many have been familiar with the title of the play The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, one should also pay attention to its subtitle, ‘trivial comedy for serious people’. The play is a satire that ridicules the upper class to point out its fault (Kreuz and Roberts 100).The aim is to ridicule the ‘serious people’, members of the upper class in Victorian society. The characters were too attentive to social propriety and etiquette, which were as trivial as the comedy suggests in the eyes of Wilde. As they were too stubborn to alter the behaviour, the propriety and etiquette became superficial and meaningless. Their idleness and hypocrisy are other points at which Wilde recurrently mock in the play.

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John Webster, the great Elizabethan dramatist was little admired during his life time. The Elizabethans failed to appraise his genius as a dramatist and after his death he fell for nearly two hundred years into the lap of oblivion to be brought back into the limelight by the criticism of such distinguished critics as Lamb, Swinburne, Rupert Brooke, who popularised his works and establised his claim to be recognised as a great dramatist of Elizabethan age. But now the tide has turned in Webster 's favour and he is recognised today not as a dramatist who carried forward the revenge theme in drama but as a great poet, and above all, a great moralist, who held aloft the moral vision of life at a time when the dramatists of the age were piling horror and glorifying murder into a fine art. This tragedy THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, the revenge is further degraded and the moral motive of the dramatist come to the forefront. There are some influences of other Elizabethan authors.

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