Mirabell and Millament Relationship Essay

In The Way of the World, his last comedy, Congreve seems to come to realise the vastness for providing an ideal twosome of man and woman, ideal in the sense that the pair could be condensen for models in the life-style of the period. But this was almost out of the question task, where the stage was occupied by men and women, sophisticated, immoral, regardless of the larger humankind around them, and preoccupied with the self-conceited rhetoric as an weapon to free their immoral activities within a small and restricted argona of kind operation.Congreve could not avoid this, and for this, he had to pave his way through the purchase order by presenting a plot which, though complicated enough for a resolution, aims at the ideal union between the hero and heroineMirabell and Millament. They emerge as the welterant culmination of the representative characters of the whole period, of course not types, for they ar real enough to be human. Congreve endowed his hero and heroine with all the qualities true of the society, but towards the end the qualities, if negative, atomic number 18 employed as guards against the venoms of the society.At the ascendent of the play, we find Mirabell shaping up a situation so that he cannister win the hands of Millament and her estate as well from lady Wishfort who has the rein of power over them. In this Mirabell is perfect Machiavellian sensible of his surroundings. He is not at all a man from venturesome romance. That he is a past master in the game of delight in, of course, in the sense of the period, that is, sexual relationshipis evident from his past personal business with Mrs. Fainall, from Mrs.Marwoods fascination towards him and, one many suspect, from Lady Wishforts unconscious hungriness for him. Moreover, Mirabell has mastered rhetoric to encounter men and women around them. Consistent with the supine charm of Mirabell, Congreve built the character of Millament. She is the perfect model of the accomplishe d amercement lady of high life, who arrives at the height of indifference to everything from the height of satisfaction. To her pleasance is as familiar as the air she draws elegance worn as a part of her dress wit the habitual language which she hears and speaks.She has vigor to fear from her take caprices, being the only law to herself. As to the affairs of love, she treats them with at once seriousness and difference. For instance, she exclaims to Mirabell Dear me, what is a lover that it can give? One makes lovers as fast as one pleases, and they fit as long as one pleases, and they die as curtly as one pleases and if one pleases one makes more. This, however, may be a case for Millament who is standing at the threshold of maturity from girlhood, as Norman N. Holland points out.But from her discussion of preconditions before entering into spousal relationship with Mirabell, it is clean up that she is intelligent and discrete enough to judge her situation. In the Proviso depiction we find Mirabell and Millament meeting together to arrange an agreement for their marriage. The scene is a pure comedy with brilliant display of wit by both(prenominal) of them, but, above all, provides instructions which have serious dimensions in the context of the society. On her part, Millament makes it clear that a lovers (Mirabells) appeals and entreaties should not stop with the marriage ceremony.Therefore, she would desire to be solicited even after(prenominal) marriage. She next puts that My dear self-reliance should be preserved Ill lye abed in a dayspring as long as I please Millament indeed informs that she would not like to be addressed by such names as wife, spouse, my dear, joy, jewel, love, sweet-heart and the rest of that nauseous can, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar. Moreover, they will continue to present a decorous appearance in public, and she will have free communication with others. In other words, after marriage they m aintain certain distance and reserve between them.Mirabells conditions are quite different they are frankly sexual in content, directed to his not being cuckolded or to her bedroom manners. Just as Millaments are developed femininely as Norman N. Holland points out, Mirabells are developed in a typically masculine way. Each of Mirabells provisos begin with its item first, the general principle, that your Acquaintance be general, then specific instructions, no she-friend to screen her affairs, no fop to take her to the theatre secretly, and an illustration of the forbidden behaviour, to wheedle you a fop-scrambling to the play in a mask.Nevertheless, Mirabell denounces the use of tight dresses during pregnancy by women, and he forbids the use of alcoholic drinks. The conditions are stated by both parties in a spirit of fun and gaiety, but the fact remained that both are striving to arrive at some kind of mutual understanding. bandage the Proviso Scene ensures the marriage of true m inds, the possession of dowry with Millament stay the aim of Mirabell for the rest of the play.At the end of the play Mirabell and Millament through their own peculiar balance of wit and generosity of spirit, reduce the bumbling Witwood and acid Fainall to the level of false wit. Thus Mirabell and Millament dramatise the true wit that is so carefully and symmetrically defined through opposition. On his part, Mirabell informs that, I like her with all her faults nay, like her for her faultsThey now to grown as familiar to me as my own frailties And Millament declares to Mrs.Fainall, Well, if Mirabell should not make a good husband, I am a lost thingfor I find I love him violently. These confidences do not prevent their own chances for honesty in marriage. The triumph of the play is in the emergence of lovers who through a balance of ardent affection and cool self-knowledge achieve an equilibrium that frees them from the worlds power. As the title of the play The Way of the World suggests, they have assimilated the rational clearness of sceptical rake so that they can use the world and resist its demands.