“My dear liberty, shall I leave thee? My faithful solitude, my darling contemplation, must I bid you then adieu? Ay-h adieu—My morning thoughts, agreeable wakings, indolent slumbers, all ye douceurs, ye sommeils du matin, adieu” (Congreve pg. 2258).

Even Clarissa, the least silly of all these women, diminishes the worth of women. Pope obviously wants the audience to give “grave” Clarissa’s words much weight. He likens her impassioned speech of temperance to Belinda to the one Anna made to the ill-fated queen Dido. She advises the best qualities a woman can achieve is not of any heroic proportions but to keep “good humor” for “good humor can prevail /When airs, and flights, and screams, and scolding fail” (5.31-32).

The opening of the poem establishes its mock-heroic style. Pope introduces the conventional epic subjects of love and war and includes an invocation to the muse. Yet the tone already indicates that the high seriousness of these traditional topics has suffered a diminishment. The "contests" Pope alludes to will prove to be "mighty" only in an ironic sense. They are card-games and flirtatious tussles, not the great battles of epic tradition. Belinda is not, like Helen of Troy, "the face that launched a thousand ships", but rather a face that--although also beautiful-- prompts a lot of foppish nonsense.

The pursuit of women, in Congreve’s it is the witty Millamant and in Pope’s it is the ravishing Belinda, drives the plots of both stories. In both texts these beautiful and virginal “prizes” can only be won through much verbal maneuvering and ambushes. In Congreve’s “The Way of the World” women exercise some control over pressing the desirable match in marriage, however in both works of fiction women and the virtues/qualities associated with them are highly sought out goods. There is less emphasis of women as commodities in Congreve’s “The Way of the World”, however there is a subtle indications of such values. Virginity is a highly valued commodity in both works of fiction. Pope explicitly states this. Here Pope directly likens a woman’s virginity if broken as being similar to a “some frail china jar receive[s] a flaw” (3.106). Reputation is another commodity “Or stain her honor, or her new brocade” ( 3.107). Virginity is indirectly stated as a commodity by the actions of the character. Mrs. Fainall married the despicable Mr. Fainall for one sole reason: she mistakenly believed to be with Mirabell’s child thus Mirabell had her married off to his friend Fainall. Despite that fact that Mrs. Fainall was in love with Mirabell there was no doubt in her mind that Mirabell could not or would not marry her because she was damaged good; a man did not marry his mistress. This is an ingrained value in all of the characters. Mrs

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