"The Way of the World" as a Restoration Comedy: .
Restoration Comedy is a type of Restoration Drama, which is related with the manners and attitudes of the characters and what the audience laugh at them after the pursuit of sex and money. In a way, the Comedy of Manners is a witty, and cerebral form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a contemporary society. A comedy of manners is concerned with social usage and the question of whether or not characters meet certain social standards. The plot of such a comedy, usually concerned with an illicit love affair or similarly scandalous matter, is subordinate to the play's brittle atmosphere, witty dialogue, criticism and commentary on human foibles. "The Way of the World" which is written by William Congreve, is a restoration comedy play with its witty dialogues between the characters, criticism of the upper class people's manners and also satiric and effective scenes such as lady and maid; unmasking scene of male libertine and proviso scene that ends in a lyrical celebration of unity.
"The Way of the World" (1700), in fact "a world of wit and pleasure inhabited by persons of quality and deformed neither by realism nor by farce" (Congreve, p.401) which has come to be regarded as one of the great comedies in the English language. The plays of Congreve are considered the greatest achievement of Restoration comedy. They are comedies of manners, depicting an artificial and narrow world as explained above, peopled by characters of nobility and fashion, to whom manners, especially gallantry, are more important than morals such as Mirabell, Lady Wishfort, and Fainall. No doubt, Congreve's view of mankind is amused and cynical. His characters are constantly engaged in complicated intrigues, usually centering around money like Mirabell, which involve mistaken identities like Mrs.Marwood, the signing or not signing of legal documents, weddings in masquerade.
