[Music] you welcome to EPG pachala I am an accordion and I teach in the Department of English at the University of Hyderabad today we are looking at paper to literature of England from 1592 1798 and in this we are looking at the drama and prose of the 18th century today we are considering the work of Elam country and we shall be looking at his play the way of the world now when we look at the drama of the 18th century what we are interested in surveying is restoration drama so we are thinking in terms of the long 18th century as well we are also thinking in terms of a drama which is in very stark contrast to Renaissance drama when we think of Renaissance drama primarily the drama of the great romantics of English such as William Shakespeare Christopher Marlowe Thomas Kyd or Ben Jonson and John Webster even Beaumont and Fletcher we are thinking in terms of a certain seriousness of topic and a certain respectability to the characters themselves even when they are doing not so very respectable things however the restoration and the drama that follows thereupon isn't much in contrast to all of this because the restoration once it takes place in 60 and 60 first of all marks a revival of drama in England with Oliver Cromwell and the shutting down of the theaters in 1642 what happened was that there was no drama whatsoever until the restoration of Charles a second to the throne now through the 1660s and the 1670s there is a new kind of drama which is characterized by a lot of witticism which has very intricate plots and subplots and which is morally shall we say to a certain extent bankrupt so there is a certain cynicism which is valid within the place and within the worlds and the place show us there is also even as there is a lot of witted humour it's a written humour which is founded upon sexual entry and which is also founded upon duplicity amongst the characters so nobody is utterly honest everybody is we wicked maybe but definitely cheating on everybody else and they're all of them doing this in an atmosphere of great wit and humor it was also a drama which was devoted to the urban aristocracy classes of the period so this is called the comedy of manners and it dealt with lifestyles associated with the rich the courtly and the aristocracy and it represented humorously the follies and absurdities of the social conduct however one must keep it in mind that this was not meant to be satire as such there is no question of improving their lives they are all busy in doing whatever they're doing so it was a representation which then showed us their faults but was not necessarily directed at a moral improvement so it isn't this that in this atmosphere and in this new style of drama that we see playwrights such as georgette rich William which early and William Congreve functioning now these plays dwelt upon sexual tension and intrigue so there is a lot of sexual comedy which takes place over here and affairs are par for the course affairs which are also extramarital premarital all of these happen and they happen regularly there is of course disguise and deceptions given that there are adulterous affairs deception also is then the norm and there is considerable intergenerational conflict and these are some of the standard tropes which are employed in these comedies it is also concerned not with the moral implications or with deep emotions but with super fashion superficial manners and the conduct that can be seen in public so the focus in this place is on a superficial understanding of what the court and the courtiers did in their everyday lives rather than on what they felt or what they ought to have been do at the end of the 17th century what we see is that public tears began to turn against such comedies they believe that it could not continue in this immoral fashion and it was necessary the opening morality of the comedy of manners came in for some criticism and drama turned towards a more genteel and a more sentimental and a more moralistic middle-class drama rather than this very upper-class drama that was in vogue till then now William Congreve a playwright for the day was one of the last major writers off restoration comedies of manners and he started his literary career with a comedy called the old bachelor in 1693 it was an instant success in spite of the fact that its plot was rather loose but the wit and the humor in the dialogue was said to transcend the looseness of the plot and as such it was a huge success his subsequent plays such as double dealer and love for love showed him developing in all realms so even as his dialogue of course had always been good enough his characterization his plot construction and his style all of them improved a pace way of the world is the final comedy that he writes and this was published in 1700 and it is a today accounted to be his greatest dramatic achievement though in its own time it had not achieved the kind of absolute success that his other plays did it also marked the end of his brief career as playwright and even though today we see it as the Acme of his career as well as the AG pay of a restoration drama as well what we now see is that at that point in time nobody really appreciated it the way of the world we now move on to a brief summary of the plot lynnie wish firt who is vain who is prosperous and gullible does not approve of the marriage which is proposed between Meera man Miller mint and Mirabelle now Mirabel the reason she disapproves of this proposed match is because Mirabal had earlier paid court to her or rather she believed that he had done so what we discovered of course in the course of the play is that Mirabelle has also had various alliances with his with Lady wish for its daughter as well who is now married to somebody called Fennell now lady whispered because she is outraged that Mirabelle threw her over for her Ward element refuses to accept the proposal that he brings for her ward this of course then leads Mirabelle to devise a trick by which she can be fooled into believing certain things and then he will be able to blackmail her into giving her consent to his proposal for his ward so what he does is that he gets his servant to agree to play the role of his servant whose name is mr. wait well she agrees to he agrees to play the role of a suitor to lady wish foot and he is then to appear as Roland and will then propose to lady wish foot and lady wish foot then having accepted his proposal then we blackmailed because then she will realize that he's just a servant he is not a country gentleman and therefore in disgrace she will agree to what she wants however now we have a new person entering into the scheme and this is somebody called lady mrs. Marwood mrs. murat comes to know about this plot and she informs Fennell now fennel is somebody who is son-in-law to Lady wish furred but is also carrying on an affair with mrs. Marvel what we see therefore is now there are a whole bunch of people who are having affairs with everybody else so Mirabelle has already had an affair with Lady wish first daughter he was paying court supposedly to lady wish foot and now he wishes to marry me lament millimeter is the only person who's not so far had in your face fennel has married somebody who is lady wish first daughter but is also had has had a pre marital affair with Mirabelle and mrs. Marwood who is now having an affair with fennel is also interested in Mirabal so basically everybody's involved with everybody else and what fennel does is he threatens m'lady wish foot that he will expose his wife's premarital affair with Mirabal as well as tell the world that lady wish what was about to marry an already married servant once all of this comes out lady wish what appeals to Mirabelle helped her to get rid of all these problems and says that if he will do so then of course he/she will agree to his marriage to Milla meant her would her problems are compounded because Fennell says if she does not do what he wants then he will expose her but what he desires is that she will transfer her own fortune her daughter's fortune and half of the wads 14 mil immense fortune to him basically his blackmailing her so once all of this happens and she asks Mirabal for help Mirabal then of course what's everything by coming in in the role for Duke Krishna Sheena and saying that he is actually the the trustee for fennels fortune mrs. Reynolds fortunes and therefore nobody can then do anything so what we have at the end is of course our happy ending because lady wish fir'd agrees to the marriage of Mirabal and Milla meant and they then are unable to get married and it hens happily only for the main couple as such everybody else continues to be miserable in various kinds now the play as such is seen as significant because it is the epitome and the Acme of restoration drama it has all the typical features of the comedy of manners of the time these include of course sexual intrigues like I said there are at least three people who are all involved with three other people at any given point in time it has deception lots of lies lots of secrecy which is going on all around plenty of witty dialogue there is intergenerational conflict so ladyfish furred who is in control of Miller man's life because she is her guardian refuses to give her consent to her marriage and so on and so forth and above all of us there is a mercenary attitude to relationships so all relationships are calculated on the basis of how much wealth will accrue to the people involved rather than what they feel about each other of course the exception to this is the millah means Mirabel relationship which has both money as well as affection as a central part to their relationship he presents manners and morals of the age in a funny way so we do laugh at all of this so we are not also then condemning the ways in which they behave whether it is their sexual reception that they practice upon each other or whether it is their utterly mercenary attitude towards relationships the play supposedly reflects the reality of contemporary English upper class so the reservation society was itself seen as being a little corrupt and the play also shows us that corruption where material concerns govern relationships and love and romance are not really so very important however what we see is that a lot of the action is also demonstrative of not just the shall we say corruption or evil that pervaded that society but also about the eccentricities of that society in addition we have shown that Mirabal and miller meant strikes this balance between two extremes so where everybody is corrupt or everybody is deceiving of everybody else Mirabal and militant are more or less honest to each other they are of course beti they are humorous their their relationship is governed by a lot of humor and yet the others are all seen as lusting after money or lusting after other human beings now when we look at the structure of the play what we can see is that two main significant items one is dramatic irony and the other is the presence of subplots now dramatic irony arises when the audience has more information about something that is happening on stage about the action of the play than one or more characters on stage it is a device that is used by several dramatist most popularly in place such as it appears Rex where everybody in the audience would have known what was happening to Oedipus Rex that he had killed his father that he had murdered his mother whereas he himself was of course completely in the dark regarding this now Congreve uses dramatic irony in the text to bring about resolutions of course but also to complicate actions now lady which foot is deceived both by Mirabal as well as fennel on tuba counts one is that Mirabal does not of course inform her that Sir Rowland is only a servant in disguise and fennel and mrs. fennel have not informed her that mrs. phenol had a premarital affair now the these two instances of dramatic irony which are informed to the audience but which have not been informed to the characters on stage complicate the action and it gives us a certain understanding of what is happening or what is likely to happen so when the characters try to deceive one another they will work on the basis of information which they believe is available only to themselves does Lady wish for does not know about certain things which fennel believes that only know he knows about the premarital affair of his wife is one such example having known about this he then believes that he can use it to gain certain advantages for himself basically monetary advantages where he wants her fortune he wants half of MIL immense fortune and so on and so forth the resolution comes about because then there is a double use of dramatic irony we discover at the end that Mirabal is the executor or the custodian legally speaking for mrs. phenols fortune and therefore then nobody can sign it away least of all lady wish furred so there is a resolution which comes about because of dramatic irony and it's a dramatic irony which is unrevealed to anybody until the final moment of the play itself now in addition to dramatic irony we have the use of in this play subplots which are crucial to the understanding and the complication of the main plot but also then give us both an amusing foil but also give us a resolution to the main plot itself the use of subplots is something that is fairly common in Renaissance drama but definitely more so in restoration drama and these subplots are used to advance the action of the main plot and complicated also as a foil to the main action of the play so if you were to think in terms of subplots one example which then provides a foil to the main plot of the play would be King Lear where you have a story of a father with three daughters which is mirrored in the story of a father with two sons and we're both fathers then of course faced ill treatment at the hands of some of the children now that is a subplot which then provides a foil to the main plot here what we see is that it is not about so much providing a foil as complicating the main plot now if the main plot is seen as the desire of millimeter and Mirabal to be married and lady wish for its stopping of that desire then the subplots include and this is the first one Marwood mrs. Marwood and Fennell trying to stop Mirabelle's plan of deceiving lady wish for now when edible comes up with this plan that he will get his servant to behave like a country gentleman propose to lady wish foot and then marry her he is putting in place a small plot which will itself advance his own desires but once mrs. Marwood and fennel come to hear about this they then intervene in that and they expose this and in doing so then this main plot is complicated as lady wish foot is thrown off her is thrown into some confusion and then she discovers that she cannot really do anything very much about this and she discovers that she is in trouble the second subplot which we have is about Sir William Whitford who is potentially Mirabelle's rival form elements Hann and who is sponsored of course by Lady wish foot and who Lady Whitford is very certain that he is the right man for me lament this subplot which is funny is also cleared up because fennel gets in drunk eliminates him from the scene and therefore then the road is made here for the marriage of Mirabal and milimeter now these are surplus then which derive the dramatic force both in terms of showing us the psychological motivation is there amongst the characters and it shows us the consequences of their action and it helps us to finally arrive at a comic resolution to the entire play this comic resolution is of course marked also by both humor as well as surprise so when we hear that Mirabal is actually the legal executor for mrs. phenols fortune we are also then struck by surprise and there is the element of predictability which is that the two central lovers Mirabal and Milliman are enabled to get married if we other think in terms of the characterization of the play what we see is that even as they belong to stock stereotypical characters they are also given some redeeming features they are also giving some individualization the hero of the play Mirabal is typical of the restoration boy he is clever he is extremely charming but he is also manipulative his polish and his charm is matched only by his cynicism and his mercenary nature so he is this composite of somebody who is beautifully charming but who is also then very much on the mix so even as he is seen to be in love with Milliman he is also shown to be somebody who even though he is in love does not want her if her fortune does not accompany her so he's selfish he's ruthless and yet he is also capable of self-reflection and this self-reflection is what sets him apart from the others and which is why we say that this particular play the way of the world is exemplary because even as it is typical of restoration drama it also stands as something which is something more than the usual stereotypical examples of restoration drama now when Mirabal is seen to be selfish say entirely self-centered and this we see the fact that he had a man with Lady wish Hood's daughter and even made her pregnant and then of course got her married off to fennel so in effect he just does things for his own self-serving interest and yet he is also charming and the ways in which he quotes Milliman and this is marked by both width as well as humor and the width is of the kind that is partly matching that of Beatrice and Benedick in much ado about nothing he is also a good judge of character and this is seen by his assessment of phenol phenol who is a corrupt figure is seen as both the antagonistic and in the midst of the play but also as the foil to Mirabal now Mirabal is the protagonist he is perfect in all his ways even though he's manipulative and even though he is cynical in opposition to him is phenol who has absolutely no redeeming qualities we will come back to discuss phenol in a little bit from now but first let us instead look at melamed now the hero of the play does not have as major a role as Mirabal but it seemed to be a perfect match for him because she is also like he is charming and witty and polished but she is also self possessed and pragmatic now this pragmatism is something which is important to notice because both of them see money as essential now love conquers all and we will live in a cottage and live on nothing love and fresh air is not something is not a creed that either of them are willing to subscribe to they both believe that money is essential so milla means fortune is something that she is not willing to forsake even for the sake of marriage to her lover her one true love Mirabelle likewise Mirabal is not willing to give up the fortune if it should go away to fennel and met Mary Milla meant so money is seen as essential to the idea of marriage itself and between the two of them they represent the refinement of feeling and conduct that was there on the restoration stage during this period now of the other characters the one whom we see a lot of course lady wish for now ladyfish foot is first of all vain she is also self-delusional because she does not judge other people she believes that made up will courted her because of her real interest in her as opposed to what most people see as he courted her because he wanted to gain access to her ward Malamud now she is deceived in herself and she is deceived in others around her and she fails to judge other people correctly the fact that she is delusional is also seen in the fact that she gets fooled very easily by a servant who dresses as a country gentleman so when sir rowland arrives on the scene she is immediately swayed by him and she does not recognize the fact that he is from servant classes so you have also have then an indictment of Lady wish word which is based upon her absolute lack of recognition of what is truly a gentleman and what is maybe just a servant this is of course also implicated in the class politics of the time now the antagonist fennel is the corrupt version of Mirabal out only for personal advantage as manipulative as Mirabal himself is but lacking both in his intelligence in his refinement and his bill Mirabal has this capacity for true feeling which fennel is unaffected by now fennel is of course caught in a marriage wherein he is married to somebody who is actually had an affair with somebody else and might be carrying that person's check but all of that is irrelevant because fennel is also carrying on with somebody else and has in addition to that only one governing desire and that is a desire to have more money at any cost even when even if that requires resorting to blackmail now therefore fennel comes across as somebody who has no redeeming characters whatsoever and therefore then work for only personal advantage we have minor women characters you have the servant for a bird but you also have mrs. Marwood and you have mrs. fennel whose lady wish for his daughter now all of them in one sense stand together because they're all seen as morally corrupt they all have extramarital premarital Affairs they are all doing whatever they want to do but they are also seen as victims of the men in their lives the men in their lives are the ones who manipulated them who pushed them around and who leave them with little or no agency so mrs. Marwood who desires to have an affair with Mirabal is willing to then entice him in whatever way is available to her mrs. fennel who's already had an affair with Mirabal is has made him the legal executor for her fortune because that is the only way in which she can keep it safe from her husband and what we see is that all of these people especially these women are only motivated by the need for financial security the servants like the Masters themselves are again driven by finances and they mimic the same manipulative and scheming ways of their master so none of them is really seen as a rounded character all of these are seen as more or less flat characters who do not really develop in the course of the play these are people who arrive in the play fully developed and remains so through the play if you were to think in terms of the major themes of the play one of course is money money money money money is all over the place the next is love and marriage as is usual in comedies of the time and we also see class distinctions and class hierarchies which are at work within the text now monetary considerations and these as we can see or as we have already seen influence all the relationships which are there within the play and these are also what are central to the plot and the movement of the plot as well as to the movement of the surplus it's also central to the resolution of the play one thing which we have to see is that the idea of romantic love which in earlier drama such as that of the Ramos transcended mere monetary and financial requirements over here is complicated because there is no romantic love which is exempted from financial settlement also so material concern and romantic love go hand-in-hand neither Milliman no Mirabal are willing to settle for a marriage which will cost them their inheritance so if they are likely to lose their money then no way right so romantic love then is subservient to the idea of my money and financial gain all other relationships also are motivated by and powered by the desire to have wealth and the financial considerations which cause these ones so when we think about Lady wish firt initially refusing her consent and her consent is marriage is possible but element will not then be carrying her fortune with her which means in effect that she will be Richard mrs. fennel who recognizes the fact that fennel is interested only in her money has already then put that money away safely securely by making Mirabelle the executor and the trustee for that money so everybody in one sense is motivated by financial constraints and those financial constraints are what make them work in the play to cheat and deceive each other so what we see over here is a tribulation within the text of marriage itself even as romantic love is mocked to a certain extent we are told that Mirabal and Milliman definitely are going to get married there might be loyalty within that marriage but all the other relationships that we see are not necessarily powered by either love or loyalty and the most obvious example is that of fennel and mrs. fennel where there is a premarital affair which has already made some but mrs. fennel pregnant and finally knows about it and is willing to settle for it because of the monetary advantages that will accrue to him by virtue of this marriage we also see that the servants participate in the thought to deceive lady wish furred because the money so finally they wish to improve their social position and they wish to make more money and that is why they both participate in the plot so money is seen then as governing everything that takes place within the society whether it is at the level of the servant class or whether it is at the level of the aristocratic classes the play makes a rather sordid comment on the state of matrimony during this time in registration England because we see fennels marriage contrasted to the proposed and about to happen marriage between Mirabal and Milliman now fennels relationship as we saw already is based with his wife is based upon mistrust and it is based upon deception whereas what we see is mrs. Marber and he having an affair is just as problematic because there they are both of them jealous he is jealous of her desire to have an affair and Mirabal and they are all of them insecure so marriage then is this very uncertain kind of situation where everybody is uncertain of everybody else and there is no happiness possible minimum element we can by a stretch of our imaginations say that they represent the possibility it is only a possibility of trust affection respect some understanding within the institution of marriage so if the institution of marriage is to be redeemed at all it has to be redeemed by these people not by anybody else so then when we have looked at the themes we have looked at the characters we have looked at what Congreve does in the way of the world in television what we can say is that the plate combines social criticism with humor and it shows us the best as in millimeter and Mirabel and their relationship the best and the worst aspects of relationships in the society of the times now most of what we see is actually the worst but there is also the possibility of good within this and while all the characters seem to be driven by greed and by vanity and their selfishness they also receive some forms one at the end of the play so that is this whole moral judgment thing that is happening within the text as well the moral vision of the play itself can be seen to be comedic and it is insofar as the protagonists are going to be united in marriage it forms falls in line with the requirements of a romantic comedy but it is also gently satirical as people who are greedy motivated solely by money or by vanity they are then punished at the end of the play and it is only those who are capable of genuine feeling and of self-examination who can be dignified in their conduct who are given any form of reward at all we are also told by critics that when we look at a place such as this we should separate moral judgment from appreciation of drama and that's an interesting way to think about this because if we were to judge it morally speaking then we would not be able to appreciate it it's only biceps separating the two that we can enjoy a drama of such kind 20th century critics have also then considered the players representing a fine balance between self awareness and social wise and there is a tension between satire and moral judgment within the play as well we have been looking at various aspects of the way of the world I would recommend of course as always that you should read this and read the lesson on it and then you will know far more about restoration drama of the time thank you