45 pages • 1 hour read
William CongreveThe Way of the World
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1700A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IIIChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act III Summary
In Lady Wishfort’s home, Lady Wishfort commands her servant, Peg, insulting her for being slow. Mrs. Marwood arrives and reports that Foible was seen speaking with Mirabell. Marwood hides in a closet, and Peg leaves. Lady Wishfort panics, but Foible arrives and says Mirabell only stopped her to insult Lady Wishfort, specifically Lady Wishfort’s age. Lady Wishfort plots to destroy Mirabell’s credit, but she is also excited to meet Sir Rowland, who Foible says loved Lady Wishfort’s pictures. Foible jokes that they need to use makeup to make Lady Wishfort look like her portraits, and Lady Wishfort debates how demure she should appear with Rowland. Lady Wishfort leaves, and Mrs. Fainall enters to warn Foible about Mirabell. Foible and Mrs. Fainall worry about Marwood, who enters after they leave. Marwood rejects her attraction to Mirabell. Lady Wishfort enters, but she leaves when Foible announces the arrival of Witwoud and Petulant. Millamant and Mincing enter, and Marwood tells Millamant that the town knows about Mirabell’s plan. Millamant is not concerned and laughs at Marwood, insulting her age and demanding a song. The song details how satisfying it is to make someone fall in love when others have failed.
Witwoud and Petulant enter and argue over whether they are argumentative. Marwood is exhausted by them, and Wilfull arrives. Wilfull is surprised the servants do not know he is Lady Wishfort’s nephew, and they reveal that they were all hired a week prior. Wilfull and Witwoud do not recognize each other, but Marwood reminds them of their relationship. Wilfull criticizes Witwoud for not acting like a brother should, but Witwoud says the fashion is different in town. Lady Wishfort and Fainall enter and greet Wilfull. Lady Wishfort calls everyone out for a walk, but Marwood and Fainall stay behind. Fainall is upset about Mirabell’s plan, which seems to be better than his own. He also expresses outrage and jealousy at being betrayed by his wife, saying that he has become a “cuckold,” but Marwood calms by helping him adjust their own scheme in light of Mirabell’s actions. Fainall has documentation granting him a portion of Mrs. Fainall’s money, and he plans to run away with Marwood if they cannot foil Mirabell’s plan.
Act III Analysis
The opening of Act III offers some characterization of Lady Wishfort, making her a caricature of the stereotypes regarding femininity from this time. She is vain and cruel, specifically to Peg, and she is obsessed with finding a husband. In examining The Complexities of Gender Dynamics in Personal and Financial Power, Lady Wishfort’s repetition of “As I’m a person” (277), which she says periodically throughout the play, becomes an assertion of personhood. In a sense, Lady Wishfort is an object in the play, existing as a barrier or a goal for the other characters, who only want her money or favor. Lady Wishfort’s assertion that she is a “person” is her way of attempting to refute this status in her social circle. When she repeats this line, she is usually in a position where she is trying to convince the other person or people that she is valid and worth listening to, even as she is ignored.
In addition to Lady Wishfort’s dismissal throughout the play, this act exposes two criteria by which women are distinctly judged in the play. The first of these is the use of makeup, or “paint,” which is frowned upon in the context of Lady Wishfort’s relationship with Sir Rowland as a form of manipulation. Combining the issues of gender with The Manipulation of Appearances for Personal Gain, Foible jokes, “I warrant you, madam, a little art once made your picture like you; and now a little of the same art must make you like your picture” (280). Later in the play, other characters note how much makeup Lady Wishfort wears; Foible is essentially accusing Lady Wishfort of deceiving Sir Rowland by using older pictures that do not accurately reflect her appearance. Yet, at the same time, Lady Wishfort is using these pictures to manipulate Sir Rowland, knowing that she is running out of avenues by which to find love.
The end of Act III highlights the difference between Witwoud, Wilfull, and Petulant’s foolishness and that of Marwood and Fainall. Witwoud, Wilfull, and Petulant try to behave in accordance with the rules of their times, which Wilfull calls the “fashion,” but they fail miserably. Nonetheless, they have no ill intentions beyond the obvious desires for friendship, travel, and respect. On the other hand, Marwood, Lady Wishfort’s most trusted confidante, joins with Fainall, Lady Wishfort’s son-in-law, with ill intent to steal Mrs. Fainall and Lady Wishfort’s money. The final couplet of the Act reads, “All husbands must or pain or shame endure; / The wise too jealous are, fools too secure” (292). Fainall asserts confidence in his actions despite expressing how outwitted he finds himself earlier in the scene, shocked by his wife’s deceit with Mirabell. He specifically calls himself a cuckold, or a stereotypically foolish man whose wife is involved with another man, and draws on the imagery of horned creatures that would’ve represented discussions of infidelity at the time. The audience knows that Fainall, who was jealous of Mirabell’s influence on both his wife and Marwood, is now too secure in foreseeing his ownership over Mrs. Fainall’s fortune. Fainall and Marwood are fools in that they assume they are one step ahead of their rivals.
