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.
Symbols & Motifs
Horns
In Act III, Fainall and Marwood have a conversation in which they mention “horns.” The discussion relates to infidelity, in that Fainall’s wife is suspected of an affair with Mirabell. Earlier, Marwood says that man should have horns and leave the rest of himself to women. These references to horns play on cuckoldry, so named by the cuckoo bird, which lays eggs in the nests of other birds. A cuckold is a man whose wife has an affair with another man, and the symbol for a cuckold is the stag. This representation is derived from the mating rituals of horned animals, like stags, who fight for the right to mate. In this sense, the “horns” are those of the stag who loses and thus has his horns but not his mate.
The symbol of the horns takes a broader meaning in The Way of the World, as Fainall has not lost his wife to Mirabell sexually. Instead, Mirabell has Mrs. Fainall’s money in trust, and he has her literal trust in the competing plots of the play. For Fainall, having his horns means losing the battle with Mirabell over his wife’s money rather than the battle to secure his marriage. Following the events of the play, though, Mrs. Fainall’s new control over their marriage implies that she may have affairs, and Fainall will not be able to prevent her activity without risking his lifestyle. The horns’ symbolism is thus intertwined with the play’s exploration of The Complexities of Gender Dynamics in Personal and Financial Power.
Paint/Makeup
Makeup, often called paint in the Restoration period, serves a dual symbolic purpose in the play. On one hand, it is representative of age and the importance of appearance in seeking a marriage. Foible notes how Lady Wishfort requires a lot of paint to match her own portrait, which indicates that the portrait was taken when she was younger. Because youth is prized in marriage, particularly for women, Lady Wishfort wants to appear younger to secure a husband. The “cracks” in Lady Wishfort’s paint, then, represent actual wrinkles that she attempts to hide with makeup, thus betraying her actual age.
However, the more abstract symbolism of paint is that of the need to maintain social appearances through decorum. When Lady Wishfort is sad or angry, the cracks appear in her makeup, threatening to betray not only her true age but also her true personality, which must be hidden to maintain decorum. As such, makeup is both a literal and a figurative means of hiding one’s true self in the play, as Lady Wishfort only shows her true personality around Peg and Foible in moments of distress or dissatisfaction. The implication of Lady Wishfort’s paint is less that she is the only character who needs to hide her personality, but rather that she is not as skilled in doing so as characters like Marwood, Fainall, and Mirabell. This symbolic meaning resonates with themes of both The Performative Aspects of Social Interaction and The Manipulation of Appearances for Personal Gain.
“As I’m a Person”
“As I’m a person” is a phrase repeated by Lady Wishfort throughout the text (277), and it constitutes a motif reminding the reader of the differences between men and women in matters of society and finances in the Restoration period. Lady Wishfort’s repetition of “As I’m a person” in fact indicates its opposite: She asserts her own objectification in insisting on her personhood.
Lady Wishfort is a one-dimensional character in the text, wanting only to get married and to punish men who reject her, like Mirabell. She has little to no control over the other characters and schemes in the play, instead falling prey to whatever scheme happens to affect her in the moment. As much as Lady Wishfort tries to express herself, she only manages to convince others of her own gullibility, leading to further deception.
The Black Box
In the end of the play, Waitwell brings a black box that supposedly contains Sir Rowland’s documentation for his fortune, but it instead contains documentation securing Mrs. Fainall’s fortune in a trust held by Mirabell. The black box is a reference to the black box of Charles II, which supposedly contained documentation proving that Charles II married a woman named Lucy Walters. This would serve to prove the legitimacy of the Duke of Monmouth’s claim to the throne as a rival to James II and VII. This story came out in 1680 through the publications of Robert Ferguson, and the black box was said to belong to Sir Gilbert Gerard, who supported the exclusion of James, then Duke of York, from the throne.
The black box in the play, unlike the real-life black box, physically exists and does contain evidence. However, it does not contain the evidence that most of the characters expect. Part of the symbolism of the box lies in the humor that, when Waitwell promises to bring the black box to Lady Wishfort, contemporaneous audiences would have known of the scandal of the black box of Ferguson. In this scene, the black box represents deception and the promise of false evidence. Nonetheless, as Mirabell uses the black box to prove his case against Fainall, it redeems itself as a symbol of true evidence, subverting the expectations of the audience.
