Congreve's Use of Women Characters In Plot Motivation

Abstract

However much they may disagree as to the morality of Congreve's plays, literary critics do agree that in his work we find the summation of that high type of Comedy of Manner s perfected during the period of the Restoration writers. In a study of Congreve's plays, it is logical, therefore, to examine the materials and method used in producing this drama in which Congreve was to achieve such success. This type of comedy had chosen for its purpose to depict life as the author saw it, and because of the condition of the country and the type of men doing the writing, it was clearly a reflection of the social life of the time. Under Charles I there had been a court comedy, which though suppressed under Cromwell, had managed to exist in secret. When Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, a definite change was brought into London life. With the relegation of the old Puritanism into the past, the theaters were reopened legally, and a new note of gayety was noticeable everywhere. But just as the Cromwell regime represented gloom and sobriety, so now did the pendulum swing to the opposite extreme. Society became unlicensed, men and women attained reputations for scandalous conduct which carried over to the stage, and have given these plays an unsavory name even to this day. The authors of this period were themselves young society men, and the theater was intended only for the people of their own class. These young men about town wrote of the only life they knew, a small, cramped, artificial sort of life, but it was sufficient for them and their audiences. To them London was the world, and society the one narrow stratum in which they moved. Their leading characters were heroes, wits, and gallants, all pictures of their contemporaries. As a foil for these wits they drew minor characters to serve as objects of ridicule -- scientists, religious, especially Puritans, learned ladies or those affecting to be learned, and foreigners, particularly the French. Thus, though distorted and exaggerated, we find these comedies a true reflection of the contemporary life of the time. It is only natural that these authors, being young men, and moving in a young crowd, should use only the escapades and pranks of young men and women in their plots. Youth, and only the youth of the upper class London society move through these comedies. Old age is neither respected nor enjoyed, and its only use is to show up its foibles or to ridicule its aping of younger companions in its foolish quest for a lover. Marriage was not wanted except as a guarantee of more liberty, children were absent except now and then, when an illegitimate offspring was used for a moment. It was clearly the day of youth, a sophisticated day, and youth made the most of it. In construction as well as in material the Comedy of Manners had a very definite formula. Each play had the definite motif of the period, namely, sex intrigue and sex opposition. The plot relies mainly on these intrigues, with the humorous characterization incidental. There was generally a pair of decent lovers to indulge in sentiment rather than raillery, while a bewildering number of lovers battle their way through the play, resorting to all sorts of tricks and deceptions to gain their own ends. To them, love was simply a battle of the sexes, which was not a strange conclusion to reach when one considers the social life of the day. We have said that this type of comedy was perfected during the Restoration period, but like all other dramatic forms it was a thing of growth, and the Restoration with its letting down of barriers and its furnishing of material was merely the culminating point, in which the writers achieved a perfect copy. The Comedy of Manners was above all realistic in portraying men and manners, and the foundation of this growth toward realism was laid over sixty years before in the person of Ben Jonson. In his plays Jonson “mirrored what he saw of men and manner s with an untiring fidelity,” so it is with him we will begin, when we study the dramatists who developed the Comedy of Manners as a means of expression. This, then, was the formula of the Comedy of Manners to which Congreve fell heir. Using this, in each play the plot always concern a hero who is involved with several women, all of whom are in love with him, and at least one who is both able and determined to thwart his plans of marrying the one he loves. Through these women the play takes various twists and turns, and though true love at last rises triumphant, the series of episodes engineered by the plotting of the ladies gives them some part in the management of the play. A little further study of these women used by Congreve to both help and hinder the plot, shows that they fall into very definite type characters. The first and most outstanding of these is the heroine. A lady of quality always, she is in love with the hero though she affects 'indifference. She is extremely witty, and in the exchange of repartee invariably comes off with the honors. She secures the man she wants in spite of her opponent's schemes and tricks, but to the last she maintains to her lover that she must be pursued. Opposed to this heroine, we generally find at least one cast mistress. Motivated by jealousy she attempts to change the plot and wreck the course of the hero's romance, usually by the means of such trickery as forged letters, malicious gossip to discredit the gallant with his future father-in-law, or similar devices to break off the match. Though ultimately these tricks are discovered, in the meantine they supply motive power to carry the story toward a climax. Less important to the main theme, but invaluable in the sub-plots are the "precieuse" portraits he uses. Whether a wife who rules her husband while she is deceiving him and enjoying her own liberty, an old lovesick woman, or an affected pretender to learning, each is perfect in her part. They also furnish opposition to the hero and help bewilder Him when he tries to inveigle her into something that will react to his advantage, she discovers his schemes much sooner than he finds out the plots of his enemies. These women furnish much of the comedy of the plays, and serve as excellent foils for the virtues of the heroine. In addition to these, there is a class of women servants, who, though they are carrying out the directions of the leading characters of the play, nevertheless show such ingenuity and ready wit in extricating themselves and their mistresses from delicate situations that they deserve a word in themselves. Often, too, in formation given by them helps the hero or heroine to foil another plot, or reveals to them the trend events are taking. With this knowledge of the type of women we find represented in the Comedy of Manners, it is interesting to note the ancestors of this type, those women who found a place in the early realistic comedies, when the first steps were being taken in the opposite direction from the romantic play then in existence. In these plays, as a character for portrayal the woman's part was negligible. This is easily understood when we remember that the woman's parts must be played by young boys, who, while competent, could hardly be expected to arouse the audience's enthusiasm. It was much more important for the author to put the emphasis on a staunch villain, a wily old rogue, or a blustering braggart. As a part of the plot the women are used mostly to indicate the "humours" of the men, whether it be jealousy, avarice, greed for power, or any other quality that could be so designated. The jealous husband might be shown plotting because he suspected his wife of cheating him, or the brother using a weak sister as a pawn in his ventures, using her as security as he would any piece of property, even offering her in exchange for certain advantages given to him. Again the woman might be the butt of all the ridicule, placing her on a lower intellectual level, incapable of understanding the finer points of their manly jests. At all events, she was moved about at the behest of the men, seemingly meek enough, nor did she object strenuously, even when, as n one case, she was handed over to another man by her husband, that he might secure a better chance for an inheritance. But as these women represented the first women characters in the realistic drama, so did their creator, Ben Jonson, represent the beginnings of a new comedy when he began his writings in the Elizabethan period. It was there that began the gradual shift in comic standards toward the more realistic type. This movement slowly asserted itself in the late Elizabethan comedy, gathered energy in the Court drama of Charles I, became more defined in the work of Etherege's immediate predecessors, and Ultimately expressed that new spirit in Etherege’s own work. This final type was the true Comedy of Manners. As the Comedy of Manners developed, women gradually won for themselves a more prominent place on the stage. By the time this comedy had achieved a definite formula in material and construction, women had also achieved a very definite status. Congreve, as the last of the great Comedy of Manners playwrights, if we except Vanbrugh and Farquhar who led its decline, fell heir to an established tradition. Just what this tradition consists of, and how he follows it, is the pleasure of this paper to trace. To do this properly, it is first necessary to trace briefly the development of the comedy from Jonson's time to Congreve's own era, and side by side with that, to indicate the trend the writers of this period gave toward making women a more important part in plot motivation. Once having clearly formulated the basic plan of the heritage of plays to which Congreve had access, we are ready to analyze Congreve's own efforts. In this analysis we shall show that Congreve adopted the material, the social life of the day, the formula, that is placing in juxtaposition the true and false wits, the theme of sex antagonism, the intrigue plot, and finally the intellectual and moral equality statue of woman. We shall further show that to the traditional characters he added a new character, a charming, witty heroine, who matched the hero, sometimes outshone him, and always excelled in wit and intellect the other characters in the play. We shall show his women to be fully equipped to direct the plot, pursue the men they want, rule their husbands, outwit their enemies, and hold off their lovers until it suits their purpose to accept their declarations of love. For Congreve's portraits of his women are his special contribution to the Comedy of Manners. Through them, he reaches the heights in comic dialogue. Every sentence they speak exhibits them as spirited copies of the society ladies of the time, and every polished phrase used indicates the characteristics peculiar to the speaker. In this alone, this manner of drawing his women characters, Congreve could be rated superior to his fellow writers. As Palmer says, "It is a piece of genius in a writer to make a woman's manner of speech portray her." But Congreve's women are not merely brilliant portraits. Through them the formula for the Comedy of Manners is definitely changed. The formula, up to this time, was for the plot to be in full control of the true-wit of the play. In Congreve this control is imperiled by the interference of the women; and in the degree that they interfere, and to the extent they take over the plot, the Comedy of Manners formula is different in Congreve than in the other writers of this type of drama. In attempting to show the part played by Congreve's women in the Comedy of Manners, we shall not only give a synopsis of their part in the plays, but shall quote directly from the text of each play under discussion for only in their own words can you get an adequate picture of these famous women who "show up in solid relief against the dizzy world of Restoration comedy."