Summary of the Plot of Congreve’s Way of the World

Back story: Lady Wishfort is the widow of the late Sir Jonathan Wishfort, by whom she has a daughter Arabella, now Arabella Fainall. Arabella married, first, Languish, who died very soon; second, Fainall. Lady Wishfort also had two sisters. The first was the first wife of Sir ___ Witwoud, owner of lands in Shropshire; she had a son, who is now Sir Wilfull Witwoud. After her death, her husband remarried, and had a son, Anthony Witwoud, who now lives as a gentleman of fashion in London. The other sister of Lady Wishfort had a daughter, Millamant. Millamant has been under her aunt’s (Lady Wishfort’s) thumb since her mother died. Half of Millamant’s inheritance is held in trust by Lady Wishfort, who is in no hurry to give it up. In order to get this portion of her inheritance, Millamant must not marry against her aunt’s wishes. Mirabell, who’s the hottest thing in town, wants to marry Millamant, who’s the other hottest thing. In order to get to her, he has faked an interest in her aunt. Mrs. Marwood has told Lady Wishfort that he was only courting her to get to her niece, and Lady Wishfort is now furious at him for making a fool of her, and won’t let him marry Millamant. Before Arabella Fainall married Fainall, and after Languish, her first husband, died, she had an affair with Mirabell. Thinking that she had become pregnant by Mirabell, she married Fainall to preserve her reputation. The marriage was arranged by Mirabell, and Fainall agreed to it, not knowing about the affair, and hoping to benefit from Arabella’s mother’s (Lady Wishfort’s) wealth. Fainall is cheating on his wife with Mrs. Marwood, who’s really more interested in Mirabell.

Act I:

• Mirabell and Fainall are playing cards in a chocolate house.[1] Mirabell isn’t paying attention, Fainall teases him about having his mistress, Millamant, on his mind, then accuses him of having rejected Mrs.[2] Marwood. A servant comes in to tell Mirabell that Foible, Lady Wishfort’s maid, and Waitwell, his valet, are “married and bedded.” Mirabell sets up a meeting with Foible. (This is significant because Waitwell is going to disguise himself as “Sir Rowland,” Mirabell’s pretended uncle, and propose to Lady Wishfort. Once she’s agreed to marry him, Mirabell is going to reveal that he’s a really a servant and offer to extricate Lady Wishfort from the marriage if she agrees that he can marry Millamant. Waitwell has to be safely married to Foible in case he double-crosses Mirabell and actually marries Lady Wishfort for her money. This is the “Sir Rowland” plot.)

• Mirabell and Fainall continue to talk, mostly about love, and then a messenger comes for Witwoud with a letter for him from his half-brother, Sir Wilfull. Witwoud complains about Sir Wilful for a while, and then Petulant, his sidekick, is introduced. Petulant, it turns out, has been paying a carriage full of prostitutes to follow him around and call for him at fashionable places so that people will think he’s popular. All four men decide to follow the ladies to St James’s park, a fashionable place to walk.

Act II:

• Mrs. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood are walking in the park; each is trying to find out how much the other knows. Mrs. Marwood suspects the affair with Mirabell. Fainall and Mirabell arrive; Mrs. Fainall goes off with Mirabell, and Fainall walks with Mrs. Marwood. Fainall tells Mrs. Marwood that he knows his wife is throwing herself at Mirabell, and accuses Mrs. Marwood, his current lover, of doing the same thing. Mrs. Marwood is furious, even though it’s true, and threatens to reveal their affair and how Fainall has spent her fortune as well. Fainall tells her that if she hadn’t told Lady Wishfort that Mirabell was faking his courtship of her, Mirabell and Millamant would have been married against Lady Wishfort’s will and had half of Millamant’s fortune taken away, which would then have gone to the Fainalls. According to Fainall, Mrs. Marwood spilled the beans on Mirabell because she wanted Mirabell for herself.

• Meanwhile, Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall are talking. Mrs. Fainall complains about her husband, Mirabell tells her that she got a relatively good deal given the double-standard, and then he tells her about his plot to marry Millamant. Millamant enters, squashes Witwoud with her cleverness, tells Mirabell she knows about his plot, and leaves. Mirabell meets Foible and Waitwell and sends Foible on to Lady Wishfort’s, having renewed his bribe of a well-stocked farm for the servant couple if the plot succeeds.

Act III:

• Lady Wishfort is sitting flustered at her toilet, getting ready for the arrival of “Sir Rowland.” (Foible told Lady Wishfort that she was going to show “Sir Rowland” (Waitwell) Lady Wishfort’s portrait, but she was really getting married to Waitwell instead.) Mrs. Marwood arrives, Lady Wishfort complains that Foible’s been gone since morning, and Mrs. Marwood tells her that she’s seen Foible in the park talking to Mirabell. Lady Wishfort tells Mrs. Marwood to go into her closet[3] while she questions Foible. Foible arrives, tells Lady Wishfort that “Sir Rowland” is already madly in love with her, realizes that Mrs. Marwood has told Lady Wishfort that she saw Foible in the park with Mirabell, and tells Lady Wishfort that the only reason she was talking to him was to defend her against his nasty jokes.

• Lady Wishfort leaves, forgetting that Mrs. Marwood is still in the closet. Mrs. Fainall comes rushing in, worried that Mrs. Marwood has told Lady Wishfort about the meeting between Foible and Mirabell in the park. Mrs. Fainall tells Foible that she knows about the “Sir Rowland” plot, thus revealing it to Mrs. Marwood, who’s still in the closet. Foible reassures her that she’s fixed things despite Mrs. Marwood’s intervention, and also mentions Mrs. Fainall’s affair with Mirabell.

• Foible and Mrs. Fainall leave, and Mrs. Marwood emerges from the closet, furious, determined to revenge herself on Mrs. Fainall and Mirabell, and now armed with the knowledge both of Mirabell’s plot to marry Millamant (the “Sir Rowland” plot), and of Mrs. Fainall’s past affair with Mirabell.

• Lady Wishfort comes back in, and Mrs. Marwood tells her that she ought to get Sir Wilfull to marry Millamant. Lady Wishfort leaves to get dressed. Millamant and Mrs. Marwood have a bit of a spat over Mirabell. Millamant tells Mrs. Marwood that she knows she has a thing for Mirabell, and crows over her. Then she has a song sung that really rubs it in.

• Witwoud, Petulant, and Witwoud’s half-brother Sir Wilfull appear. Witwoud makes fun of his brother because he’s from the country and doesn’t have the polished manners or the sophisticated wit that Witwoud likes to think he has.

• Dinner is served, but Sir Wilfull delays to pull off his boots. He’s directed to pull them off in the hall, leaving Fainall and Mrs. Marwood to talk about how to foil Mirabell’s “Sir Rowland” plot. Fainall is furious because, though he had previously suspected his wife of chasing after Mirabell, he has now discovered that they had an affair even before he married her. Mrs. Marwood suggests that he take his revenge by telling Lady Wishfort of Mrs. Fainall’s affair with Mirabell. Lady Wishfort, she says, will do anything to save her daughter’s reputation, even sacrifice her niece Millamant’s happiness and fortune. Fainall agrees to keep Sir Wilfull drunk and out of the way so that he doesn’t propose to Millamant after all. (This would ruin their plan because if Millamant accepted Sir Wilfull, she would be marrying with her aunt’s consent, and the money that Fainall and Mrs. Marwood want would go to her.) Mrs. Marwood offers to write an anonymous letter to Lady Wishfort, telling her about Mrs. Fainall and Mirabell’s affair. Fainall reassures Mrs. Marwood that if their plan fails, at least he has a deed to the better part of his wife’s estate.

Act IV:

• Lady Wishfort is preparing for “Sir Rowland’s” arrival by having the stable-boys perfumed like footmen so that “Sir Rowland” thinks she has more servants than she does, and by striking poses she thinks are appealing. She sends Foible off to make sure Sir Wilfull is proposing to Millamant as she ordered him to.

• Sir Wilfull tries to propose to Millamant, but he can’t get up the courage to pop the question, so Mrs. Fainall locks them in together. He still doesn’t manage it, so Millamant dismisses him with an apt quotation. Mirabell comes in and he and Millamant set the terms for their marriage in the “proviso scene.” Mrs. Fainall comes in to warn Mirabell to sneak out because if Lady Wishfort sees him, she’ll have a fit. Mirabell leaves and Witwoud and Petulant come barrelling in, drunk as lords. Witwoud explains that Petulant and Sir Wilfull have been fighting about Millamant, and Petulant bluntly asks Millamant if she’ll marry him: “pass on, or pass off – that’s all.” She ignores him and he leaves, saying that he’ll sleep with his maid instead. Sir Wilfull comes in, also three sheets to the wind, and finally courageous enough to ask Millamant to marry him: “A match or no match, cousin with the hard name?” Millamant promptly leaves with Mrs. Fainall. Sir Wilfull’s behaviour becomes so outrageous that Lady Wishfort asks his brother, Witwoud, to remove him.

• Waitwell, in disguise as “Sir Rowland,” presses Lady Wishfort for an early date for their marriage. Mrs. Marwood’s anonymous letter arrives, revealing “Sir Rowland’s” identity, but Foible manages to make Lady Wishfort believe that the letter is a plot by Mirabell to prevent her marrying his uncle. “Sir Rowland” leaves, saying that he’s going to get the deeds of his estate to prove his identity to her.

Act V:

• Lady Wishfort has evidently found out that “Sir Rowland” was a fake, and is in the process of dismissing Foible. Foible explains to Mrs. Fainall that Mrs. Marwood has told Lady Wishfort everything and that Fainall has had Waitwell arrested. Fainall also knows about his wife’s affair with Mirabell, and has arranged a separation. Foible tells her that her husband has been having an affair with Mrs. Marwood, and that she and her fellow maid, Mincing, are willing to swear to it.

• Lady Wishfort takes her daughter to task for the affair with Mirabell; Mrs. Fainall denies it, saying that she’ll testify to her innocence in court, and tells Mrs. Marwood that she knows about her own affair with Fainall. Mrs. Fainall leaves, and Mrs. Marwood takes the opportunity to terrify Lady Wishfort with the scandal of a divorce.

• Fainall comes in to name his conditions: that Lady Wishfort will sign over her estate to his management, out of which he will give her a maintenance and the use of her estate for her lifetime; that she will not marry again, or at least not without his approval; that Mrs. Fainall will give the rest of her fortune to her husband; and that Millamant’s £6000 be given to him because she’s engaged to Mirabell without Lady Wishfort’s consent.

• Sir Wilfull and Millamant arrive to say that they’ve agreed to marry after all, and that Mirabell has come to be a witness to their engagement.

• Fainall returns with the deeds that will sign over his wife’s estate and Millamant’s money to him. If they’re not signed, he says he’ll turn his wife out of his house. Mirabell offers to save Lady Wishfort from Fainall’s tyranny; in return, Lady Wishfort gives her consent for Millamant to marry him. Foible and Mincing come in, ready to testify to the affair between Fainall and Mrs. Marwood. Fainall makes it clear that he doesn’t care about Mrs. Marwood’s reputation; he cares only about the money.

• Waitwell returns with a black box, as promised; it really contains a deed of conveyance. While Mrs. Fainall was widowed, and before she married Fainall, she secretly signed over all her property to Mirabell in trust. This means that Mirabell still controls it, and Fainall can’t get his hands on it, and never could. Fainall and Mrs. Marwood storm off, foiled again.

• Sir Wilfull gives up any claim on Millamant so that Mirabell can marry her. Mirabell returns Mrs. Fainall her deed of conveyance. Lady Wishfort is still worried that Fainall has power, but Mirabell assures her that he’s got no money of his own, and is now going to be completely dependent on his wife for his income.

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[1] Chocolate house: Often also a coffee-house. Both attracted the fashionable members of the bon ton, and were frequented by gamblers and prostitutes. Chocolate was introduced to England in the 1650s, and was still new and hot in the late seventeenth century. Chocolate was an even fancier, more expensive drink than coffee or tea (also relatively recent imports) that, unlike coffee, was often mixed with alcohol. The scene indicates that the action is taking place in the trendy parts of London, like, say, the Drake or the Lula Lounge here.

[2] Mrs.: “Mrs” doesn’t indicate marital status until about the middle of the eighteenth century, and is still frequently used until the end of the century as a title for older never-married women. “Miss” at this time is only used to refer to girls under the age of about 15.

[3] Closet: A room approximately the size of a small study, designed for private, solitary activities like reading, writing letters, praying, etc. Not a small built-in cupboard for hanging clothes. (People used wardrobes for that in the 18C.)