Below is a clear, detailed, act-by-act summary of The Way of the World by William Congreve, intended for both first-time readers and advanced students preparing for examinations. Each act is presented with narrative clarity, followed by implicit critical emphasis, so that the summaries function not merely as retellings but as interpretive guides.
Act I: Exposition and Antecedent Action
The play opens in a chocolate house, a typical social hub of Restoration London, thereby situating the audience within the world of polite urban society. The scene introduces Mirabell and Fainall, whose conversation establishes the intricate network of past relationships that will drive the plot.
Mirabell reveals that he is in love with Millamant, a witty and admired young woman, but cannot marry her without the consent of her aunt, Lady Wishfort, who controls half of Millamant’s £6000 fortune. Lady Wishfort, however, detests Mirabell because he once paid her false courtship merely to gain access to Millamant. This disclosure introduces the first major obstacle.
The act also establishes the amatory and financial double-plot. Fainall is married to Mrs. Fainall, who is revealed to be Mirabell’s former mistress. Their past affair constitutes a crucial antecedent factor. Mirabell admits that he arranged Mrs. Fainall’s marriage to Fainall during her widowhood to protect her reputation in case of pregnancy. Unknown to Fainall, Mrs. Fainall had earlier conveyed her estate in trust to Mirabell.
The act further introduces the fools of fashion, Witwoud and Petulant, whose empty attempts at wit contrast sharply with the intelligent discourse of Mirabell and Fainall. By the end of Act I, the audience understands that:
- Marriage is inseparable from money,
- Past intrigues govern present action,
- Mirabell stands at the centre of both love and conflict.
Act II: Social Intrigue and Character Contrast
Act II shifts to Lady Wishfort’s house, allowing Congreve to develop character through social interaction. Lady Wishfort is presented as vain, irritable, and obsessed with appearances. Her dependence on cosmetics and her anxiety about age are treated with comic exaggeration, yet without cruelty.
The act introduces Sir Wilfull Witwoud, Lady Wishfort’s rustic nephew, who has been summoned from the country to marry Millamant and thereby prevent Mirabell from gaining her fortune. Sir Wilfull’s blunt manners, heavy drinking, and lack of urban polish immediately clash with the refined expectations of the town.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Marwood, Fainall’s mistress, begins to emerge as a dangerous figure. Her jealousy toward Millamant and her unrequited attraction to Mirabell motivate her to observe and overhear conversations closely. Congreve subtly establishes her role as a spy and future betrayer.
The servants begin to assume importance. Foible, Lady Wishfort’s woman, is revealed as a key intermediary, while Mincing, Millamant’s maid, reinforces her mistress’s fashionable affectations through comic language.
This act deepens the social world of the play:
- Lady Wishfort is positioned as the economic gatekeeper.
- Sir Wilfull is marked as good-natured but socially incompatible.
- Mrs. Marwood’s resentment begins to threaten the balance of intrigue.
Act III: The Central Deception Takes Shape
Act III advances the plot decisively through the introduction of Mirabell’s principal scheme. His servant Waitwell is disguised as “Sir Rowland,” Mirabell’s wealthy and estranged uncle, and is presented as a suitor for Lady Wishfort.
To ensure loyalty, Mirabell has already arranged for Waitwell to marry Foible, a crucial precaution that prevents Waitwell from legally benefiting should the deception go too far. This marriage exemplifies the play’s insistence that even lower-class relationships are shaped by economic prudence.
Lady Wishfort, flattered by the attention of “Sir Rowland,” quickly becomes eager to marry, driven by vanity and a desire to spite Mirabell. Her terror of violating decorum, however, causes her to vacillate between eagerness and restraint.
Simultaneously, Mrs. Marwood overhears parts of the plot, beginning the process of exposure that will later endanger Mirabell’s plans. The act closes with multiple layers of deception in motion:
- Lady Wishfort is emotionally compromised.
- Waitwell performs his role convincingly.
- Mrs. Marwood becomes a genuine threat.
Act IV: The Proviso Scene and Apparent Triumph
Act IV is the intellectual and emotional centre of the play.
The Proviso Scene
Mirabell and Millamant engage in their famous Proviso Scene, negotiating the terms of marriage. Rather than indulging in sentimental declarations, they conduct their courtship as a formal contract, laying down conditions to preserve individual freedom within marriage.
Millamant insists on retaining her personal autonomy, social independence, and identity. Mirabell, equally cautious, seeks to avoid becoming a ridiculous or tyrannised husband. This scene encapsulates the play’s central conflict between individual feeling and social convention and presents marriage as a rational partnership rather than romantic surrender.
Apparent Success
Meanwhile, Mirabell’s scheme seems successful. Lady Wishfort is on the brink of marriage with “Sir Rowland,” and Mirabell anticipates forcing her consent to his union with Millamant.
However, the act ends with a shift in tone. Mrs. Marwood reveals Mirabell’s deception to Lady Wishfort. The comic structure now moves from apparent resolution toward crisis, preparing the audience for confrontation rather than celebration.
Act V: Exposure, Legal Resolution, and Moral Judgment
The final act brings all conflicts into the open. Lady Wishfort discovers the imposture and is humiliated. Fainall, exploiting the chaos, attempts to seize control of both his wife’s estate and Millamant’s forfeited dowry through blackmail.
Fainall threatens to expose Mrs. Fainall’s past affair with Mirabell unless Lady Wishfort signs over the fortune. This moment represents the darkest expression of worldliness, where law, marriage, and reputation are used as instruments of cruelty.
Mirabell defeats Fainall not through violence or rhetoric but through law. He reveals the earlier deed of conveyance by which Mrs. Fainall placed her estate in trust with him. This document nullifies Fainall’s claims and exposes his villainy.
Sir Wilfull, demonstrating unexpected generosity, voluntarily relinquishes his claim to Millamant, recognising genuine love over financial advantage. Lady Wishfort, chastened but not destroyed, consents to Mirabell’s marriage with Millamant.
The play concludes with:
- The union of Mirabell and Millamant,
- The disgrace of Fainall and Mrs. Marwood,
- The survival, though not triumph, of Lady Wishfort and Mrs. Fainall.
The ending affirms Congreve’s moral vision: only those who balance intelligence with goodwill deserve success in the way of the world.
Concluding Perspective on the Act Structure
Each act performs a distinct function:
- Act I: Intellectual exposition
- Act II: Social positioning
- Act III: Strategic complication
- Act IV: Moral and emotional articulation
- Act V: Legal and ethical resolution
Together, they form a tightly controlled dramatic design that rewards attentive reading and underscores Congreve’s mastery of plot, character, and moral comedy.
Critical Commentary: Act-by-Act
Act I: Intellectual Exposition and the Burden of Antecedent Action
Act I performs one of the most demanding tasks in Restoration drama: it must communicate a dense network of past actions without sacrificing elegance of dialogue. Congreve deliberately adopts a technique comparable to that of Greek tragedy, in which crucial events precede the stage action and are gradually disclosed through conversation. The result is a highly cerebral opening, which partly explains the play’s limited initial stage success.
Critically, the act establishes Mirabell as the axis of the drama. He is not merely the romantic hero but the organising intelligence of the play. His past affair with Mrs. Fainall, his calculated decision to arrange her marriage, and his continuing moral responsibility toward her all reveal the complexity of his character. Congreve refuses to idealise his hero; instead, Mirabell embodies the play’s central ethical question: how far may one go in navigating the way of the world without forfeiting decency.
The presence of Fainall as a conversational equal but moral inferior is equally essential. Their dialogue exemplifies Congreve’s method of dramatic counterpoint, where characters of similar wit are distinguished by ethical orientation rather than intellect. The fools, Witwoud and Petulant, are not mere comic relief; they serve a negative critical function, illustrating the emptiness of affected wit and reinforcing Congreve’s moral hierarchy of intelligence.
Thus, Act I is less dramatic than analytical. Its importance lies in intellectual preparation, conditioning the reader to approach the play as a study in social systems rather than sentimental romance.
Act II: Social Texture and the Comedy of Manners Refined
Act II expands the play’s moral landscape by shifting from male intellectual discourse to a female-dominated social space. Lady Wishfort’s household becomes a microcosm of Restoration society, where vanity, reputation, decorum, and power intersect. Congreve’s treatment of Lady Wishfort is especially significant: she is ridiculous, yet not vicious. This distinction is crucial to the play’s ethical structure.
Critically, Lady Wishfort represents decency without discrimination. She adheres obsessively to decorum but lacks insight, making her vulnerable to manipulation. Her anxiety about age and appearance exposes the cruelty of a society that values women primarily as objects of desire, even while Congreve avoids overt moral sermonising.
The introduction of Sir Wilfull Witwoud sharpens the play’s central opposition between nature and cultivation. Unlike the fops, Sir Wilfull’s lack of polish is not a moral failure. Congreve treats him with restrained sympathy, suggesting that natural goodness alone is insufficient for survival in a sophisticated social order.
Mrs. Marwood’s role deepens in this act. Her watchfulness and resentment mark the transition from comedy toward moral danger. Unlike Lady Wishfort’s harmless vanity, Marwood’s passion is destructive, and Congreve carefully prepares the audience for the darker turn the plot will take.
Act II thus refines the Comedy of Manners by introducing moral gradation. Not all folly is equal, and not all virtue is rewarded.
Act III: Intrigue, Performance, and the Ethics of Deception
Act III marks the play’s full entry into strategic intrigue. The “Sir Rowland” deception foregrounds one of Congreve’s most important ideas: social identity as performance. Waitwell’s successful impersonation of a knight exposes the theatricality of aristocratic status and raises implicit questions about class, legitimacy, and authority.
Critically, Mirabell’s insistence that Waitwell and Foible marry before the deception begins is ethically revealing. It demonstrates that Mirabell’s schemes, however ruthless in appearance, are bound by moral foresight. He anticipates the dangers of unchecked ambition and seeks to close them off legally. This sharply distinguishes him from Fainall, whose schemes are opportunistic and predatory.
Lady Wishfort’s oscillation between desire and decorum illustrates Congreve’s satire of social forms divorced from reason. Her terror of “breaking forms” is comic, but it also exposes how convention enslaves individuals rather than protecting them.
Mrs. Marwood’s overhearing of the plot introduces dramatic irony and moral tension. From a critical perspective, this act marks the point at which comedy begins to border on tragedy, reinforcing the editor’s observation that the Fainall–Marwood relationship skirts tragic territory.
Act III, therefore, explores the ethics of manipulation, suggesting that deception is not inherently immoral but becomes so when motivated solely by self-interest.
Act IV: The Proviso Scene and the Moral Centre of the Play
Act IV contains the Proviso Scene, widely regarded as the intellectual heart of The Way of the World. Critically, this scene redefines romantic discourse in Restoration drama. Instead of hyperbolic declarations, Congreve offers contractual negotiation, blending legal language with emotional urgency.
Millamant’s resistance to “dwindling into a wife” articulates a remarkably modern insistence on female autonomy. Her demands are not whimsical; they are safeguards against the erasure of identity within marriage. Mirabell’s parallel anxieties confirm that the institution also threatens men, though in different ways.
From a thematic perspective, the Proviso Scene resolves the conflict between individual liberty and social convention without rejecting either. Marriage is not dismantled but reimagined as a rational partnership. This is Congreve’s moral ideal.
The apparent success of Mirabell’s larger scheme at the end of the act creates a false sense of resolution, which Congreve deliberately undermines through Mrs. Marwood’s revelation. The shift reminds the reader that intelligence alone cannot control a morally unstable world.
Act IV thus combines utopian possibility with structural irony.
Act V: Legal Resolution and Moral Judgment
Act V is often criticised for its legalistic ending, yet critically, this is entirely consistent with the play’s vision. In a world governed by property and contracts, justice must arrive through law rather than sentiment.
Fainall’s attempted blackmail represents the extreme endpoint of worldliness. He weaponises marriage, reputation, and legality to annihilate his wife’s autonomy. His downfall, therefore, is not merely comic but ethical. Congreve exposes the cruelty that lies beneath polished cynicism.
Mirabell’s triumph through the deed of trust is deeply symbolic. The document predates the play’s action, reinforcing the Aristotelian emphasis on antecedent cause. It also demonstrates that foresight, not force, secures moral victory.
Sir Wilfull’s voluntary renunciation of Millamant is a moment of genuine moral clarity. Though excluded from the social triumph, he emerges ethically superior to many of his social betters. Congreve thereby refuses a simplistic alignment of success with virtue.
The ending is deliberately qualified. Mrs. Fainall’s fate remains ambiguous, and Lady Wishfort is reconciled but not transformed. Congreve avoids sentimental closure, remaining faithful to the complexities of the world he portrays.
Concluding Critical Perspective on the Act Structure
Taken together, the five acts form a coherent moral progression:
- Act I diagnoses the social disease
- Act II classifies its symptoms
- Act III tests ethical boundaries
- Act IV articulates moral ideals
- Act V administers legal and social judgment
Congreve’s achievement lies in demonstrating that to survive the way of the world, one must master it without surrendering to it. The act-wise structure is not merely functional but philosophical, guiding the reader from observation to evaluation.
Summarised and critically elaborated by Dr Alok Mishra for the English Literature Education platform
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