Saumya

399
Sem 4
18th-century British literature assignment

‘The Way of the World is governed by unmitigated Hobbesian appetite that can only be
controlled by law’.
Critically analyse with reference to the social, economic and political factors that
governed this Age.

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher, believed that human beings are

inherently selfish and competitive.
According to Hobbes, the natural state of mankind is a "state of war" where
everyone is in conflict with each other, and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish,
and short."

An "unmitigated Hobbesian appetite" would therefore refer to an unrestrained

desire for power, wealth, and other material possessions, without regard for the
well-being or rights of others. It suggests a worldview in which individuals are
motivated solely by their own self-interest and are willing to use any means
necessary to achieve their goals, regardless of the consequences for others which
represents a threat to social order and stability.

In Congreve’s Way of the World, all characters are driven by an unmitigated

Hobbesian appetite. All of them pretend to be amiable but beneath their
seemingly playful repartee, there’s a sense of distrust.
In order to maintain social appearances, gentlemen like Mirabell and Fainall
exchange witty words-play in a chocolate house although, in reality, both are
distrustful of each other.
Similarly, Mrs Fainall and Mrs Marwood gossip in St.James Park, but an enmity
encompasses them.
These friendships are no more than a mockery and therefore, emphasize how
social conduct in such a society is an act.
The double standard of morality becomes even more pronounced in characters
like Lady Wishfort who is obsessed with decorum but her moral righteousness is
just an affectation .
Congreve examines more nuanced forms of deception, including self-deception,
like in the case of Lady Wishfort, who uses too much makeup to hide her age
from her suitor, Sir Rowland, but also herself.
The character of Lady Wishfort is pensive with her external appearance and
spends much of her time and money on cosmetics and clothing in order to
maintain her youthful looks. She also uses her beauty to attract and influence
men, particularly Sir Rowland, in order to gain power and social status. :
“ Let me see the glass. Cracks, say’st thou? Why, I am arrantly flayed: I look
like an old peeled wall. Thou must repair me, Foible, before Sir Rowland
comes, or I shall never keep up to my picture.”

The women in the play are judged and valued primarily for their beauty, which is
seen as their greatest acquisition. They are expected to use their beauty to attract
wealthy and influential men and secure their social status. However, this pursuit
of beauty and social status often requires them to resort to cruel and
manipulative behaviour towards others, particularly other women.

Mirabell exemplifies the ambiguity of the aristocratic ideal of the True-Wit. He is

not as cunning as Fainall but is equally manipulative in his art of dissembling. He
devises a plan to exploit Lady Wishfort’s infatuation with marriage in order to
trick her into giving her consent to his marriage with Millamant along with ‘the
moiety of her fortune.’
Jeremy Collier critiques libertine heroes like Mirabell for their “profanes,
dressing, idleness and gallantry”.

Marriage remains the ultimate goal for ladies in the play but the hypocrisy and
servitude that it brings also make it a threat.
Mrs Marwood, Mrs Fainall and even Lady Wishfort are all victims
of ‘female frailty’. They remain subjugated in a world where women are seen as
either sexual conquests or provisions for financial security.
Millamant however echoes a feminist consciousness in asserting equal conjugal
rights in the Proviso scene. She refuses to be ‘familiar or fond’, to ‘kiss before
folks’ to ‘go to Hyde Park together the first Sunday in a new chariot, “to provoke
eyes and whispers; and then never to be seen again.”
 At the same time, there is no female solidarity as Mrs Marwood engages in an
affair with Fainall while pretending to be concerned about Arabella.
Similarly, Millamant takes pride in being the one to whom Mirabell promises
fidelity.

In Congreve’s play, the personal and the political collapse into one as the
institutions of matrimony, as marriage becomes a business transaction and the
intended spouses reduce to mere commodities.
"Felicity," observes Hobbes, "is a continual pro one object to another”.
Therefore, although Mirabell loves Millamant, he will only marry her with her
inheritance.
Further, Fainall’s adulterous affair with Marwood and Arabella’s lingering
feelings for Mirabell portrays how the institution of marriage is hardly sacred.
These double moral standards where friendships are affected and the pursuit of
love goes hand in hand with the pursuit of financial security are prevalent in The
Way of the World.
In the play, Congreve does not comment on morality or immorality but on the
hypocrisy that lies in both.

Hobbes makes appetite a central mechanism of human action and interaction:

"endeavour, when it is toward something which causes it, is called APPETITE, or
DESIRE" (Leviathan, 28); "whatsoever is the object of any man's appetite or desire
that is it which he for his part calleth good; and the object of his hate, and
aversion, evil" (ibid., 28); and the law is "the will and appetite of the state”.