On William Congreve’s Ethic Of Love In The Way Of The World

Based on the social-ethical context in the Restoration period and with a theoretical support of ethical literary criticism, this paper attempts to approach William Congreve’s ethic of love in The Way of the World by focusing on his perspectives of autonomy in love, seriousness in love, and consonance in love.Chapter One highlights William Congreve’s ethic of love in The Way of the World by contrasting against the authority of parents-arranged marriage and women’s subordinate position in a marriage in the Restoration Period. This paper argues that with the depiction of the failure of parents-arranged marriage, of young men’s struggle for free choice of their spouse, and of women’s awareness and preservation of independence, Congreve has emphasized the significance of autonomy in love.Chapter Two analyzes Congreve’s ethic of love in the play from the aspect of the serious attitude towards love. In a world full of extramarital affairs. Congreve has offered his arguments for an essentialness of seriousness in love. By setting Mirabell and Millamant as examples of a couple of loyal and genuine lovers, Congreve has provided us with his disapproval of adultery and hypocrisy between other characters and his praise of constancy and sincerity among lovers.Chapter Three illustrates the consonance between Mirabell and Millamant to search for Congreve’s ethic of love in The Way of the World. Portrayed as lovers on the same level of intelligence and mutual understanding, Mirabell and Millamant are Congreve’s ideal lovers who achieve balance in love. And their identical target in love also explains Congreve’s consideration of marriage as a moral element for all other people in love.