The Comedy of Manners can be traced to the early development in the Ancient Greek dramatist known as Menander. In England, Ben Jonson heavily influenced this style of comedy with his Comedy of Humors with the tone and manner of the play. The accomplished practitioner dramatist of Restoration Comedy of Manners was Sir George Etherege. The other dramatists who exploited this style of comedy was William Congreve , William Wycherley and Sir John Vanbrugh. It is also known as high comedy because it involves a sophisticated wit and talent in the writing of the script. It deals with the behaviour of the people.
The Restoration dramatists were influenced by French dramatists such as Moliere who depicted the social hypocrisy and profanity in his plays L’Ecole des femmes and Le Misanthrope. Historically, Charles II flew to France due to the advent of the Puritan government and his Restoration to England in 1660 gave new literary style of comedy derived heavily influences from Moliere and showcased the English society. The Theatre was restored with Charles II and the strict morality of Puritan government was kept at bay while people enjoyed liberty and immoral behaviour started to grip.
The most important feature of the Comedy of Manners was a social satire. It depicts the reality of the Restoration Age and their lifestyle after the end of the Puritan adherence to religious morality. There were pretensions , mockery , puns and seduction expressed explicitly by the dramatists. Congreve’s play The Way of the World(1700) was the last and finest of all his comedies which depicted the social realism and behaviour of the English society.It is in fact “ a world of wit and pleasure inhabited by persons of quality and deformed neither by realism nor by farce”. The characters “are meant to be ridiculous in most of our comedies”.
In addition to this, the Comedy of Manner sought to evoke the use of wit combats and dialogues which are polished and crisp. The characters uses wit to fool other characters or seduced woman for their own satisfaction and pleasure. The plot is concerned with an illicit depiction of love affairs and scandalous matters. Sometimes, there are representations of extramarital affairs and depictions of characters who are greedy and fortune hunters. The language carries witty expression of the characters and blows sarcastic comments and irony, for instance in Congreve’s Love for Love(1695) shows Angelica calling her uncle Foresight a “cuckhold” which reflects the sarcasm and irony that his wife Mrs. Foresight had been sleeping with other man.
Furthermore, love and marriage are not considered sacred but more mercenary venture. The characters focuses more on lust and wealth and shows less concern towards marriage. They have extramarital affairs and some are fortune hunters who only seek for material desires. There are constant discrimination of the lower class society who were considered inferior and less witty. The hypocrisy of the upper class society is exposed through their behaviour, actions and attitude towards the lower class. It is well suited to delineate the superficial values of the upper society.
Moreover, the Comedy of Manners exposes the realism of the Age. The society was undergoing a transitional changes and the major development was the establishment of coffee houses. Dramatists presented the coffee houses as another significant reality to show the insights of its representation. The coffee houses were used for daily public discussions and gossips about the social matter and politics. People gather around the inns and have a talk about the prevailing situation which is clearly depicted in the plays of the Restoration plays of Comedy of Manners.
Therefore , in conclusion these were the above characteristic features and traits of the Comedy of the Manners. It is highly sophisticated and superficial in its representations. The dramatists represented the reality of the age as it is and is filled with humor, satire and mockery of the upper class society. Hence, the Comedy of Manners lasted till 1700 as it was culturally and socially inappropriate to represent its values in the society.
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