Prepare a note on the Restoration comedy with special reference to congreve,Wycherley and Etherege.
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Answer:
Sir George Etherege (1635-91): The first comedian of manners is Sir George Etherege. He has left three comedies - ‘love in a Tub’, ‘She would if She could’ and ‘The Man & mode’ which represents the first true comedy of manners. It deals with a particular type of people who seem to live upon the surf act of life. The poet is slight. The dialogue is full of speaking wit Etherege was concerned which moral and not with manner. His plays carry none of the social criticism implicit in the comedy of molier e He is important historically as having as having helped to set he mode of Restoration comedy.
William Wycherley (1640-1715): Wycherley remoulds the comedy of intrigue and the comedy of manner into a refreshing original type. His fame depends on his four comedies, ‘Love in a wood’, ‘The Gentlemen Dancing Master’, ‘the country wife’ and ‘The plain Dealer’. These plays are extremely witty with all then coarseness. Wycherley impresses the reader by sheer Vehemence of language and the energy of characterization. He has the first satirical power of Johnson. The atmosphere of ‘The plain Dealer’ is that of the puritan rather than the Restoration comedy of manners.
William Congreve (1670-1729): Congreve once took the comedy of manner to its proper channel. He wrote five comedies ‘The old Bachelor’, ‘The way of the world’ etc. Of these, ‘The way of the world’ is considered the flower of Restoration comedy. The plot of the comedy is developed skillfully and love scenes between Mirabelle and Millamant have been treated with tenderness he and sensitivity. She construction and grasp of characters he steadily Improve with each play. But from the very first he showed his capacity for height and withy dialogue. In the way of the world, Congreve deals with a serious theme of sexual relationship through a variety of characters and situations. He shows the affections and conspiracies and sexual hypocrisies of the age, but there is true love between Millament and Mirabelle. The proviso scene shows his wife and rational attitude to love and marriage. Here also we find the strength of newly developed English prose