noble intent or genuine feeling. Quite often jealousy, economic arrangements, adultery and other aspects of male and female interaction supplant true love. Women and men typically battle each other for power and control in love relationships, with sexual attraction or money as ammunition. As Dorimant asserts in The Man of Mode, ôThe wise will find a difference in our fate / You wed a woman, I a good estate,ö (Hughes 662). Nevertheless, the complex relations between the genders in Restoration comedies demonstrate the neither men nor women exhibited an imbalance of power. What is most evident is that when it comes to relations between women and men in Restoration comedies, the sexual attraction between two individuals typically overcomes the greatest powers of ration.
We see the role of women is characterized in a variety of ways in Restoration comedies. Perhaps the character of Lady Wishfort in CongreveÆs The Way of the World is representative of a certain type of lady common to the Restoration era. In the era women were often sought out for their social status and/or economic value to a match. Lady Wishfort is an example of what can happen to a womanÆs identity and sense of worth in a society in which women are valued for their name or material worth. Lady Wishfort does not really exist as her own person, despite being the leader of the group of society women she uses to protect herself from a male-dominated world. Lady Wishfort does not have a real self in social interactions. She has internalized her worth as something approved by others. Therefore, she strives to appear to be what she thinks will win her the most approval from those she seeks it from. She refers to herself and her social group as ôFoundress of this Sectö (Erickson 1984, 340). However, Lady Wishfort is most unhappy and unsatisfied in her role. She longs or ôwishesö for ôitö, a pun on her name. While ôitö very well could refer to sexuali...