In Congreve's The Way of the World, one of the salient themes is the competition between male and female. This competition is evidenced in a variety of ways, but most notably in terms of power, property, and social mores. In the play, Fainall aspires to a life of power, but it is not political power that he achieves; as Braverman (139) points out, "In the character of Fainall, this whole economy of power is debased and parodied...Fainall has no court, no audience." By contrast, Lady Wishfort is far more powerful by virtue of her control over a considerable property-Millamant's dowry. In fact, the social mores that elevate men to a loftier position than women are challenged in Congreve's play, and the usual circumstances in which power and property reside exclusively with men are turned upside down along with other traditional values.
Congreve sets up the men in the chocolate house, which is a men's club of sorts, and the women in the drawing room, which is the usual purvey of women, both groups conferring among themselves and plotting to derail the plans of the other. From these two "operation central" sites for the male and female contingents, much planning and decision take place, with the female contingent generally faring better than the male. Congreve applies some of his greatest humor to the males, as when Witwoud in Act I, Scene 8 asks about Petulant, "Why would he slip you out of this chocolate-house, just when you had been talking to him...then trip to his lodging, clap on a hood and scarf and a mask...and drive hither to the door again in a thrice; where he would send in for himself" (Congreve). Witwoud caps his hilarious question by adding, "that I mean, call for himself, wait for himself, nay, and what's more, not finding himself, sometimes leave a letter for himself" (Congreve, Act I, Scene 8). Although Congreve uses humor to mock both men and women, it is the men that he makes the object of the g<...