Self and Identity as Situational in Congreve’s The Way of the World

Although there have been ample studies on William Congreve's famous The Way of the World, there are still hiddenfacts that critics find to uncover about this play. Recent criticism on Congreve has specially focused on the way hisplays reflect on the age in which they were written. As a contribution to the current discussions on Congreve, thepresent paper focuses on the concepts of self and identity in Congreve’s well-known play. The central argument of thispaper is that Congreve's lifelike portrayals have so much in common with the necessities of the age in which the authorlived. In other words, the characters of the play always look for the demands of the society in presenting themselves tothe outside world. The residing duality that shapes the pictures of the self in Congreve's play creates characters withfragmentary states of the mind in a way that they have no chance to escape the gap between their private and publicimages. The sad outcome is that, contrary to what might seem, the play has strong tragic overtones.

Keywords:

Self , Identity , William Congreve , The Way of the World , The black box