The Way of the World: 

Character List

Mirabell A young man-about-town, in love with Millamant.

Millamant A young, very charming lady, in love with, and loved by, Mirabell. She is the ward of

Lady Wishfort because she is the niece of Lady Wishfort's long-dead husband. She is a first

cousin of Mrs. Fainall.

Fainall A man-about-town. He and Mirabell know each other well, as people do who move in

the same circles. However, they do not really like each other. Fainall married his wife for her

money.

Mrs. Fainall Wife of Fainall and daughter of Lady Wishfort. She was a wealthy young widow

when she married Fainall. She is Millamant's cousin and was Mirabell's mistress, presumably

after her first husband died.

Mrs. Marwood Fainall's mistress. It does appear, however, that she was, and perhaps still is, in

love with Mirabell. This love is not returned.

Young Witwoud A fop. He came to London from the country to study law but apparently found

the life of the fashionable man-about-town more pleasant. He has pretensions to being a wit.

He courts Millamant, but not seriously; she is merely the fashionable belle of the moment.

Petulant A young fop, a friend of Witwoud's. His name is indicative of his character.

Lady Wishfort A vain woman, fifty-five years old, who still has pretensions to beauty. She is the

mother of Mrs. Fainall and the guardian of Millamant. She is herself in love with Mirabell,

although she is now spiteful because he offended her vanity.

Sir Wilfull Witwoud The elder brother of Young Witwoud, he is forty years old and is planning

the grand tour of Europe that was usually made by young men to complete their education. He

is Lady Wishfort's nephew, a distant, non-blood relative of Millamant's, and Lady Wishfort's

choice as a suitor for Millamant's hand.

Waitwell Mirabell's valet. At the beginning of the play, he has just been married to Foible, Lady

Wishfort's maid. He masquerades as Sir Rowland, Mirabell's nonexistent uncle, and woos Lady

Wishfort.

Foible Lady Wishfort's maid, married to Waitwell.

Mincing Millamant's maid.

Peg A maid in Lady Wishfort's house.

Play Summary

Before the action of the play begins, the following events are assumed to have taken place.

Mirabell, a young man-about-town, apparently not a man of great wealth, has had an affair

with Mrs. Fainall, the widowed daughter of Lady Wishfort. To protect her from scandal in the

event of pregnancy, he has helped engineer her marriage to Mr. Fainall, a man whom he feels

to be of sufficiently good reputation to constitute a respectable match, but not a man of such

virtue that tricking him would be unfair. Fainall, for his part, married the young widow because

he coveted her fortune to support his amour with Mrs. Marwood. In time, the liaison between

Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall ended (although this is not explicitly stated), and Mirabell found

himself in love with Millamant, the niece and ward of Lady Wish-fort, and the cousin of his

former mistress.

There are, however, financial complications. Half of Millamant's fortune was under her own

control, but the other half, 6,000 pounds, was controlled by Lady Wishfort, to be turned over to

Millamant if she married a suitor approved by her aunt. Unfortunately, Mirabell had earlier

offended Lady Wishfort; she had misinterpreted his flattery as love.

Mirabell, therefore, has contrived an elaborate scheme. He has arranged for a pretended uncle

(his valet, Waitwell) to woo and win Lady Wishfort. Then Mirabell intends to reveal the actual

status of the successful wooer and obtain her consent to his marriage to Millamant by rescuing

her from this misalliance. Waitwell was to marry Foible, Lady Wishfort's maid, before the

masquerade so that he might not decide to hold Lady Wishfort to her contract; Mirabell is too

much a man of his time to trust anyone in matters of money or love. Millamant is aware of the

plot, probably through Foible.

When the play opens, Mirabell is impatiently waiting to hear that Waitwell is married to Foible.

During Mirabell's card game with Fainall, it becomes clear that the relations between the two

men are strained. There are hints at the fact that Fainall has been twice duped by Mirabell:

Mrs. Fainall is Mirabell's former mistress, and Mrs. Marwood, Fainall's mistress, is in love with

Mirabell. In the meantime, although Millamant quite clearly intends to have Mirabell, she

enjoys teasing him in his state of uncertainty.

Mirabell bids fair to succeed until, unfortunately, Mrs. Marwood overhears Mrs. Fainall and

Foible discussing the scheme, as well as Mirabell and Mrs. Fainall's earlier love affair. Since Mrs.

Marwood also overhears insulting comments about herself, she is vengeful and informs Fainall

of the plot and the fact, which he suspected before, that his wife was once Mirabell's mistress.

The two conspirators now have both motive and means for revenge. In the same afternoon,

Millamant accepts Mirabell's proposal and rejects Sir Wilfull Witwoud, Lady Wishfort's

candidate for her hand.

Fainall now dominates the action. He unmasks Sir Rowland, the false uncle, and blackmails Lady

Wishfort with the threat of her daughter's disgrace. He demands that the balance of

Millamant's fortune, now forfeit, be turned over to his sole control, as well as the unspent

balance of Mrs. Fainall's fortune. In addition, he wants assurance that Lady Wishfort will not

marry so that Mrs. Fainall is certain to be the heir.

This move of Fainall's is now countered; Millamant says that she will marry Sir Wilfull to save

her own fortune. Fainall insists that he wants control of the rest of his wife's money and

immediate management of Lady Wishfort's fortune. When Mirabell brings two servants to

prove that Fainall and Mrs. Marwood were themselves guilty of adultery, Fainall ignores the

accusation and points out that he will still create a scandal which would blacken the name of

Mrs. Fainall unless he gets the money.

At this point, Mirabell triumphantly reveals his most successful ploy. Before Mrs. Fainall

married Fainall, she and Mirabell had suspected the man's character, and she had appointed

her lover trustee of her fortune. Fainall is left with no claim to make because Mrs. Fainall does

not control her own money. He and Mrs. Marwood leave in great anger. Sir Wilfull steps aside

as Millamant's suitor; Lady Wishfort forgives the servants and consents to the match of

Mirabell and Millamant.

Finding Deeper Meaning in Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat

First impressions are important when meeting new people, applying for jobs, and even when

reading literature. It provides us with an idea of what is going on, where things are taking place,

and who the important characters are. This first impression can be described is the Pre-Critical

Response; the average reader performs this type of analysis every time he or she reads. For

some people, this simplistic perspective is satisfactory; others find the quest for deeper

understanding intriguing and part of the ultimate experience gained through literature.

The Formalistic Approach is one way to analyze literature in order to gain fuller understanding.

This approach examines a piece of literature by identifying its individual structures and form. It

studies sentence structure in terms of verb placement, the multiple meanings and etymology of

words, and the stanza and line breaks. The Formalistic Approach stresses sensitivity to words

and their connotations, denotations, and implications they may have to surrounding words and

phrases. Location, setting, place, and time are other aspects identified through this

approach. Formalistic analysis is referred as "...close reading in practice" (HCAL 73).

The Dialogical Approach recognizes "...the essential indeterminacy of meaning outside of the

dialogic - and hence open - relationship between voices" (HCAL 349). The voices of a novel or

work create a dimension all their own. Dialogical's creator, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin, uses

the key term of carnivalization to describe the "...diversities of speech and voice reflected in its

structure" (HCAL 351). Mood and tone are derived from this and can be further amplified

through the Formalistic Approach of analysis.

My Pre-Critical Response to Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a

Tub of Gold Fishes" is as follows: A cat was playing with a fish in the fish bowl. The cat fell in and

then drowned because none cared enough to save her. When I take a second look, details of

the setting and location; language usage and sentence patterns; tone and mood; deeper

meanings to the poem can be found. The Formalistic and Dialogical Approaches can be used to

find these deeper meanings.

Setting and location are essential when creating atmosphere. Atmosphere influences mood and

mood reflects on tone. The setting in "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub

of Gold Fishes" is described starting in the periphery and then narrowing in to the source of

energy. The surroundings are characterized using an abstract point of view. "'Twas on a lofty

vase's side, Where China's gayest art had dy'd" (Gray l.1-2). The decorations are described in

terms of culture and civilization to add hidden depth to the object in view.

The language usage through word choice, syntax, and style create a dimension all their own.

Gray uses an array of words commonly found in someone who is highly educated and

knowledgeable. He uses descriptive words with hidden meanings and connotations. For

example, he uses the names of Tom and Susan for people who will not come to his aid. Tom

and Susan are generally the names of household servants who should be around to come to his

aid, and yet in fact are not. This implies the relationship and feelings the servants have toward

their Master and toward his possessions. The word choice for the title, ode in particular,

suggests this is a tribute to a loved one or someone of meaningful significance. This in fact is

true; the cat's owner as a tribute writes this poem to his beloved friend the cat. The sentences

are long as well as the complexities of the thoughts. The descriptions are vivid; they come to

life; they leave much to the imagination.

Tonality and mood is set through the interaction of the speaker. The speaker of this poem is the

owner of the cat. He is the only speaker and his tone stays consistent throughout. He uses

parodies by making the simplest things seem so complex, humorous to some degree. Overexaggeration

and colorful descriptions add to the flow of the poem. The speaker is direct with

his feelings. He is honest and open about the world as he sees it. His specific word choice

displays this openness. He makes references to mythology, references to family, and references

to mankind.

Taking a second look at this poem has revealed many new things. The central idea and train of

thought still remains, yet depth has been found. Word choice, sentence structure, and mood

are important things to analyze when reading and re-reading literature. It creates an added

dimension to an elementary viewpoint after only one glance. So, go ahead and take a second

look.

Morals of Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat (Favourite)

It is very difficult to understand what a writer mean when they write a poem, because you have

to get in to a frame of mind that you think the writer was in when they composed the poem. In

the Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes, Thomas Gray uses a

cat and fish to teach a moral.

In the Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold Fishes the setting was set

in the first stanza. The poem gave you an idea that it took place in a very nice house that had a

large china vase, that held water, also it give the allusion that in this vase were flowers and fish.

It describes beautiful blue tinted flowers in bloom and the fish as angel like Beta fish, which had

a coat of amour made in gold with the hint of royal purple. When Gray went into describing a

fluffy black and white tabby cat with deep green eyes.

The cat's name is Selima and she is perched at the top of the vase watching the fish glide

through the water. Selima was planning to eat the fish as soon as she could catch them. So she

slowly reached with her paw to nab one of the fishes, her first attempt fails so she thinks again

of how she can reach them. Eventually she falls in and tries to get out eight times while crying

for help from a forgiving soul. No one seems to hear her and she drowns in the water where the

fish swam.

Thomas Gray asks two questions " What female heart can gold despise? What cat's averse to

fish?" (lines 23 and 24) the meaning of those questions are that some gold is not meant for

women and these fishes were not meant to be eaten by Selima. Also the "female" could reflect

the cat since cats are generalized has feminine and "gold" referring to the fish. Gray also states

"Malignant fate sat by, and smil'd" (line 28) which leads me to believe that fate was laughing at

the cat and not helping it cause fate knew what was going to happen. In line twenty-nine "The

slipp'ry verge her feet beguil'd" is an illusion to that the cat thinks it has balance and yet she

does not cause she falls into the fish bowl. In the second to last stanzas it talks about how she

cried out to a "wat'ry God" to send aid to her. "No dolphins came, no Nereid stirr'd: Nor cruel

Tom, nor Susan heard" which in my opinion means that no one heard Selima not even another

cat, servant or even her owner came to help her in her dismay.

The last stanza is basically the moral to the little story. The first two lines make the reader

believe that the beauty of the vase nor the fishes where disturbed and that one false step could

mean your life. The rest of that stanza has the bases of the moral, which is do not always go for

everything that you want cause it could turn out that it is not what it seemed to be in the first

place. An example of this moral in today's society would be a company that relies on its stock to

help it succeed. As the stock goes up the company seem to get cocky with the money they have

until the stock starts to drop. Then eventually they company will have to file for bankrupts

cause they choose to send their money foolishly.

Thomas Gray originally wrote this poem in honor of Selima, Walpole's cat that drowned after

tumbling into a china goldfish bowl. I believe that as he wrote it he put in this underlying moral

to get his readers to think of their choices in life.