Question I
The Way of the World is an English play written by William Congreve. The play’s story is centered on the affair between two lovers Mirabell and Millamant. Both of whom were in love with each other. For most of the scenes in the play, they were planning for their future married life. In the presented excerpt from The Way of the World, love was presented in a unique way. The presented text centered on the plans of the two after their wedding. To be more specific, they were planning what to call and what not to call each other, basically setting the ground rules regarding the use of terms of endearment, something which was rather common even during their time. In modern times, however, this is something that may also seem to be common. This is why love, based on how it was represented in the scene, somewhat resembles the kind of love that modern society knows of today. This is but one of the many aspects where traditional love—based on how it was portrayed by Mirabell and Millamant’s story, and contemporary love—based on how one knows it today can be similar with each other.
Wit is something that was unsparingly used in the novel. Wit may actually refer to a skill—the skill to deliver something either through voice or in writing in an unusually clever and funny way. It can be likened to sarcasm. Most but definitely not all people may find wit and sarcasm funny to the point that they are attributing one’s ability to use it as a sign of intelligence. During the time when the story of The Way of the World was set, wit was used the same way modern society uses sarcasm. Witty persons were often referred to as clever and intelligent people. To talk about an otherwise uninteresting topic with wit is to convert it into something that is actually discussable, at least based on the taste of other similarly-witted people.
When it comes to poetry and other forms of literature, an author’s way of using wit to tell a story is also often considered lovely. This is especially true for stories that have a rather serious and often political theme. Then again, it depends entirely on how the author wants the story to unfold and be presented to the audience. In the case of The Way of the World and its story, the author of this paper believes that what William Congreve did—that is, to introduce wit in different parts of the story contributed to its success in that he managed to turn a story that could have been so serious and boring into something that is lighter and even more melodramatic. Examples of instances wherein wit was used in this scene would be when Millamant was starting to request a lot of things from Mirabell (regarding the use of specific names or terms of endearment after marriage). Mirabell knew that Millamant was becoming pushier, that she was starting to request a lot of things from him even though they were still on the planning stages of their marriage. However, instead of responding with rage or any negatively disturbing form of emotion, he asked a witty question “have you any more conditions to offer” hitherto your demands are pretty reasonable”. That was a rather sarcastically witty remark to throw at a lady who was starting to bee to demanding.
The characters’ manners were also an important part in this scene. The story was set in one of the most conservative parts of history, where both women and men were expected to act in certain sophisticated ways. Men, for example were expected to act chivalrously. Women, on the other hand, were expected to act with finesse. People tend to lose manners whenever the situation gets emotional. In the text that was presented, there were numerous instances wherein Mirabell and Millamant were becoming too expressive and passionate yet it is surprising that they were not being ill-mannered.
Question II
The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia was centered on the concept of happiness. In the numerous passages that were presented in question B, the author was basically talking about happiness. Notice how in passage one the author laid out the different conditions that man thinks could bring him happiness but in reality are just noting but sources of false hopes; how one’s credulity to the whispers of fancy, motivation to pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope, the expectation that age will perform the promises of youth could all lead to happiness. These were things that do not yield happiness as evidenced by the events that unfolded before Rasselas’ eyes. His life was already perfect although he was one of the most restricted persons in the planet. He did not have to fight for survival and problem a lot of things—everything was already provided for him yet he still failed to appreciate those things. This is the best evidence that suggests that material things and the numerous conditions presented in the passage would never be enough to make a person completely happy. In the second passage, the same concept and or argument about happiness was raised although this one was more focused on knowledge—based on the expectation that suggests that knowledge brings happiness just like how it is expected to bring power. Then again, this did not solve Rasselas’ riddle.
The theme of The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia based on the excerpt as one would expect is happiness. However, numerous interpretations and iterations of this work may yield a different outcome—as far as the process of determining the major theme(s) is concerned. It is worth noting, however, that this was essentially a rushed but not exactly a subpar work authored by Samuel Johnson in an effort to generate some revenues to pay for the funeral of his mother. This part of the work was a copycat of Voltaire’s more popular and sophisticated Candide. Candide and The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia had the same theme—they both talked about man’s unending quest of finding the root cause of happiness.
Having read The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia and reflected on the various points that Johnson raised in it, it would be safe to suggest that the main thesis here (as evidenced by the passages that were presented) is the one that suggests that happiness is complexly hard to find; it cannot be associated with pleasure. In Passage 1, Johnson was talking about hopes, eagerness, and age in related to happiness; in Passage 2, he was talking about the contribution of knowledge to happiness. In both passages, his expectations about happiness were both proven wrong. The philosophical concept that is being raised here may therefore suggest that the attainment of happiness is nothing but a mere product of chance despite the fact that it is everyone’ moral goal of life; this may then be converted into a question, one that asks whether it is natural for certain people to fail in this grandiose endeavor, that only a certain people are entitled to be happy regardless of having or not having everything that they could ask for. The plot of The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia as evidenced by the chosen shows that even a person who could not ask for more in his life may still emerge unhappy and discontented.
