 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
Table of Contents Act I Summary Act I opens in a fashionable chocolate-house (similar to a café), a conventional theatrical setting. Fainall has just defeated Mirabell at cards. Both of them rise and begin to converse. Fainall notices Mirabell’s indifferent attitude towards his defeat. He tells Mirabell that his indifference to losing the game lessens his pleasure in winning. Fainall then charges him with being preoccupied by thoughts of Millamant. Mirabell avoids answering his questions, and they start talking about the events of the previous evening. Mirabell tells Fainall that last night when he was with Millamant, Witwoud and Petulant had come in and were favorably received. To make matters worse, his "evil genius," Lady Wishfort, had also arrived. Mrs. Fainall, Mrs. Marwood and a few other ladies were also present. When they saw Mirabell, they all put on grave faces and whispered to one another. Then they fell into a profound silence. Lady Wishfort then began to complain about the tediousness of long visits, and even Millamant joined in the tirade. Mirabell left after telling Millamant that it is easy to know when one is not welcome. Fainall blames Mirabell for resenting what Millamant said, since she was only complying with her aunt, Lady Wishfort. Mirabell replies that Millamant is mistress of herself and should not cave in to outside pressures. Fainall reminds him that Millamant’s wealth depends on the goodwill of Lady Wishfort. Fainall tells Mirabell that the preceding evening had been one of their "cabal nights," when the ladies discuss the weekly intrigues within their circle of friends. Witwoud and Petulant are the only male members admitted, and so they would naturally turn away Mirabell.
It seems that the discovery of Mirabell’s "sham addresses" to Lady Wishfort, a widow of fifty-five, in order to conceal his love for her niece, Millamant, has turned Lady Wishfort against him. Mirabell then talks of his efforts to "please" Lady Wishfort. He had written a song in her honor and persuaded a friend to write a lampoon complimenting her on an affair with a younger man. He had gone so far as to tell her that there was a malicious rumor in town that she had become pregnant. Mirabell says that all his efforts were wasted by Mrs. Marwood’s discovery of his true love for Millamant. Fainall suggests that Mrs. Marwood exposed Mirabell because he had not returned her overtures. Her vanity was thus wounded. Mirabell hints in return that Fainall is having an affair with Mrs. Marwood. Fainall refutes this charge and leaves for a moment to meet Witwoud and Petulant, who are playing cards in another room. In the meanwhile a footman arrives with the news that his valet, Waitwell, has married Foible, Lady Wishfort’s maid. Mirabell is happy because Waitwell’s marriage appears to be a necessary part of his scheme, the details of which are not yet revealed. Mirabell asks the footman to tell Waitwell and Foible to meet him at one o’clock by Rosamond’s Pond. When Fainall re-enters, Mirabell does not reveal this secret information, and their conversation returns to the topic of Millamant. Mirabell has carefully analyzed her character and continues to love her despite her faults. He stresses that her follies are so natural that they suit her, and those affectations which would render another woman hateful only make her all the more pleasing. Table of Contents | |
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