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Love for Love by William Congreve



About author 

                   Love for Love was written by the well known Restoration dramatist William Congreve. He was an English playwright and poet of the Restoration period . He is known for his clever satirical dialogue and influence on the " Comedy of Manners ". Congreve shaped the English comedy of manners through his use of satire and well written dialogue. He became more famous when he wrote some famous plays of Restoration Era like " The Old Bachelor " , "The Double Dealer", " Love for Love " , " The Way of the World " and his tragedy  " The Mourning Bride " . 

Restoration Age (1660-1689)

 Love for Love was written in Restoration Age. It was also known as the " Age of Dryden " because Dryden was the representative writer of this period.  The restoration of King Charles 2nd in 1660 marks the beginning of the new era both in life and the literature of England . 

 After restoration, theater was reopened and there was a rapid development of Science. The French influence was predominant during this period because the king had spent the period of his exile in France. The famous writer of this period was "John Dryden ", he was England's first poet laureate, other writers were " William Congreve ",  " John Milton ", "William Wycherley" , " Aphra Behn ". 

Plot Summary 

                 The protagonist of the play is Valentine Legend who is an irresponsible young man who doesn't know how to manage money . He is destitute after drinking and gambling his money away . He is in debt so his father , Sir Sampson Legend confronts him about his debt problems . He lends his son some money on one condition which is , Valentine must transfer his inheritance rights to his brother,  Benjamin Franklin (Ben) who is responsible with money .

Valentine loves Angelica but he can't marry her without money , so by signing his father's deal , Valentine secures enough money to court Angelica. In the meantime , Angelica has her own family problems. Her uncle , Mr. Foresight, forbids her from leaving the house . He complains that she socializes too much and she looks like a loose woman. Angelica also doesn't show any mark of respect towards her uncle and always mocks at the superstitious knowledge of her uncle in prophecies , ridiculous dreams and idle divination. 

 Miss Prue , daughter of Mr. Foresight arrives who is about to marry Ben but she doesn't want to marry him because she loves Tattle . Mrs. Foresight's sister Mrs. Frail has her own plan , she plans to marry Ben so that she could get his money . 

In the meantime, Valentine pretends to  go mad so that he doesn't need to loose his inheritance but he wants to confront Angelica about this madness . He tells her that he only pretends to go mad so that Sir Sampson might forgive him and transfer his rights back . But Sir Sampson knows that Valentine is laying to save his inheritance . 

Things only get worse when Valentine  And Angelica come up with their own plan ,    Angelica pretends that she wants to marry Sir Sampson so that Valentine has to tell the truth of his madness to all. Sir Sampson declares himself a lucky man because of Angelica's false proposal.

 After hear about this news , Valentine confronts Sir Sampson . He admits that he is not insane at all . He promises to sign the agreement if Angelica really wants to marry Sir Sampson because her happiness is all that matters . Then Angelica declares her love for Valentine and tells that she was just playing a game to see the love of Valentine towards her and tells , she doesn't think he should sign his inheritance away . 
                   Thus , the play ends with the love of Valentine and Angelica . It is a comic , farcial play written in Restoration Era which is also called Comedy of Manners . 
                  
                   

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