ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of the book. This book analyses the continuity of an essentially English dramatic tradition with particular reference to two centuries: the seventeenth and the twentieth. By the end of the nineteenth century the comedy of manners had fallen into such disrepute that Meredith could dismiss it as unworthy of serious consideration. He saw the post-Restoration drama in England as divorced from the major European comic tradition and disapproved of it. An awareness of class is basic to all English comedy of manners, by class being understood both social rank and breeding. Comedy of manners examines in detail the behaviour and conventions of civilized society. Financial and sexual success are seen as determining the conduct of a group of characters bound together through ties of friendship and marriage.