Briefly discuss the role played by the servants in Congreve's the way of the world

The servants; Waitwell (Mirabell's male servant) and Foible (Lady Wishfort’s female servant) announce their marriage at the beginning of the first act. Later in the play, Waitwell becomes a part of the plot to gain approval for the marriage of Mirabell and Millamant. To do so, he plays the part of one Lord Rowland in an attempt to compromise Lady Wishfort, and thus force her hand into agreeing to the young people's marriage. Waitwell gets arrested for his troubles. Numerous attempts at blackmail and Lady Wishforts desire to save herself from social disgrace eventually bring the play to its conclusion , and the young people are allowed to be wed and Mirabell's inheritance is intact.

Way of the world was written during the reign of King Charles 2 in the restoration period. It was published on march 1700, and fits into the genre of restoration comedy.

The play opens with Mirabell and Fainall playing cards in the chocolate house where Mirabell is portrayed gloomy over an incident that took place the previous night. Where both of these characters appear to be friends to an untrained eye, Fainall seems to be actually trying to gather information which he may use against Mirabell in the future. Where Fainall is still trying to gather information, Mirabell already has a plan ready, which is shown to have set into motion even before the play started.

Waitwell is shown as Mirabells loyal and hardworking servant who Mirabell marries to Lady Wishfort's servant Foible, so he won’t be a problem in the future during the conduction of his plans. As he is newly married, the love between him and Foible is often portrayed throughout the play, and it is one of the many motivators for him to eagerly be a part of Mirabells plan into trapping Lady Wishfort so she would allow Millament to marry Mirabell. Since the plan includes of making Lady Wishfort fall in the love with Waitwell, who would then be disguised as Sir Rowland, Mirabell's rich uncle from far away, and then blackmailing her into allowing Millament to marry Mirabell if she wants out of the disgraceful wedlock with a servant, Waitwell puts forth a great effort into deceiving her for the same and making her believe him to be a true gentleman named Sir Rowland.

Foible on the other hand is shown to be much more conniving and deceiving than Waitwell. She was apparently saved by Lady Wishfort from the streets, and is portrayed to be smart, eloquent and willing to help Mirabell in his plans of deceiving Lady Wishfort for money and land. She is also the only character who seems to notice the suffering of Mrs. Fainall and is sensitive to the same. When Mrs. Marwood tells Lady Wishfort about Foible talking to Mirabell, she happily contradicts her words by saying that he only stopped her to insult and ramble in Lady Wishforts name and nothing else. She later also covers up the letters Mrs. Marwood sends Lady Wishfort which contain information about their plan by saying that the letter was possibly sent by Mirabell himself in order to decieve Lady Wishfort and his uncle of happiness. Knowing Lady Wishfort's weaknesses and her hatred for Mirabell, she constantly uses them to cover up the slip ups which they experienced in the plans.

In the end, Waitwell and Foible play a huge part in leading Lady Wishfort into the trap until Lady Wishfort realises the truth and sends Waitwell to jail.