Comedies of Appetite and Contract

Abstract

A number of themes and issues recur throughout Congreve’s work: arguably the most persistent is his concern with the destructive power of appetite. In his later plays Congreve explores how reason and contractually based order can together counteract or at least restrain the deleterious effects of appetite and impulse. In the unstable world governed by appetite, chaos and disorder is an ever-present threat; but his heroes and heroines in his later plays find a way of establishing order and stability in their relationships partly through having a clear conception of their objectives and partly through using prudent strategies to achieve these objectives.