Discuss the character of Millament.
Millamant is generally conceded to
be the most charming heroine in Restoration comedy. She is a fitting
partner-antagonist to Mirabell. She maintains the same self-control to the very
end of the proviso scene. She too loves but shows no sentiment. She is airy,
teasing, light, beautiful, tantalizing, and infuriating. Mirabell is aware of
her faults — and comes to love them. The reader is aware of her faults and
comes to love them too. She is affected, coy, and arch, and we would have her
no other way. She can be sweet and charming, but there can be acid and irony in
her wit.
Millamant appears significantly in
five scenes: her first appearance, her dialogue with Mrs. Marwood, her scene
with Sir Wilfull, the proviso scene with Mirabell, and the drunken scene
immediately following. The first and fourth are the most important for
revealing her character.
Millamant's first appearance is
prepared for carefully. When she arrives, trailing her court, Mincing and young
Witwoud, she automatically takes the center of the stage as if it is her right,
as indeed it is. Her character is outlined in the passage about putting up
one's hair: Prose would never do, only poetry, a piece of flippancy in which
Mincing immediately abets her. Here she is revealed as the complete belle. She
is affectation that is fully conscious of itself, and flippancy that delights
in its own irreverence. She is completely sure of her feminine power, and
Congreve has given her the lines to justify her assurance. The lines concerning
suitors — one makes them, one destroys them, and one makes others — are all
flippant. She knows her power and can laugh at herself, just as she can tease
Mirabell.
