SOURCE: Hughes, Derek. “Play and Passion in The Man of Mode.” Comparative Drama 15, no. 3 (fall 1981): 231-57.

In the essay below, Hughes examines game-playing and religious imagery in The Man of Mode, maintaining that the subtly shifting images reveal Etherege's attitudes toward games and the losers in those games.

Discussions of The Man of Mode repeatedly, and properly, dwell on two of its most clearly important elements. One is the portrayal of life as a game. Unable to decide “what, if anything, Etherege wants us to take seriously,” Norman N. Holland concludes that “Virtually every action of every character becomes a gambit in a great and meaningless social game.” But for other critics the game is far from meaningless. Virginia Ogden Birdsall sees Restoration comedy as a celebration of play and argues that Dorimant and Harriet are rewarded for their mastery in “the love game” and “the game of...