In the following essay excerpt, Kimball examines the theme of gaming in The Way of the World, including the "idea that life is a game in the world of play and elsewhere."

The opening chocolate house scene of Congreve's last comedy, The Way of the World, informs the rest of the play, establishing gaming as the playwright's metaphor for life and love. The comedy's prolific gaming imagery provides a thematic and structural emphasis on gaming as the world's way, and, finally, every character is at one time or another playing a game that may be a singles or doubles match, but that is usually part of a team effort. The audience of The Way of the World would, of course, have been familiar with the circumstances of the scene that begins with Mirabell and Fainall "rising from cards." We learn that Mirabell, though he has lost to...