Congreve cultivates a mood of false superiority in the play's audience. Lower-class people, including servants, are often the butts of jokes, which was common in Restoration comedies. The audiences were often wealthy and could feel more "cultured" than the fools in these plays. By 1700, when Congreve's play came out, the social landscape had changed somewhat from the earlier Restoration: there was a more visible middle class, for instance. Congreve's play often turns around and levels jokes at the wealthy people, too.
One example of this dynamic is in Act 3, Scene 1, when Lady Wishfort's servant has to clarify whether Lady Wishfort wants her makeup or a glass of alcohol:
LADY WISHFORT: [...] Why dost thou not fetch me a little red? Did’st thou not hear me, mopus?
PEG: The red ratifia does your ladyship mean, or the cherry brandy?
Wishfort and the audience both find Peg, the servant, somewhat ridiculous for not understanding that Lady Wishfort is dressing and wants her makeup. But when Lady Wishfort hears that the makeup is locked up and that she will have to wait for Foible to return to unlock it, she asks for the brandy after all. The audience realizes that Peg might not have made such a ridiculous mistake after all. It might be very normal for Lady Wishfort to drink brandy this early in the day. If Lady Wishfort does have a drinking habit, Peg is just being a good servant and trying to give her employer what she wants.
The audience is frequently invited to identify with "superior" characters such as Lady Wishfort, only to discover that they are not so superior after all. On the flip side, the audience is often invited to laugh at characters who turn out to be the most honorable people in the play. Wilfull, for instance, starts out looking like one of the biggest fools around because he has not lived in London and doesn't know all the social customs. When he later defends Arabella from Fainall's abuse, the audience is forced to ask why they were laughing at a man who is better-behaved than all the rest. The earlier jokes are meant to be funny still, but the audience often must turn the laughter on itself and follow a joke through to a more complex punchline than it first seemed to be preparing for. The overall effect is a leveling of the social classes, so that smug people are taken down a notch.
