Previous
Mood
Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Act 1, Scene 2
Explanation and Analysis—Written Proof:
Written proof is a motif throughout they play. Repeated instances where written proof delivers a plot twist foreshadow the resolution of the play, when Mirabell reveals that has the deed to Mrs. Fainall's property. For instance, in Act 1, Scene 2, a servant delivers Mirabell the news that Waitwell and Foible have been married:
SERVANT: Married and bedded, sir; I am witness.
MIRABELL: Have you the certificate?
SERVANT: Here it is, sir.
Related Themes:
Act 1, Scene 8
Explanation and Analysis—Lovers as Accessories:
A motif throughout the play is the idea that lovers and suitors are accessories people can use to satisfy their vanity and demonstrate their desirability to the world. In Act 2, scene 5, Millamant describes using love letters as curlers for her hair:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Oh, ay, letters – I had letters – I am persecuted with letters – I hate letters. Nobody knows how to write letters, and yet one has ’em, one does not know why. They serve one to pin up one’s hair. [...] Only with those in verse, Mr Witwoud. I never pin up my hair with prose. I fancy one’s hair would not curl if it were pinned up with prose. I think I tried once, Mincing.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Lovers as Accessories:
A motif throughout the play is the idea that lovers and suitors are accessories people can use to satisfy their vanity and demonstrate their desirability to the world. In Act 2, scene 5, Millamant describes using love letters as curlers for her hair:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Oh, ay, letters – I had letters – I am persecuted with letters – I hate letters. Nobody knows how to write letters, and yet one has ’em, one does not know why. They serve one to pin up one’s hair. [...] Only with those in verse, Mr Witwoud. I never pin up my hair with prose. I fancy one’s hair would not curl if it were pinned up with prose. I think I tried once, Mincing.
Related Themes:
Act 2, Scene 9
Explanation and Analysis—Marriage and Identity:
The idea that marriage changes a person's identity runs throughout the play as a motif. Millamant is particularly concerned about losing herself when she gets married, but it is not only women who experience this transformation. For example, in Act 2, Scene 9, when Mirabell asks Waitwell if he will be able to disappear into the role of Sir Rowland, Waitwell says that he has already disappeared into the role of a married man:
Unlock with LitCharts A+MIRABELL: Come sir, will you endeavour to forget yourself, and transform into Sir Rowland?
WAITWELL: Why sir, it will be impossible I should remember myself – Married, knighted, and attended all in one day! ’Tis enough to make any man forget himself. The difficulty will be how to recover my acquaintance and familiarity with my former self, and fall from my transformation to a reformation into Waitwell. Nay, I shan’t be quite the same Waitwell, neither – for now I remember me, I am married, and can’t be my own man again.
Related Themes:
Act 3, Scene 5
Explanation and Analysis—Performance and Reality:
A motif that recurs throughout the play is the idea that characters have an authentic self and a performance that they put out for the world, and that distinguishing between the two can be difficult. In Act 3, Scene 5, Foible comments that Lady Wishfort has cracked her makeup by frowning, but that it can be easily fixed to make her look more like her picture again:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I warrant you, madam; a little art once made your picture like you, and now a little of the same art must make you like your picture. Your picture must sit for you, madam.
Related Themes:
