The Conscious Lovers Literary Elements

Comedy

English

The action of the play takes place in London, over the course of a few days.

Because this is a play, there is no narrator and no point of view.

The tone and mood in the play is a lighthearted and informal one, characteristically found in the comedic plays of the time.

None of the characters in the play are presented in a negative manner and thus there are no real antagonists. Instead, what stops most of the characters from being happy are the societal rules everyone seems to follow even if it is not in their best interest. Thus, there rules are the real antagonists in the story.

The major conflict is an internal one and is presented as being between Bevil Jr.’s desire to marry the woman he loved and the desire to obey his father.

The play reaches its climax when the parents agree to let Bevil Jr. and Indiana marry and be together as they want.

During a conversation between Tom and Sir John, the latter expresses his worry about his son choosing the wrong woman, or rather choosing a woman who does not have enough money. This is mentioned time and time again by the father and other characters in the play who clearly transmit the idea that having money is the best quality a person can have. These scenes also foreshadow the way in which many people will change their attitude once they find someone they disliked had more money and influence as they originally thought they did.

When Tom, the servant, talks about his master, the son of Sir John, his appearance is compared with the beauty of the sun, comparison which was meant to show just how happy the son was for his upcoming marriage. This however proves to be an understatement as the servant later describes the son as being in a bad mood and unhappy at the prospect of marrying someone he does not love.

One of the ideas alluded in the beginning of the play is how men were free to do what they wanted to do, even have sexual relationships with women outside of marriage. This was seen as something normal and some of the fathers even encouraged their sons to behave in such a manner.

An important aspect to analyze is the way servants are portrayed in the play. The servants are seen discussing both among themselves and with their masters, using two different types of styles. While the servants are obedient and eager to do what they are told in public, they often talk about their masters behind their backs and criticize them. The servants are also portrayed as being immoral, the servant women being implied of sleeping with the people who often come to visit the house of their masters. This thus proves just how little many thought about the servants of the time and their worth.

A paradoxical situation appears when Phillis and Tom have a conversation, the latter trying to seduce Phillis. The servant girl refuses to accept him, revealing to him how she knows about his attempts to woo other servant girls as well. Phillis acts disgusted even by this fact and claims she will never accept him because of this. Paradoxically, her attitude changes completely when Tom takes out a bag full of money, Phillis changing her attitude almost immediately.

No parallels can be found in this play.

We find personification in the line "The cave mouth yawned.’’

As it is the case in many other classic plays, the author uses the minimum of dramatic devices in the play. The arrival and the departure of some of the characters is suggested by the presence of dramatic devices but in many cases these details come forward from the lines of the characters who use a descriptive language to explain what is happening on stage.