The Man of Mode

George Etherege helped to develop the comedy of manners, or society comedy, in which the brilliant world of wits and fops is both portrayed and satirized. In his best-known comedy, The Man of Mode (1676), Dorimant, the central character, is hardly a model for how the young man about town should behave. Etherege is a cool observer of manners. Sir Fopling Flutter is clearly a Frenchified fop and dandy, yet he is also lovable. Harriet is a prototype of the witty, liberated woman-coquettish, teasing, and intelligent. Etherege's other comedies are The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub (1664) and She Would If She Could (1668).

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