Love for Love

The play’s title emphasizes the central thematic importance of “love for love” in the world of the play, as the idea of marrying out of genuine emotion is a rarity in Valentine’s social circle. The eventual match between Valentine and Angelica is made all the more powerful through the contrast it forms with the “love” experienced by the other characters.

Some characters, such as Tattle, Scandal, and Mrs. Foresight, treat love and seduction as mere games played for the thrill of deception and pleasure. Tattle brags about his many conquests of married, high-born ladies, and Scandal believes that women are not capable of fair or virtuous conduct. Mrs. Foresight, although married, engages in affairs, as suggested by her conversations with Mrs. Frail and her night of passion spent with Scandal. For such characters, love has no real emotional weight and is primarily a form of amusement. Meanwhile, for a single woman with no fortune like Mrs. Frail, marriage is a means of securing financial and social status, and love does not factor into her deliberations at all: she is eager to marry Ben when she thinks the inheritance will fall to him, and she swiftly rejects him without regret when she discovers he has lost it.