The heroine of the comedy of manners is of a new type-the emancipated woman-and so the approach to love is sharply different from the traditional one. As matter of fact, “the emancipated attitude to love and gallantry explains the distinguishing features of the comedy of manners.”
The age is proud of its improvements in the art of love making. The new, “Brisk, gay way”, of making love presupposes that both men and women are equally witty and emancipated. The wit-combat presupposes two equals, Wit must be foiled by wit.-“it is the most essential feature of the comedy of manners that a witty lover and an equally witty mistress wage a war of wit I against each other, till in the end, without any trace of romance or sentiment, in fact, very often I purely to be rid of each other, they dwindle into husband and wife.”