Barnhisel teaches writing and directs the Writing Center at the University of Southern California. In this essay, he discusses the varieties of love and ways in which love transforms people in Congreve's play.

In January of 1691, London saw the premiere of a new play by the popular playwright Thomas Durfey. Love for Money, in the words of theatre historian Derek Hughes, "uses the sexual and monetary intrigues of comedy as a way of praising the new political order . . . [it] affirms the power of law and the triumph of justice, with explicit reference to the struggle against James II and Louis XIV." By the "new political order," Hughes refers to the Glorious Revolution and overthrow of James II (who was allied, in his drive for absolute monarchical power, with France's Louis XIV) and his replacement by William of Orange and a constitutional monarchy. Love for Money also depicts...