The country wife summary and analysis of the plot bartleby. Indepth summary and analysis of every scene of the country wife. Harry horner, an infamous womanizer, enlists his doctor to spread the false rumor that horner has become impotent to convince other men to trust him to be alone with their wives. Ha, ha, ha, gad, i am witty, i think, considering i was married today, by the. One of the most significant aspects of this play is the way that it ends. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the country wife by william wycherly. The country wife social historical context youtube. Some brief info on the historical background of restoration comedy and how it relates to the play. Act v scene 1 pinchwifes lodging that evening enter mr.
The country wife summary and analysis of the plot essay. The country husband new providence school district. Download william wycherleys the country wife for your kindle, tablet, ipad, pc or mobile. The country wife, act iv the open anthology of literature. The countrywife, comedy of manners in five acts by restoration dramatist william wycherley, performed and published in 1675.
In a parallel plot, pinchwife has married a country girl, margery, in the belief that she. Pinchwifes plans to stop any liaison go badly awry. The country wife summary and study guide supersummary. Front matter indignor quicquam reprehendi, non quia crasse compositum illepideve putetur, sed quia nuper. The country wife is a hilariously bawdy and subversive drama that pokes fun at the jealous and humourless. William wycherleys the country wife essay 1751 words. Moral virtue in william wycherleys the country wife essays 1015 words 5 pages.
The country wife summary by william wycherley this story is about debauchery, extramarital affairs, and deception. Throughout wycherleys play the country wife, characters reverse the time periods normal power dynamics of reputation and gender to create power from a state of powerlessness. Such an analysis can guide us in making distinctive, precise interpretive decisions about the characters in this comedydecisions that are based in the text and in. Feminist awareness in the country wife masters thesis.
An analysis of the country wife by william wycherley, usin. The country wife plot summary, character breakdowns, context and analysis, and performance video clips. Download the country wife study guide horners lodging. She hit him on the ear, and she meant to hit him on the ear, because he messed up her china collection. In the country wife, pinchwife, an older man who is terrified of being cheated on and made a cuckold, marries a young woman, margery, from the country because he believes that she is less likely to cheat on him than a city wife. Full of banter and repartee, it is fun to read, but the play is most. For, though one of the most profligate and heartless of human compositions, it is the elaborate production of a mind, not indeed rich, original or imaginative, but ingenious, observant, quick to seize hints, and patient. Jamess park was favoured by the kings mistress, the duchess of cleveland. For the basis of his plot, wycherley here borrows heavily from the work of moliere, but. The country wife essays are academic essays for citation. Sparkish, engaged to alithea sir jaspar fidget, a noble gentleman mrs. Mythic parody in the country wife oxford academic journals. The country wife is a restoration comedy written in 1675 by william wycherley. As she xv the country wife sparkish a spark signifies a foppishly dressed.
The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. The country wife, based on a compilation of molieres the school for husbands 1661, the school for wives 1662, and terences the eunuch 161 bce, is about marriage, infidelity, and male friendship. Your stingy country coxcomb keeps his wife from his friends as he does his little firkin of ale for his own drinking. As a genre, restoration comedy is notable for displaying a recrudescence of bawdiness, the public expression of which had been suppressed under the puritans, and for taking a satirical, or even cynical, view of marriage and sexuality. William wycherleys great comedy, the country wife 1675, re mains popular with actors. The title contains a lewd pun with regard to the first syllable of country. Lady fidgets treasonous act against her uninterested husband seldom garners extended critical analysis, for scholars must per force acknowledge her adultery. Hume does on its inspired buffoonery also leads to pitfalls.
The countrywife, a comedy, acted at the theatre royal. While certain characters appear to be powerful due to their status, honor and reputation, other seemingly powerless characters are able to gain power over these. Restoration drama, straddling the medieval frame of mind and the premodern way of thinking, brings to light the tensions this shift provoked. Helen burke refers to its notorious resistance to interpretation.
He is a middle aged man newly married to the country wife margery. Popular for its lively characters and its double entendres, the bawdy comedy was occasionally vilified for immorality. A product of the tolerant early restoration period, the play reflects an aristocratic and antipuritan ideology, and was controversial for its sexual explicitness even in its own time. The country wifewilliam wycherleyfree downloadpdf epub. Join stageagent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Harcourt, his acquaintance, enamored of alithea mr. Pinchwife has recently married an innocent country girl, who immediately falls for horner. The country wife is a 1675 restoration comedy by english dramatist william wycherley.
Condemning hypocrisy, praising dissolution, and elevating innuendo into an art form, the play is titillating, disquieting and witty. He examines desire and how it affects every aspect of social life. Deception and cuckoldry enable instability in the traditional home in wycherleys the country wife. The country wife by william wycherley was published in 1675. The seventeenth century libertine king charles ii saw it twice, and is said to have joined the dance of the cuckolds at the end of one performance. But horner is anything but impotent, and before long he is bedding a host of bored, foolish, and incredibly horny womenincluding the young, silly margery, an ignorant country girl recently wed to an elderly man. In 1675, the country wife was performed with brilliant success, which, in a literary point of view, was not wholly unmerited. The country wife is a restoration comedy, that is, an english theatrical comedy written during the period 16601710. The social perception of innocence in the city versus in the country pinchwife imagines the country as a place of innocence and the city as one of wickedness. It satirizes the sexual duplicity of the aristocracy during the reign of charles ii.
The country wife summary and analysis of the plot 1160 words 5 pages summary and analysis of the plot william whycherly s the county wife is a hilarious comedy about men and women in love and marriage. Restoration comedy is a style of drama that was made popular in the late seventeenth century. Get the entire the country wife litchart as a printable pdf. Story analysis for john cheevers a country husband. The plyant discourse of wycherleys the country wife. The country wife s place in english literature is more relevant to the history of drama than to the literary canon itself. The cuckold the character is the husband of a adulterous wife. Apr 01, 2002 in the country wife, horner allows society to believe he is impotent, and as such husbands entrust him with their wives. The title is a pun on the first syllable of the word country, implying that his purpose of finding any wife is to use her as an object for sex.
Get all the key plot points of william wycherleys the country wife on one page. It is classified in english literature as a restoration comedy. The project gutenberg ebook of the plays of william. The country wife parallels the patterns of the old comedic tradition. Such an analysis can guide us in making distinctive, precise interpretive decisions about the characters in this comedydecisions that are based in the text and in the historical context.
Then of necessity, madam, you think a man must carry his wife into the country, if he be wise. The themes of the play are money, love and marriage and sexual intrigue, which enlightens the feminist movement, expresses the awakening of womens sexual consciousness and selfconsciousness and their seeking for independent human. The country wife is a restoration comedy, that is, an english theatrical comedy written during. The aptly named horner is pretending to be a eunuch in order to gain access to women under their husbands noses. The failed relationships in the country wife are ostensibly caused by the womans infidelity, poor example, mrs pincher is curious about city life and is drawn to the wit and novelty of hornier, she signores her husbands orders and writers passionate letters to him. The country wife summary by william wycherley english summary. In the country wife, wycherley uses horners relationship to women, the courtship of harcourt and alithea, and pinchwifes marriage, not only to make their beliefs of love, and women even more known to the audience, but mostly, to illustrate to the audience, possibly more to the women, a certain male persona that each character represents. No carolean comedy has garnered such a range of critical opinion, some of which borders on moral indignation, for its prurient content as wycherleys acknowledged masterpiece, the country wife. The country wife has reached little consensus about certain interpretative issues even now. When lady fidget later learns the truth of horners ruse, she intimates that her interpretation of honour actually has little connexion to her virtue. One of the most notorious restoration comedies in existence, william wycherleys the country wife is a lively and riotous exploration of courtly and city life in the seventeenth century, which was rife with unremitting sexual intrigue and conquest. This implies that people from the country are simple and uneducated compared with sophisticated and cosmopolitan town dwellers and relates to popular notions from the restoration period. Like many restoration comedies, it held an aristocratic and antipuritan ideology, and met with controversy due to its politics and its sexual explicitness.
The country wife is widely considered to be the most studied and revived comedy from the restoration period. Poets like cudgeld bullys, never do at first, or second blow, submit to you. The country wife by william wycherley plot summary litcharts. The country wife 1675 a comedy by wycherley, william 16401716 the persons mr. The country wife written by william wycherley in 1675 is a restoration comedy based upon the life of the aristocracy. The country wife project gutenberg selfpublishing ebooks. These character interpretations can accentuate for a 21c audience the 17c satiric and comedic elements enmeshed within the text of the country wife. Feb 16, 2016 study guide for a country husband by john cheever themes dionsyian vs. William wycherley a shropshire lad, born 1641, died 1715. Francis turns to his son, but the boy has justification for the kickshe hit him first. Becomes a cuckold after pushing his wife his naive wife away from him. Ginsburg fight for womens rights a wife, a mother, a lawyer, but most of all a woman.
The country wife has provoked powerfully mixed reactions over the years. Wycherleys play has been tactlessly solemn, yet to insist as. Margery and pinchwife society was reflected in wycherleys work the idea of marriage and a good wife within the play theatre as an industry as long as men are false, and women vain, while gold continues to be virtues bane, in. The mythic archetype of don juan in the country wife and the rover. The country wife essays quibaygopinarlacoovetaparve. It can cause adverse reactions such as paranoia, fear, jealousy, creativity, anger, deception, and idolatry. The country wife is a classically bawdy restoration comedy. The country wife study guide literature guide litcharts. Deception in the country wife and the conscious lovers.
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