At first glance, Wycherly presents a different view of marriage in his play The Country Wife. In doing so, he also provides better-rounded, powerful female characters. While the women and wives in the play seem to be making a mockery of marriage through their satisfaction with affairs with Horner, this may not be the true point Wycherly is trying to make. He shows the women as looking to Horner for lovemaking because their husbands not only do not trust them, but also because their husbands are not providing them with what they need to be satisfied. Alithea, the one wife who is treated as the “good” one provides readers with the motto of this text: “Women and fortune are truest still to those that trust ‘em” (Longman 1C 2281, Act 5, Scene 3). Even though Wycherly had empowered his women by giving them the option to be unfaithful, he also has Alithea point out that wives will be completely faithful as long as their husbands provide them with the same level of attention. While this is a work that appears to show that marriage is not the sacred institution the church would ask for it to be, Wycherly also (in his own unique way) praises those who actually have the faith and honesty to lead a happy and worthwhile marriage.
I understand that this way of looking at Wycherly's work may not be the most reliable and might in fact be a bit too much of a stretch, but I also feel like it is the majority of the reason that he presents Alithea and Harcourt as his one "good example," similar to the way Jane Austen presents one happily married and solid couple throughout Persuasion.
ReplyDeleteOne of the most important aspects of the literature, starting with The Country Wife, is that the woman appears to be given more power in the relationship. Wives are treated with enough respect that they are able to get what they need, even if not from their husband.
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