Table of Contents

Introduction

"The Wife's Lament"

• Author Unknown
• Composed before 990 (at the latest)
• Found in the Exeter Book manuscript (published around late 10th Century)

Sir Orfeo

• Author Unknown
• Composed Ca. 1300
• Originally published as a Manuscript (version mostly from Auchinleck manuscript)
• Seems like it may have been "translated" (stolen) from French origins
• Due to the mostly lyrical layout, may have been performed before it was published

The Country Wife

• by William Wycherly
• Composed in 1675
• Published first as a performance, later printed

Oroonoko

• by Ahpra Behn
• Composed in 1688 (but she had been recounting a similar story for decades)
• Originally published in Print as an early novel

A Journal of the Plague Year

• by Daniel Defoe
• Composed in 1722
• Originally published in Print

Intro

            One theme that has been used as either a sub-plot or a subliminal message throughout the ages in English literature is the relationship between a married man and woman.  While many sonnets and love poems have made the focus more on the pursuit of a woman by a man, other texts passively provide information on the culmination of these pursuits: marriage by providing examples of both husband and wife.  Some authors present married live as synonymous to love, fidelity, and monogamy; certain authors of other eras have chosen to present the more realistic concept of broken marriages and unsavory relationships between men and their wives.  These shifts in relationship dynamics between a married couple could be explained by the shifting of power caused by women gaining rights throughout the years.  It also is probably worth mentioning that the relationships could be the world-weary opinions of the authors themselves or an honest critique of marriage at that time in society, but there is no way of knowing for sure at this point in time.

The Wife's Lament

            In “The Wife’s Lament,” the wife continues to wait and mourn the loss of her husband, hoping that he will return.  According to her words, she has complete, total faith in his return and in the idea that he will have been faithful to him while he was away.  Even though this is a perspective that could be scoffed at, this shows that the author (whomever they may be) actually believed in the concept of faith and fidelity between a man and a woman.  While this unknown author could be scoffing at the foolishness of the wife for waiting faithfully for her husband, this does not seem to be the case based on the wife’s claims of: “Whether he is master/of his own fate or is exiled in a far-off land/…my husband is caught in the clutches of anguish” (Longman 1A pg. 178, line 44-45,48).  Even though the wife character in this poem understands that her husband may be in control of his absence, she still faithfully waits for him, because (according to the way the writer treats the subject), this is the kind of faith a wife should show her husband during his absence.

Sir Orfeo

            Sir Orfeo, on the other hand, shows the faithful steadfastness of the husband who loses his wife to the “maister king.”  As the king, he could easily remarry and move past the loss of his wife, but he tells his advisors “The faireste lady that evere was bore,/Nevere eft I nil no woman see” (Sir Orfeo 210-211).  Instead of continuing his life in the role he was born to, despite the wishes of his people, Sir Orfeo instead abdicates the throne and goes into the solitary life of a hermit as penance for his loss.  He leaves all of his worldly possessions behind (except for his harp, which of course becomes important later) and secludes himself from the rest of the intelligent world, only playing music for the beasts of nature.  Eventually, seemingly due to his steadfastness in his feelings for his wife, he is able to regain her from the fairy king, and they are remarried, getting their own “happily ever after.”

The Country Wife

            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.

Oroonoko

                                          
            Just a few years later, Ahpra Behn published Oroonoko, which shows that even savages are able to be faithful when it comes to their marital relations.  Oroonoko “made [Imoinda] vows she  should be the only woman he would possess while he lived; that no age or wrinkles should incline him to change, for her soul would always be fine” (Longman 1C 2142).  By making love to her in this way, he was sealing himself off and declaring civilized intentions, and claiming to be true to Imoinda and only Imoinda for the rest of his life.  Even though fate does not go their way, he still stays faithful and mourns “her death,” the way he should as a great and noble man.  Even after she has been brought into slavery, Imoinda (now Clemene) stays chaste in honor of her promises to Oroonoko (now Caesar) and continues to keep her body and relationships honorable, despite feelings that the two of them should never meet again.  Ahpra Behn appears to be openly applauding the commitment of both Oroonoko and Imoinda, even though her own personal life was quite scandalous in its own right.  This could mean that she either thought that traits of a happy and faithful marriage were to be yearned for or that it was something she wanted but was never able to find and “only those of noble, fantastic blood were able to achieve such a standard.”  

A Journal of the Plague Year

     Finally, one of the most endearing stories of marriage that has been provided in this course is actually toward the end of Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year.  Toward the end of the selection provided, there is a short anecdote about how a ferryman works diligently to provide for his wife and son.  Teary-eyed, the man admits that his wife and son are on the verge of death “for my wife and one of the children are visited, but I do not come at them” (Longman 1C 2307).  The narrator, who appears to stand for Defoe’s own perspectives, becomes so touched by the interaction between the ferryman and his wife that he throws them money to help with his aspirations.  In doing so, Defoe is praising the marriage and ideals that it stands for, or at least with this couple with whom even the plague has not broken apart.