Moral Virtue in William Wycherley’s The Country Wife

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The Country Wife – written by William Wycherley in 1675 – is a Restoration comedy based upon the life of the aristocracy. Restoration comedy is a style of drama that was made popular in the late seventeenth century. It refers to the period in England when King Charles II was returned as the head of the English empire. Life under King Charles II was seen as hedonistic: people were motivated by pleasure. These moral virtues represented the degradation of society, rampant with sexual explicitness and obscenity (“Charles II”). The definition of moral virtue can be quite ambiguous. For the purpose of this essay I will define moral virtue as such: A set of accepted traits or qualities which are accepted as "right” or “good” in society. The Characters of The Country Wife set out to wrong one another. William Wycherley comments on the degradation of moral virtue in society through the negative values held by his characters. The characters exemplify immoral and disgraceful traits including jealousy, deception, and sexuality.

The concept of jealously in The Country Wife is personified through Harcourt, the dashing and depraved friend of Horner who falls in love with Alethea. Harcourt is jealous of Sparkish who is set to marry his mistress Alethea. Harcourt expresses to Alethea that he feels in marrying Sparkish she would be dishonouring herself: “if you do marry him-with your pardon, madam- / your reputation suffers in the world” (II.i.235-236). Wycherley uses Harcourt to exemplify the effect jealously can have on a person. Harcourt declares himself a rival to his former friend Sparkish and insults him in the hopes that Alethea with change her mind. “He’s beneath an injury-a / bubble, a coward, a senseless idiot, a wretch so contemptible ...

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...uct. They do this under the belief that since Horner is seen as impotent by society, sleeping with him allows them to keep their honour: “But, poor gentleman, could you be / so generous ... to suffer yourself the greatest shame that could fall upon / a man, that none might fall upon us women by your conversation?” (II.i.536-540). During the time of King Charles II court sexuality was very prominent, and Wycherley accurately captures that idea within his play.

The portrayal of these characters in The Country Wife shows how Wycherley viewed the moral virtue of society. He uses the Restoration comedy to comment on the degradation of society. He believed people acted on self-indulgent pleasures regardless of how they might affect others. Writing as a contemporary source Wycherley accurately reflects the degradation of moral virtue of society in King Charles II court.

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