The Country Wife by William Wycherley

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A Virtuous Woman
In William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, William Wycherley enlightens the audience to capture several different ironical statements and questionable behaviors. The play fits perfectly into Greenwald’s definition of a comedy of manners: “[Critics] assert that a comedy of manners and the people who inhabit it represent the ostentatiously idle upper-class” (“Social Heirarchy” web). Wycherley also distinguishes several oddities in his characters not typically used to describe the upper-class. For example, Mr. Pinchwife, a wealthy newlywed husband, is so afraid that he is going to become a cuckold, that he does not allow his wife to leave the house (Wycherley act two). One of Wycherley’s goals in writing The Country Wife is to point out the flaws of society (“Q & A” web). Wycherley understands that no one is perfect and that a person’s virtues can be altered if pressures and outside influences become prominent. This is precisely how Wycherley uses Mrs. Margery Pinchwife’s character. Mrs. Pinchwife, a virtuous woman, still succumbs to the immorality of the city of London. Wycherley develops characters who precisely bring out Mrs. Pinchwife’s flaws. Mrs. Pinchwife takes the risks of public shame and a damage reputation to have an affair with Mr. Horner.
Mr. Horner is the protagonist in the play, and Mrs. Pinchwife falls in love with him. Mr. Horner has tremendous influence over Mrs. Pinchwife. Mr. Horner is a “handsome, forceful, dangerously exciting, and reckless rogue who is skeptical of society’s code of honor” (“Social Hierarchy” web). Mr. Horner is self-indulgent. This self-indulgence stems from his lack of virtues and morality (Smith web). Mr. Horner “exhibits skeptical, libertine, and natural attr...

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...e-country-wife/.
McNamara, Peter L. “The Witty Company: Wycherley’s The Country Wife.” N.p.: n.p., d.d. 60-72. Ariel.synergies.prairies.ca. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. http://ariel.synergiesprairies.c/ariel/index.php/ariel.article/download/1038/1013.
Smith, Victoria. “Libertines Real and fictional in the Works of Rochester, Shadwell, Wycherley, and Boswell.” digital.library.unt.edu University of North Texas, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc6051/m2/1/high_res_d/dissertation.pdf.
Wycherley, William. The country-wife: [a comedy, acted at the Theatre Royal, 1675]. London: Univeristy of Oxford, 1675. iBook file.
“17C Social Hierarchy and Character Interpretation in The Country Wife.” faculty.winthrop.edu. N.p., n.d. Web 18 Mar. 2014. http://faculty.winthrop.edu/vorderbruegg/winthropweb/current/CountryWifeinterpretiveessay—revised11Feb.pdf.

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