The theme of morality and marriage in terms of aristocratic and anti-Puritan ideology are central themes for Restoration comedies in English literature of the late 17th century. It is a period when worked one of the most famous English playwrights – William Wycherley. His best-known comedy play “The Country Wife” is the work, where are interwoven important issues of the morality, the marriage and the image of woman. In his work, the dramatist shows marriage as that conditional social norm, which is of no value, while women are treated as an object and seen as inferior as men. From comedians of the era of the Restoration the greatest success in the noble circles drew William Wycherley, who owned a brilliant dramatic technique. The subject matters of his comedies did not extend beyond the secular life and gallant adventures. However, Wycherley showed loose mores of high society by not denouncing them, they do not have a moralizing print, that, to some extent, attracted the sympathy of the bourgeois audience.
In the William Wycherley’s comedies the everyday life of aristocratic London is presented as if it had never been another and it would never change. This position of the playwright is not surprising, all Wycherley’s works were written during five years - from 1671 to 1676. It was the peak of the immoral era and the beginning of its decline, when the third estate has been barely tolerated the excesses of the court. Wycherley’s satire resembles not foil, but rather a club, beating backhand. In his comedies, Wycherley affects an important issue for his time, the issue of marriage. In the final of the pieces, heroes come to the conclusion, that in an imperfect society the institution of marriage cannot be perfect too. Marriage it is nothing but a conditional social form, which, paradoxically, gives complete freedom for those who are marrying: what is prohibited for the bride is permitted for a wife; what disgraces the groom, extols the husband. The ideal hero of the play has a lot to cognize and a lot to learn: his idyllic world inevitably will crack under the pressure of a cynical everyday life. Comedy “The Country Wife” (1675) is the most successful of all Wycherley’s plays. In this comedy the playwright achieves the clarity and completeness, the composition definition, brightness and the variety of linguistic resources. “The Country Wife” is a typical play in English literature, it is saturated with true English humor, undeniable national coloring and typical London situations (Moore, 2016).
The comedy "Country Wife" is one of the most popular plays of Wycherley. By upgrading a classic story of Roman literature, Wycherley truly shows the mores of his time, caustically mocks the hypocrisy and immorality of the high society. This is a sharp satirical comedy, written in a vivid, figurative language is different by its bright scenic form. The protagonist here is the first dandy and society lion Horner, who spreads the rumor about his impotency, impunity and who seduces the wives of their friends and acquaintances. All the ladies flock to his “secretion”, like butterflies on the fire, so they forget about their honor and fidelity. Only the naive and simple-minded provincial wife Margery loves Horner seriously. Beyond the ease of intrigue, behind the succession of practical jokes and hoaxes, farcical scenes there is an attempt to answer the eternal questions about man and woman, love and loyalty. The protagonist of the play, Horner differs in many ways from those of the characters of other authors. He dismisses rumors about his “helplessness”, mainly, in order to unmask the other characters: fools and hypocrites, wicked and dissolute women, who calls themselves the noble ladies, pompous fops, who imagine themselves as respectable spouses. While arguing with Hobbes, who considered man to be a dirty, self-centered creature, Wycherley opposes the ideals of secular society to genuine human nature – Alithea’s chastity and virtue and boundless faith of her fan Harcourt in them. Wycherley depicted brightly and vividly Horner, whom he considered a villain (Vorder Bruegge, 2016). In addition, in “The Country Wife” there is a combined and generalized image of the woman. All those women, who are seduced by the protagonist, is one woman in general. The playwright in this comedy shows, that a woman is nothing more than a simple object, intended for entertainment and facilitation the lives of the men. While the image of the man is raised, the woman’s is humiliated, thus, the male is higher. What is a feat for the man, here it is treason and seducing of another’s women, it is unacceptable and terrible for women. But there is an image that is not included with the general image of the woman. This is an image of simple-minded provincial woman who, in the light of their stupidity and cowardice takes all seriously. The author distinguishes Margery from the crowd, and even stresses that she is stupid, but he shows, that, on the other hand, she is not like other women, she is not evil or hypocrisy, but kind and naive. This is her main advantage and, at the same time, her worse defect. Wycherley in his satirical comedy, shows the state of affairs in society, when the relationship between men and women exist only on a physical level, while the moral foundations and principles are only formal. The woman in society of that times was a powerless object, which was submitted to the man.
William Wycherley’s works reflect extremely bright the life of the aristocracy during its final disintegration. Corruption of the upper classes (including representatives of the bourgeoisie) is portrayed by the writer with extreme naturalism. The best of Wycherley’s comedies “The Country Wife”, written under the direct influence of creativity of Moliere, gives an ugly picture of baseness and corruption prevailed in the world. Wycherley is not a conscious critique of social evils, in fact, the writer is sincerely interested in the cynical descriptions of what he is portraying. Wycherley does not oppose anything to this environment, and marriage in his comedies is nothing but just a formality, conditional social accepted norm, which is of no value.
References
Wycherley, W., & Dixon, P. (1996). “Love in a Wood ; The Gentleman Dancing-Master ; The Country Wife ; The Plain Dealer.” New-York: Oxford University Press.
Vorder Bruegge, A. (2016). “17c Social Hierarchy And Character Interpretation In The Country Wife”. Retrieved 4 march 2016, from http://faculty.winthrop.edu/vorderbruegg/winthropweb/current/countrywifeinterpretive%20essay--revised11feb.pdf
Moore, A. (2016). “The Country Wife”. Teachit.co.uk. Retrieved 4 march 2016, from https://www.teachit.co.uk/armoore/drama/countrywife.htm
