There is a twenty-five year gap between William Wycherley’s comedy “The Country Wife” (1675) and William Congreve’s “The Way of the World” (1700). The subject matter of both comedies is the relation between the sexes, particularly in marriage. However, the former is an unflinching and coarse satire about the unfaithfulness of married women and the jealousy of married men, while the latter is a less crude satire that ridicules treating marriage as a means to financial security that benefits the selfish. Both satirize marriage as a deceptive convention, but each comedy depicts the evolution of that deception, as this idea of marriage has advanced from deceit for sexual gratification to deceit to satisfy greediness.
In “Country Wife,” the Pinchwife …show more content…
(Wycherley 50)
Pinchwife, despite his failure at concealment, wants his wife to remain an idiot so that she cannot deceive him. However, even in her observable virtuousness, he does not believe she is innocent. For him, every woman who arrives in the world “out of nature’s hands, [come] plain, open, silly, and fit for slaves, as she [Nature] and Heaven intended ‘em” (Wycherley 50). Nonetheless, he says, in another aside, “Why should women have more invention in love than men? It can only be because they have more desires, more soliciting passions, more lust and more of the devil.” (Wycherley …show more content…
Millamant and Mirabell, in Act IV, agree to ground rules before they marry. Immediately, Millamant acts eager to marry her cousin, Sir Willful, so that she can keep her money. However, Millamant and Mirabell are truly in love, as their bargaining proves to one another that they are compatible. While this sharp act of bargaining is amusing, a hint of seriousness hides behind their clever words. After their negotiation, Mirabell says, “These provisos admitted, in other things I may prove a tractable and complying husband.” When Millamant expresses hatred for these provisions, Mirabell says, “Then we’re agreed. Shall I kiss your hand upon the contract?” (Congreve 298). Love ties their bond, but their bond is antiseptic, lacking the romance expected in a courtship. Mirabell and Millamant are two wits who are perfect for one another, but the encompassing unfruitfulness and insatiability, which is, as the title says, the way of the world, resounds as their relationship becomes bewildering to
In “Country Wife,” the Pinchwife …show more content…
(Wycherley 50)
Pinchwife, despite his failure at concealment, wants his wife to remain an idiot so that she cannot deceive him. However, even in her observable virtuousness, he does not believe she is innocent. For him, every woman who arrives in the world “out of nature’s hands, [come] plain, open, silly, and fit for slaves, as she [Nature] and Heaven intended ‘em” (Wycherley 50). Nonetheless, he says, in another aside, “Why should women have more invention in love than men? It can only be because they have more desires, more soliciting passions, more lust and more of the devil.” (Wycherley …show more content…
Millamant and Mirabell, in Act IV, agree to ground rules before they marry. Immediately, Millamant acts eager to marry her cousin, Sir Willful, so that she can keep her money. However, Millamant and Mirabell are truly in love, as their bargaining proves to one another that they are compatible. While this sharp act of bargaining is amusing, a hint of seriousness hides behind their clever words. After their negotiation, Mirabell says, “These provisos admitted, in other things I may prove a tractable and complying husband.” When Millamant expresses hatred for these provisions, Mirabell says, “Then we’re agreed. Shall I kiss your hand upon the contract?” (Congreve 298). Love ties their bond, but their bond is antiseptic, lacking the romance expected in a courtship. Mirabell and Millamant are two wits who are perfect for one another, but the encompassing unfruitfulness and insatiability, which is, as the title says, the way of the world, resounds as their relationship becomes bewildering to