'The Country Wife' - by William Wycherly

Authors Avatar

'The Country Wife' - by William Wycherly

"Horner is the nasty agent of a higher satirist"

" We smile at Horner's involvement rather than fell shock at his success; his intrigue is indeed a comic one for all concerned"

Explore the implications of these two assertions in relation to your response, as well as other interesting responses to Horner

“The Country Wife” was Wycherly’s third comedy, and many critics consider it to be the best one he wrote, due to all of the controversial ideas it incorporates. Wycherly makes us form opinions on womanising, adultery, betrayal, and lies. This play explores many of the topics that are still an issue in our modern society, more than 320 years after it was written. There are three main themes that run through the play – female hypocrisy, true and false masculinity, and human folly in general. Many critics disagree on what the play is really about, but they generally agree that although all three themes are present, none of them are absolutely central.

         In order to decide what kind of person Horner really is, we need to look at what Wycherly’s motives for creating him were, and what the character could be thinking as he exploits his friends. ‘Is he the satire’s hero and vehicle, or its villain and target?’(James Ogden, 1973).

         Some critics believe that Wycherly is a sadistic and destructive man. They claim that Horner is Wycherly’s way of giving his opinion on society, and to show what he believes should happen to all men like Pinchwife, Sir Jasper, and Sparkish, and all women like Lady Fidget, Dainty, and Squeamish. He uses Horner to depict society as being morally corrupt, and ridicules them as a means of punishment.

         My view is that Wycherly’s aim is to make the foolish and jealous husbands see what they have done wrong, and to ‘promote moral improvement’. If we look at this as being Wycherly’s motive for writing the play, then I believe that Horner’s actions are completely justified. Horner is a ‘Robin Hood’ figure who punishes the foolish men and uses the two-faced women for his own pleasure, but actively encourages the happiness of the good and moral characters like Harcourt and Alithea.

Join now!

          Not everyone, however, believes that this was Wycherly’s motive. Some critics see Horner as an ‘Iago’ figure, from Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’ – a man who preys on helpless and trusting friends for purely selfish reasons. Just as Iago was accused of ‘enmeshing’ his victims, Thomas Fujimura said in 1965 that ‘Horner is like a spider watching the antics of trapped flies’. Here, Horner is portrayed as a sadistic man, who enjoys watching the torment of others. In my opinion, there is one key difference between Horner and Iago, and that is that Iago preys on innocents. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay