Country Wife, the/representation of marriage in...

The Representation of Marriage in The Country Wife William Wycherly represents marriage in a peculiar way in The Country Wife. The classic marital values of love, trust, and becoming one with one's partner in a bond of love are distorted by intense emotion. The appropriately named Mr. Pinchwife is a jealous husband who moves his new wife Margery to the country with hopes to keep her from the outside world, namely the city of London, …

… lose what little stock you had before" (IV, i, 23). For Mr. Pinchwife, his wife needed to be protected from and deprived of contact with outside world. This led to her eventual resentment of him, and her longing for another man, but then ultimately to her going back to Mr. Pinchwife. The Country Wife depicts a strange view of the traditional bond of trust and love that is marriage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** see end of paper