The Country Wife - 1111 PDF

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The Country Wife The playwright is William Wycherley, this play was published in 1675 and it belongs to the restoration drama, more specifically the comic satire or “comedy of manners”. In Act 4, scene 1 there is a couple, Mr and Mrs. Pinchwife who argue over the wife’s infidelity, the husband makes her write a letter to her secret lover, Mr. Horner. In this scene there are only two characters, Mr and Mrs Pin but they mention Mr. Horner, however he does not appear. The stage directions are conjunctive and explicit, they go along the actor’s lines and are wirtten in between the dialogues, An example of an explicit stage direction would be “Takes the paper and reads. There are implicit ones as well, for instance: “I will write Whore with this Penknife in your Face” there is not any stage direction that implies that Mr. Pin is holding a penkinfe, but it is necessary for him to do so because otherwise it would not make sense. Mr. Pin has a lot of “asides”, he talks to the audience and Mrs. Pin who is also on stage has to pretend she does not hear him, for instance: “Yes you may when your Husband bids you write Letters to people that are in Town” Towards the end of the play Mrs. Pin does a monologue, she is torn between sending the awful letter her husband made her write with very unpleasant comments about Mr. Horner or the one she wrote after her husband left the room. She puts the blame of her infidelity on her husband saying that he taught her how to write so now she can send long letters to Mr. Horner. The characters self-characterize throught their own actions, they are flat and stereotypes: a jealous husband, a cuckold...The themes here are “love” and the unhappy marriage: Mrs. Pin is constantly insulted and understimated by her husband. This play shows life at the time, it is characterised by bawdiness, excess and the liberty after the Interrregnum....