How To Become A Town Wife: From Naive and Innocent The Country Wife To The Mannerism of a Female Libertine

Abstract

William Wycherley’s The Country Wife (1675) is often regarded as a prototypical example of Restoration comedy of manners, a genre characterized by its sharp wit, social satire of the upper-class society, and its stereotypical characters. Through the play’s complex and intriguing plot structure of deceit, disguise, and humor, Wycherley draws the panorama of moral and social conventions of his time, with to marriage, sexual desire, and class dynamics. The play centers on the male libertine Horner, who seeks to seduce a variety of women, including the naïve country girl, Margery. Her transformation from a passive, rural bride to a self-confident woman can be handled as a criticism of patriarchal systems and an exploration in the nature of gender and sexuality during the Restoration period. Wycherley’s exaggerated and farcical stereotypes provide a satirical mirror to the Restoration court’s social hierarchies, revealing how personal identity and relationships were ruled over and shaped by doctrines of public. Moreover, the play deals with the comic conventions of disguise, mistaken identities, and elaborate scheming, masking and unmasking scenes where moral ambiguity and comic farce create a chaotic but realistic portrayal of 17th-century English society. Eventually, The Country Wife serves not only as a comedy of manners but also as a satiric commentary on the delicate boundaries between virtue and vice, appearance and reality, and innocence and hypocrisy, countryside and city life, all within the panorama of Restoration theatrical tradition. The Country Wife presents hypocritical facades and sexual duplicities to heal the society from its shortcomings.