William Wycherley’s “The Country Wife”
“A Restoration comedy is like an eighteenth-century sitcom; it’s entertaining” (MacKenzie, “Behn”). However, the similarities between the two genres are more far-reaching than their equal entertainment value. For example, the cast of William Wycherley’s Restoration comedy, “The Country Wife,” consists of some central characters that are strikingly similar to those in the cast of the modern situation comedy, Seinfeld. Harry Horner from “The Country Wife” and George Costanza from Seinfeld both fit the male “wit” character type. Likewise, Lady Fidget, one of Horner’s lovers, and another woman, who’s one of Costanza’s fleeting lovers, both fit the female “wit” character type. Through the interplay of these characters, the Restoration comedy and the situation comedy both assert the superior power of the female wit, when compared to that of the male wit. Wits of both genders are characterized by their skill at lying, hiding their lies from the public, and seeking and obtaining selfish, short-lived pleasures; they are also characterized by their discerning nature and their gambling nature of risking losses to get gains (MacKenzie, “Wycherley”). However, female wits are more powerful than male wits when they take risks to secure pleasures because: female wits are not required to hold down a job or earn money; they gain greater returns from the risks they take, than men do, and they never risk losing their honor.
First, female wits are more powerful than male wits because they are not required to hold down a job or earn money. Lady Fidget and Horner illustrate this assertion through their interactions in “The Country Wife,” and another woman and Costanza illustrate it in an epis...
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... the social rules that do not require a woman to work, or that prohibit her from working, paradoxically conspire to make female wits more powerful than male wits. Society provides women with ample free time to pursue pleasure, and their interdependent cohorts provide them with the free reign to do so. As a result, these powerful female wits take more selective, calculated risks than male wits do; they also gain greater returns, whether they appear in an eighteenth-century Restoration comedy or a twentieth-century situation comedy.
Works Cited
MacKenzie, Scott. “Behn, Oroonoko.” Seventh Class Meeting.
English 260. Davidson College. 8 Sept. 2004.
MacKenzie, Scott. “Wycherley, The Country Wife.” Ninth and Tenth
Class Meetings. English 260. Davidson College. 10, 13 Sept.
2004.
(Textbook).
“The Subway.” Seinfeld. NBC. 8 Jan. 1992.
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