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 your 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 keep her from the outside world, namely the city of London, and the inevitable infidelity that lies there in his mind. However, by denying Mrs. Pinchwife her freedom, Mr. Pinchwife alienates her and encourages her resentment of him.
Early in the play, when Pinchwife describes his new wife to his friends as "ugly," "ill-bred," and "silly" (I, i, 419), the reader realizes that Pinchwife is terrified that another man will take his wife if he does not degrade and hide her. Pinchwife also states that "Good wives and private soldiers should be ignorant" (I, i, 400). Pinchwife believes that he has married a truly innocent wife, saying, "A fool cannot contrive to make her husband a cuckold" (I, i, 432). The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word "cuckold" as "A man married to an unfaithful wife." Mrs. Pinchwife does initially appear to be naïve in that she does not know what jealousy is (II, i, 56). Jealousy, however, and Pinchwife's preoccupation with it, becomes a central th...
The angry tone of Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Women” significantly contrasts with the cautionary tone of Austen’s “On Making an Agreeable Marriage,” seeking to reform society rather than guide people to live in that society. When Austen describes the drawbacks of loveless marriage, she writes that “Anything is to be preferred or endured rather than marrying without affection” (Austen 72-73). Austen uses “preferred” and “endured” to warn her niece against marrying too quickly, creating a cautionary tone. Moreover, “anything” emphasizes the miserableness of a marriage without affection, beseeching Austen’s niece to verify her love before diving headfirst into a marriage. In contrast, when demonizing the education system, Wollstonecraft
Pinchwife’s adopts a relatively relaxed attitude being ‘cuckolded’ despite his jealousy; he employs exaggeration to ridicule women in London; he tells Margery ‘Ay, my Dear, you must love me only, and not be like the naughty town women, who only hate their husbands.’ (2.1.79-80) ‘Ay’ show the distress he is experiencing due to his tremendous jealosy, He attempts to control the fool Margery by criticising women of the ‘town’ He describes women of London as ‘naughty’ as they cuckold their husbands. They are not ‘good’ wives and they are not controlled by their husbands. This gives the reader an insight on the role of women in the male social power exchange.
The character Mrs. Wright is portrayed as a kind and gentle woman. She is also described as her opinion not being of importance in the marriage. It is stated by Mr. Hale that “ I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John” .(745) Her neighbor, Mrs. Hale, depicts her as “She─come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself─real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and─fluttery. How─she─did─change”. (752) It appears that Mrs. Wright is a kind and gentle woman, not capable of committing a murder. But, with the evidence provided and the description of Mr. Wright’s personality it can also be said that the audience will play on the sympathy card for Mrs. Wright. She appears to be caught in a domestic violence crime in which she is guilty of, but the audience will overlook the crime due to the nature of the circumstances. By using pathos it will create a feeling that Mrs. Wright was the one who was suffering in the marriage, and that she only did what she felt necessary at the
Slave marriages among other slaves and slave owners have always placed a social burden on the plantations and the government of the United States. What were the social issues that occurred as slaves had relations with other slaves or their masters? Government scandals, black salve owners, and law changes have all came about as part of the social discrepancies that came along with slave relations. Biographies of William Ellison, the first African American slave owner, will be scrutinized to see the social implications of a slave master owning slaves of the same ethnicity. Personal Journals written about the Thomas Jefferson and Sally Heming's case will be analyzed to see the government scandal placed on Jefferson’s slave relations. These social issues helped play out the course of slavery in the United States of America.
Marriage and Sexuality Marriage is a ritually recognized union in our society and in some cases a legal contract between spouses. The ultimate definition of marriage defers according to culture but principally it is a universal institution that consists of a bilateral decent system. According to the Webster’s dictionary, sexuality is an organism’s preparedness for engaging in sexual activity in other words, a human’s readiness to begin having sex or exploring sex. The nature of marriage and sexuality has had a solid influence on different cultures round the world even from pre-historic times. The purpose of this essay is to discuss the nature, taboos, requirements and social impact of marriage and sexuality within the Dobe Ju/’hoansi and the
But in reality, a male narrator gives a certain sense of understanding to the male audience and society’s understand of the male and females roles and responsibilities in a marriage. Just as men were expected to cut the grass, take out the trash, pay the bills and maintain the household as a whole, women were expected to cook, clean, nurture the children, and be a loving and submissive wife to their husband. The only stipulation required for this exchange of power was to establish a mutual love. In the Victorian age love was all it took for a man to take or alter a woman’s livelihood and
Marriage is the union of two people, traditionally husband and wife. Traditional also are the roles that women play when confined in a marriage. When a woman has had the opportunity to educate herself pass tradition and has been use to a fast-paced modern lifestyle, this role of the wife might prove to be quite onerous to mold to. Usually a time of joy, celebration, and adulation, marriage may also bring along emotional and physical pain as well as awkward situations, as the woman must alter herself to conform the traditional role of what a wife should be. Bessie Head depicts two modernized, educated women in her short stories of “Life” and “Snapshots of a Wedding”. These women are forced to change from the only lives they knew as single women to the new roles they must live up to as wives.
Women have lived for generations being treated as nothing more than simple-minded creatures who were able to do little more than take care of their husbands and maintain a home, but that idea is dangerous. The years of abusing women by withholding their rights, belittling them, and keeping them in the home was sometimes detrimental to not only the female sex, but to the males sex as well. Susan Glaspell is the author of the short play “Trifle” , in which Mrs. Wright, the housewife of a local farmer, is being investigated for the murder of her husband. As a local county attorney, sheriff, and male neighbor scour the house for motive and proof that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, the men spend much of their time criticizing the housekeeping skills of Mrs. Wright and belittling every woman in the play for their simplicity. Their assumptions about the female sex, prevents them from seeing the crime scene for what it really was. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife, and Mrs. Hale, the neighbor man’s wife, are able to relate in many ways to the loneliness and loss of self that Mrs. Wright felt while spending her days alone tending to her home and husband.
The fourth and final step of the marriage process is to become one flesh. According to free dictionary.com, become means “to grow or come to be,” or “to be appropriate or suitable; to develop or grow into; to be appropriate; befit.” Becoming is a process that takes time and work. Tim Keller states that in order to call a union marriage, “sex is understood as both a sign of that personal, legal union and a means to accomplish it. The Bible says don’t unite with someone physically unless you are also willing to unite with the person emotionally, personally, socially, economically, and legally. Don’t become physically naked and vulnerable to the another person without becoming vulnerable in every other way, because you have given up your freedom and bound yourself in marriage.” (Keller pg. 215) God’s design is supposed to occur on the wedding night as they complete their marriage vows by having sex. It is clear that “they will become one flesh” is a indirect term for sex but it is also more than sex. The become one is to be on the same page, mind and accord. It is correct to compare it to one brain, making one decision and taking one action. Together one path, and they share one authority, one heart, one body, one mind, one thought, one church, and one God. The spouses become one flesh in every sense of the word. All these areas of oneness are important because division in any of them will cause them to stumble.
In Islam, marriage is a contract between two people. It is required that a certain amount of money be relayed to the bride. This idea of dowry derives from the word in Arabic; Mahr. Furthermore, like both Christianity and Judaism, Islam is strict on the concept of chastity. It is the element of staying pure. Seeing as marriage in Islam is concealed with intercourse, which is evident from the root of the world in Arabic meaning marriage. The Arabic of word Nikah can be translated to marriage and "sexual intercourse." We see in Islam a marriage being very mutual, we see the concept of equality among the couple. This is advocated when looking into divorce in Islam. Divorce is not prohibited like Christianity where there has to be an annulment. The Muslim faith recognizes marriage as a "transaction" in a sense. There is a contract that must be fully accepted by both the husband and wife, and two Muslims have to be there to witness it. After the contract is signed and the decision on the Mahr is derived at, a marriage ceremony can take place. The woman does not necessarily need to appear during the signing of the contract, but the bride tends to usually be there. The Qur'an holds marriage very highly, and allows the presence for the willingness of sex. In fact, if you complete the contract of marriage you have essentially completed one half of your faith in Islam. Furthermore, the Qur'an continues to go on and describe certain things that must happen in a marriage. It even states that a Muslim man can either marry a Muslim woman or a woman that is included in the People from the Book. The People of the Book are referred to as the Kitabi in Islam. This would mean a Muslim man could go onto marry a Christian or Jewish woman; however, thi...
The bleak tone of this story takes a particularly sad and disturbing tinge when the wife illustrates a scene from early on in her marriage where she tries to get her husband to satisfy her desire and provide her with mutual satisfaction, only to have him rebuke and reprimand her. In fact, the husband responds in such a particularly brusque and hysterical manner that the reader can see how traumatized the wife would have been at ...
When we think of marriage, the first thing that comes to mind is having a lasting relationship. Marriage is a commitment of two people to one another and to each other?s family, bonded by holy matrimony. When a couple plans to marry, they think of raising a family together, dedicating their life to each other. That?s the circle of life--our natural instinct to live and produce children and have those children demonstrate your own good morals. I have never been married; but I don?t understand why when two people get married and vow to be together for richer and poorer, better or worse, decide to just forget about that commitment. A marriage should be the most important decision a person makes in his or her life.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
is the most usual in which a man and a woman unite themselves in the
Marriage has gone through many changes throughout its history. It's earliest forms date back to the story of creation. It has developed a great deal since then. It is a simple fact that men and women can not survive without each other. Marriage is part of the created natural order, we were meant to be together.