Sex and marriage Essay Example for Free

Sex and marriage Essay The Country Wife shows us that peoples attitude towards love, sex and marriage have not changed in over 300 years How far do you agree with this statement? The Country Wife is a 17th century drama set in the period when the restoration was evolving. The once puritan England was vastly flourishing with greater tolerance towards political and social change under the influence of Charles II. Soon theatres of the past reopened with fresh enthusiasm and risqui ideas were portrayed openly to audiences of the time. The Country Wife was just one of the many comedies of its era and Wycherley was commonly displaying the spirit of the age. Interestingly, the modern audience of today can also relate to some of the humour in the Country Wife, this poses the question, has peoples attitudes towards social aspects changed? Throughout the Country Wife, there are many references to love, marriage and sex although there is more content focusing on the latter. The characters that Wycherley has used reflect the ideas of the time. The plays focus is primarily on Horner; the witty rake who like many of the other men in the play is simply out to satisfy his own sexual desires. This type of behaviour does not surprise a modern audience and if anything, we can relate to it as a norm in our present society. What the reader must bear in mind when reading the Country wife is the fact that people were recently formally repressed and forced to live a puritan lifestyle. When the restoration took place, many people were willing to explore their sexuality and freedom willingly and that is why there are many references to sex in the play. One of the common fears of the men in the play, particularly Pinchwife is to be made a cuckold, which in modern terms is simply a husband who has been cheated on by his wife. Pinchwife claims, What is wit in a wife good for, but to make a man a cuckold? This interestingly portrays how men were extremely conscious of their wives purity and faithfulness, however, what provokes humour in the play is the complete one sidedness attitude of the men especially when Horner says, But tell me, has marriage cured thee of whoring which it seldom does This shows how men thought that they had the right to be unfaithful however; if a woman were to commit adultery, the man was seen as a fool. Obviously, this idea has changed over the years and the word cuckold is now one of the past. The similarity nevertheless between these two ideas is that people nowadays have different views over a woman having many sexual relationships in comparison to a man. The main idea being that a woman is classified as having a reputation if she has many sexual partners whereas a man is generally seen as a stud.