The Country Wife Literary Devices

Definition of Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition

A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition

Explanation and Analysis—Reflection on Poets:

The prologue to The Country Wife, spoken by Horner, begins with an apt simile to describe the relationship between the poet and the reader:

Poets, like cudgeled bullies, never do
At first or second blow submit to you.

These two short lines of iambic pentameter seek to embody, through simile, the complex interactions that occur between Wycherley, the reader, and the character of Horner. Horner compares poets to cudgeled bullies, asserting that writers innately engage in a metaphorical fight with their readership. The poet, or author, does not cave easily to the kind of heavy-handed cudgeling this passage evokes; or, in other words, any sloppy or crude attempts to extract meaning from a complicated literary text—particularly a satirical one, like The Country Wife—will ultimately fail. Patience is needed by readers if they want the "cudgeled bully" to submit to them, and the nuanced implications to reveal themselves. This short passage represents the attempt of Horner—and through him, Wycherley himself—to warn the reader not to take The Country Wife at face value. Such warnings are often necessary for satirical texts, as it is common to see certain readers engage with these works on a surface level and come away feeling confused, disappointed, or offended.

Explanation and Analysis—Nature and Sexuality:

In a quick aside at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner issues a short, pithy epigram, using simile to describe his current situation to the audience:

A quack is as fit for a pimp as a midwife for a bawd; they are still but in their way both helpers of nature.

In this passage, Horner describes both pimps and midwives as "helpers of nature," using a simile to assert that the roles they play in enabling human sexual activity are similar. The term "pimp," though often applied to those who serve as handlers for sex workers, can also be used to describe a person who works to provide fellow hedonists with the opportunity to satisfy their sexual urges. Horner, in his current situation, fulfills this role: by masquerading as an impotent man, he is providing the women he meets with the opportunity to flirt and make love behind their husbands' backs. Quacks, whom Horner discusses in relation to his own perceived role, are people who feign at being doctors and offer unqualified medical advice. Given that Horner pretends to be impotent, a quack doctor is of great use to him.

Horner proceeds to compare his position to that of a "bawd"—or sex worker of sorts—and the position of the quack doctor assisting him to that of a midwife. Just as the quack doctor is necessary to enable Horner's sexual expression (which he equates with "nature"), so is a midwife necessary to enable the sexual expression of sex workers, many of whom undoubtedly experience accidental or unwanted pregnancies. On the whole, this passage reveals that Horner considers libertine attitudes to be part of nature rather than unnatural and immoral.

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Explanation and Analysis—Sexuality and Disease:

As Quack and Horner converse at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1, the two exchange a series of similes to describe the effect that Horner's falsified condition will have upon the young ladies of the town:

Quack: And you will be as odious to the handsome young women as —

Horner: As the smallpox. Well —

Quack: And to the married women of this end of town as —

Horner: As the great ones; nay, as their own husbands.

Quack begins by establishing a simile relating Horner's sexuality—and, by extent, his impotency as a strategy of sexual conquest—to a kind of smallpox. Notably, during this time period, smallpox would have been a rather ubiquitous disease, wide in its impact and capable of affecting young people. Ordinarily, one might read such a simile as having negative implications. However, in this context, Quack attaches a certain positive connotation to this simile, suggesting that Horner's cunning in this situation can be taken as evidence of his sexual prowess, not of his inadequacy. Though he will appear impotent, this is a farce that both men are aware of. Consequently, the context surrounding the figurative language in this passage shifts its traditional implications, subverting the typically negative use of disease similes in relation to sexuality.

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Explanation and Analysis—Mistresses:

In Act 1, Scene 1, Harcourt, Dorilant, and Horner all offer up a simile to describe the role of mistresses—and women in general—in the context of casual sexual encounters. The misogyny of the three men is evident in the passage:

HARCOURT. No, mistresses are like books. If you pore upon them too much they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly you are the fitter for conversation by ’em.

DORILANT. A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town, not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away, to taste the town the better when a man returns.

HORNER. I tell you, ’tis as hard to be a good fellow, a good friend, and a lover of women, as ’tis to be a good fellow, a good friend, and a lover of money. You cannot follow both, then choose your side. Wine gives you liberty, love takes it away.

In constructing these three similes around the concept of a mistress, Harcourt, Dorilant, and Horner reveal how little they value the human being beyond a transactional sexual context. These women are, to them, secondary concerns or embellishments, not people with feelings.

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Explanation and Analysis—Marriage Vows:

At the end of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner reveals his views on marriage to an aggravated Pinchwife, who claims that his wife will never make him a cuckold. Voicing his skepticism, Horner waxes poetic about how undependable the marriage vow truly is, using a simile to get his point across:

HORNER. But tell me, has marriage cured thee of whoring, which it seldom does?

HARCOURT. ’Tis more than age can do.

HORNER. No, the word is, I’ll marry and live honest. But a marriage vow is like a penitent gamester’s oath, and entering into bonds and penalties to stint himself to such a particular small sum at play for the future, which makes him but the more eager, and not being able to hold out, loses his money again, and his forfeit to boot.

In likening the vows of marriage to a gambling addict's oath that he will no longer transgress, Horner reveals how little regard he has for this particular institution and its associated moral dimensions. The vows of addicts are rarely taken as binding, or even trustworthy. To assert that the marriage vow is similar is to undermine an entire society built upon the sanctity of said vow. Undermining marriage also undermines religious and political institutions; as such, Horner's claim is a bold and controversial one.

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Explanation and Analysis—Women's Oaths:

In a conversation with Pinchwife towards the end of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner undermines the sanctity of traditionally held vows and covenants within society. He uses a simile that compares women to soldiers when it comes to their oath-keeping ability:

HORNER. So, then, you only married to keep a whore to yourself. Well, but let me tell you, women, as you say, are like soldiers, made constant and loyal by good pay rather than by oaths and covenants. Therefore I’d advise my friends to keep rather than marry, since too I find, by your example, it does not serve one’s turn – for I saw you yesterday in the eighteenpenny place with a pretty country wench.

Horner's simile paints both soldiers and women as horribly materialistic. He assumes that neither can keep a promise and must be held in check by external forces, driven by their immediate wants and needs (namely, money). What Horner misses in his analysis—no doubt because his view of the world is tainted by cynicism and misogyny—is that the institutions in place at the time leave women no choice but to resort to a kind of necessary materialism, not being able to own property or make money themselves (with a few exceptions). Marriage is a financial necessity for women, as much as having a job is a financial necessity for the soldiers employed as such.

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Explanation and Analysis—Humans and Animals:

Throughout The Country Wife, human beings are generally depicted as being at the complete mercy of their baser instincts, revealing the extent to which certain characters entertain reductionist views of their fellow humans. One such means of communicating this reductive worldview comes through comparisons to animals, which happens throughout the play—thus forming a motif based on multiple similes. Horses are common subjects of comparison, with two such similes occurring in Act 1:

ALITHEA (aside). A-walking! Ha, ha! Lord, a country gentlewoman’s leisure is the drudgery of a foot-post; and she requires as much airing as her husband’s horses.

In this moment, Alithea suggests that the kind of free time and "leisure" afforded to a "country gentlewoman" involves the same amount of walking and physical activity that is required of a mail courier. She then drives this point home by using a simile to indicate that, because of this, country gentlewomen need as much "airing"—or fresh air and exercise—as horses that are otherwise put to work.

Similarly, another horse-related simile appears in Act 2:

DORILANT. Ay, your old boys, old beaux garçons, who like superannuated stallions are suffered to run, feed, and whinny with the mares as long as they live, though they can do nothing else.

Both Alithea and Dorilant equate their fellow women and men to horses, a comparison that many would, no doubt, find offensive. This reductive attitude is applied to a wide variety of human emotions and impulses, from sexual appetites to simple things like exercise (in the case of Alithea's simile). The expansiveness of this reduction reveals the general dehumanizing attitude most of the characters in The Country Wife take towards one another.

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Explanation and Analysis—Humans and Animals:

ALITHEA (aside). A-walking! Ha, ha! Lord, a country gentlewoman’s leisure is the drudgery of a foot-post; and she requires as much airing as her husband’s horses.

Similarly, another horse-related simile appears in Act 2:

DORILANT. Ay, your old boys, old beaux garçons, who like superannuated stallions are suffered to run, feed, and whinny with the mares as long as they live, though they can do nothing else.

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Explanation and Analysis—Seducer as a Basilisk:

In Act 2, Pinchwife and his young wife, Margery, come into conflict when a mysterious "young gallant" of unknown identity claims to be attracted to Margery. Though Pinchwife knows the "young gallant" to be Horner, he avoids revealing to his wife the identity of her admirer, fearing that he himself will be cuckolded. As he tries to convince his wife that she shouldn't go into town, Pinchwife uses an allusion and a simile to compare Horner to a basilisk:

MRS PINCHWIFE. Was it any Hampshire gallant, any of our neighbours? I promise you, I am beholding to him.

PINCHWIFE. I promise you, you lie; for he would but ruin you, as he has done hundreds. He has no other love for women, but that; such as he look upon women, like basilisks, but to destroy ’em.

In this passage, Pinchwife alludes to classical Hellenistic/Roman legends, comparing Horner (whom they are discussing) to a basilisk. Basilisks, or cockatrices, emerged in legend as serpents with the ability to destroy plants and animals with just a glance. Later, it was rumored that they were born from eggs laid by roosters and hatched by serpents. By comparing Horner to this mythical monster, Pinchwife reveals his belief in the destructiveness of what he sees as the immoral and unchecked sexual expression in the city.

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Explanation and Analysis—Birds in Cages:

At the beginning of Act 3, Scene 1, Alithea and her sister, Mrs. Pinchwife, discuss the emotional and physical ramifications of marriage. Both women use similes during the conversation, initially avoiding any direct or targeted statements of discontent:

ALITHEA. Sister, what ails you? You are grown melancholy.

MRS PINCHWIFE. Would it not make anyone melancholy, to see you go every day fluttering about abroad, whilst I must stay at home like a poor, lonely, sullen bird in a cage?

ALITHEA. Ay, sister, but you came young and just from the nest to your cage, so that I thought you liked it; and could be as cheerful in’t as others that took their flight themselves early, and are hopping abroad in the open air.

In this passage, Mrs. Pinchwife compares her current imprisonment in the home to the caging of a bird. Her sister expands this simile to describe the entirety of marriage as a cage: a set of bars and walls preventing young Mrs. Pinchwife from experiencing the world as she ought to. The minute Mrs. Pinchwife is exposed to city life and realizes what she has been missing, she yearns for freedom, much like a caged bird spreading its wings as it becomes free.

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The Country Wife

William Wycherley

The Country Wife: Similes 9 key examples