The Country Wife

If you had to elicit a moral lesson from the play, what do you think it would be? What evidence from the text supports this lesson? Who exemplifies this moral lesson?

Which character in the play do you find to be the most sympathetic and why? Who is the most hateful? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

What does the play say about gender and gender relations? Given that this text is over three centuries old, were there ideas about gender that surprised you or seemed progressive? How does the play’s construction of gender match or contradict your preconceived ideas about gender in 17th-century England?

How does Horner function as the play’s protagonist? What is his overall objective in the play? Does he achieve that objective? Is he a sympathetic protagonist? If you were directing the play or playing the role of Horner, what choices might you make about the way the character is portrayed onstage?

The Country Wife is structured around three main storylines: Horner’s pretend affliction, the relationship between the Pinchwifes, and Harcourt’s pursuit of Alithea. Which do you think is the most compelling, and why? Which, in your opinion, is the weakest?

How does the play formulate the country and the city differently? What does each place signify? How does it place value judgments on the city and the country?

Many of the characters describe at some point in the play what they deem to be the largest and most insidious disease in society. Which character do you think is correct? Use evidence from the text to explain the character’s point of view and why you agree.

Over the course of the play, the characters often talk about wine and drinking. How does drinking function in the play? What does it signify? Think particularly of the scene at Horner’s home when the three ladies drink to excess.