Obama as Wycherley’s Country Wife

William Wycherley

As I teach William Wycherley’s The Country Wife, I am struck by the resemblances between Restoration society and our own.The play was written in 1676 during the age of Charles II, and in some ways our worlds couldn’t be more dissimilar.This was a monarchy and a very formal society in which sincerity was viewed with suspicion and witty repartee was valued.Yet both societies are so cynical that it is hard to get straight talk out of anyone.

In Wycherley’s time, the days of absolutist monarchy were numbered so high society engaged in “every man for himself” behavior, an on-the beach orgy of self-indulgence. In our own, various catastrophes beckon, from global warming to Medicare bankruptcy, but we are so focused on our individual desires that we undermine any attempts at responsible collective action. Certain truths cannot be uttered—such as that our taxes need to be raised if we are to pay for our wars, reduce oil dependence, and balance the budget— without our punishing those who make the case. Instead, we agree to conspire in collective myths.

In Wycherley’s play, the one person who wants to tell the truth is pressured to be silent so that the society can continue to teeter along. Here’s the plot.

The lead character is Horner, a predatory rake who wants to cuckold as many husbands as he can. Because the husbands are so leery of him, however, he has a doctor (Quack) leak the news that he has been rendered impotent by venereal disease. Since he is now “safe,” Sir Jasper Fidget wants Horner to chaperone his wife as he goes about his business. Horner more than obliges.

But Horner also has an affair with Marjorie Pinchwife, the country wife of the title, who is innocent to the ways of the city and who believes that two people who love each other should be together. She likes Horner much better than her jealous husband and is prepared, in a burst of sincerity, to publicly declare Horner her lover and leave her husband for him. In doing so, of course, she would reveal that he has been faking his disease.

Suddenly, the whole society is in danger of imploding. Sir Jasper will be revealed to have been a cuckold, as will Pinchwife. Their wives, meanwhile, will lose their “honor,” as will all the other women that Horner has been “chaperoning.”

So what do they do? Do they admit that the husbands are neglecting or abusing their wives and that the wives prefer outer appearance to inner virtue? Do they question the drive for gratification and look to spiritual connection with another human being over mere sexual trysts? Do they view the threatened crisis as an opportunity to rethink their priorities?

Or do they persuade the one truthful, trusting, and non-cynical character, the country wife, to tell a lie so that society can continue on as before? Marjorie is pressured to claim that she has not made love to Horner, therefore allowing society to believe he is in fact impotent. Neither Sir Jasper nor Pinchwife really believe this, but they would rather pretend to believe it than be exposed as cuckolds.

Marjorie, meanwhile, realizes she is condemned to a loveless marriage. In all likelihood she will learn how to counterfeit virtue and tell lies while engaging in clandestine affairs. She has been trained to be corrupt like the rest of them.

Obama came into office believing that the corrupt culture of Washington could be changed. Those of us who voted for him, however, didn’t want him to be a naïve country wife. We hoped that he could be both idealistic and savvy, remaining in touch with core values but being smart about it.  We hoped he wouldn’t be rolled by entrenched interests.

How he’s doing will depend on who you ask. In my liberal eyes, despite all he is up against, there is still hope. One reason I say this is because of the speech he gave Wednesday night in which he eloquently challenged libertarian laissez-faire behavior that (in recent years) traces back to Ronald Reagan’s “government is not the solution, govrnment is the problem.” The predatory rakes of the Restoration have their counterparts in those today who are only out for themselves. Here’s what the president said:

You see, our predecessors understood that government could not, and should not, solve every problem. They understood that there are instances when the gains in security from government action are not worth the added constraints on our freedom. But they also understood that the danger of too much government is matched by the perils of too little; that without the leavening hand of wise policy, markets can crash, monopolies can stifle competition, and the vulnerable can be exploited. And they knew that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter – that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.”

Wycherley showed us what a society looks like when we lose that essential ingredient, our country wife idealism.  His play functions as a warning.

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