ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

LITERATURE QUESTIONS

RESTORATION EIGHTEENTH CENTURY DRAMA

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
In William Wycherly’s play “The Country Wife, ” Mr. Horner’s ruse to gain entry into women’s bedchambers is to pretend he’s:
A
a repairman.
B
sick.
C
a lawyer.
D
a doctor.
E
a eunuch.
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -The Country Wife is about a womanizer named Harry Horner. Horner convinces his doctor to spread a rumor that he is impotent. Horner hopes news of his impotence will convince married men to permit their wives to visit him. Sir Jasper Fidget, a businessman, leaves his wife, Lady Fidget, and her friends in Horner’s care.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Country-Wife, comedy of manners in five acts by Restoration dramatist William Wycherley, performed and published in 1675. It satirizes the sexual duplicity of the aristocracy during the reign of Charles II.

Detailed explanation-3: -As a comedy of manners, The Country Wife satirizes Restoration London’s patriarchal hierarchy through cuckolding, wherein Horner, the play’s licentious libertine posing as a eunuch, undermines the power of the patriarchy by having affairs with married women and deceiving their unsuspecting husbands.

Detailed explanation-4: -Harry Horner is a wealthy London socialite who has a reputation as a great “wit” and a notorious womanizer. He spreads a rumor that he has caught a venereal disease and that, after being treated by a French surgeon, he has been left impotent.

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