William Wycherley’s The Country Wife overflows with deception, humor and sexual decadence. Throughout the play, the characters, especially the females, cling to the importance of sexual masculinity and its characteristics. In particular, Harry Horner exemplifies all of the qualities of a true “man”. From the beginning of the play, the reader knows of Horner’s phony disease in order to seduce women while their unsuspecting husbands concur. However, the reader does not know the length to which Horner has used his deceit until the end of the play.
The ideas of sexual masculinity in society suggest a humorous ste
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