Thursday, March 19, 2020

The Country wife

The Country wife Written by William Wycherley, The Country Wife qualifies as a captivating informative piece of chef-d’oeuvre that tables the characteristics of the contemporary society that range from intimacy and hypocrisy amongst others. Harry Horner believes that his impotence would permit him to gain access to high-class women and have liaisons with them with the whole deal remaining secreted. He convinces ladies for instance in scene four where he manages to liaise with lady Fidget though â€Å"Mistress Squeamish enters too late and is disappointed to have missed her opportunity† (Wycherley 50). He argues that the liaisons with women would help them retain their honor before the public due to his condition. As Wycherley observes, â€Å"Inferences from Horner’s impotence rumors make Sir Jasper Fidget to make arrangements for Horner to become his wife’s chaperone and also her companion, later to turn out a secrete affair† (57). Upon the departure of Sir Fidget and his wife, two of Horner’s friends: Mr. Dorliant and Frank Harcourt enters, chat with him about friendship, wine and women. Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Country wife specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Amid the debate, Mr. Sparkish arrives who on boring the three men by his pretentious wit is exited by force. Jack Pinchwife portray his contempt for women when he ignorantly leaves Horner and his friends as Horner mentions that he had seen his wife, Margery at theatre. Margery complains to her sister in law about the Pinchwife’s jealousy, which render her forced to remain indoors. â€Å"On inquiring about the reason, Pinchwife laments that a licentious man had sighted her at the theatre and fallen in love with her† (Wycherley 60). Since Margery has developed interest on actors at the theatre, she gets delighted on hearing this. Later in scene three, Horner managers to hit on her, leave w ith her and later to return to her husband loaded with gifts from Horner: something that in scene five saw her visit Horner’s lodge. In scene four, consequently Pinchwife locks up her in a different room. Despite the fact that, Sparkish was to marry Alethea, his friend Harcourt in a witty way makes advances to her before his friends very eyes something that in scene three ,make Harcourt declare that he fell in love with her at first glance. In the end, Margery turns out to be the villain. The villain Margery Inexperience and innocence’s puts Margery far from being the heroin of play. She poses a question, â€Å"jealous? What’s that?† (Wycherley 61), which proves unfamiliarity with characteristics of men and women dominating the country when it comes to issues of emotion and affection. Unlike other women, she naturally does not subscribe to deceit implying why she did compose a love letter to Horner. Horner shed light that Margery’s love letter wa s â€Å"the first love-letter that ever was without flames, darts, fates, and destinies, lying and dissembling in it† (Wycherley 82). She seems to judge a book by its cover, and objects the belief that people who claim to be in love with her are up for missions to ruin her. She believes in guarding whatever that she holds and loves passionately. Advertising Looking for essay on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More She tells Pinchwife â€Å"You are mine own dear bud, and I know you; I hate a stranger† (Wycherley 91). This indicates her strongly ingrained subscriptions to customs that dictates that wives should always remain kind to their husbands despite treating them with lots of dismay. Her kindliness and the ideologies that she subscribed to, resulted to her being caught up by her husband when she decided to adopt the lifestyle of her female counterparts in the country. Despite the int imacy characterizing other women of the country, who only subscribed to infidelity and adultery for sexual services only, Margery is still carrying the load of affection and idealism. These explain why in scene four Margery thought of dropping Pinchwife and take Horner for her husband. Margery stands out as a sympathetic character to the extent that sees her rejection by the society in the country, which does not accommodate people with such magnitudes of ingeniousness, simplicity and honesty that she poses. In conclusion, The Country Wife presents a society that is full of intimacy, infidelity, hypocrisy, loveless sexual encounters arrangements and one sex solidarism with intents of deceit. Wycherley, William. The Country Wife. London, Holloway: Oberon books, 2005.

Tuesday, March 3, 2020

Timeline of Events From 1840 to 1850

Timeline of Events From 1840 to 1850 The years from 1840 to 1850 were marked by war, political changes, a gold rush in California, and many other important events in America and around the world. 1840 January 10: Penny postage was introduced in Britain.January 13: In a shocking maritime disaster, the steamship Lexington burned and sank in Long Island Sound. Only four men survived and more than 150 passengers and crew perished.February 10: Queen Victoria of England married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.May 1: The first postage stamps, Britain’s â€Å"Penny Black,† were issued.Summer/Fall: The 1840 presidential campaign was the first to prominently feature songs and slogans. William Henry Harrison won the presidency thanks to his Log Cabin and Hard Cider campaign, and the slogan Tippecanoe and Tyler Too! 1841 March 4: William Henry Harrison was inaugurated as president of the United States. He delivered a two-hour inaugural address in very cold weather. As a result, he caught pneumonia, from which he never recovered.Spring: A free black New Yorker, Solomon Northup, was lured to Washington, D.C., drugged, and kidnapped into slavery. He would tell his story in the powerful memoir Twelve Years a Slave.April 4: President William Henry Harrison died after only one month in office. He was the first American president to die in office and was succeeded by Vice President John Tyler.Autumn: Land was purchased in Massachusetts for Brook Farm, an experimental farming community frequented by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and other writers and thinkers of the era.November 9: Edward VII of England, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, was born. 1842 January: The British retreated from Kabul, Afghanistan and were massacred by Afghan troops.August 29: The First Opium War ended with the Treaty of Nanking.November: Showman Phineas T. Barnum tracked down a child in Connecticut said to be peculiarly small. The boy, Charles Stratton, would become a show business phenomenon known as General Tom Thumb. 1843 Summer: Oregon Fever gripped America, beginning mass migration westward on the Oregon Trail. 1844 February 28: An accident with a cannon on US Navy warship killed two members of John Tyler’s cabinet.May 24: The first telegram was sent from the U.S. Capitol to Baltimore. Samuel F.B. Morse wrote, â€Å"what hath God wrought.†August: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels met in Paris.November: James Knox Polk defeated Henry Clay in the U.S. presidential election. 1845 January 23: The U.S. Congress established a uniform date for federal elections, naming the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day.March 1: President John Tyler signed a bill annexing Texas.March 4: James Knox Polk was inaugurated as President of the United States.May: Frederick Douglass published his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.May 20: The Franklin Expedition sets sail from Britain. All 129 men on the expedition were lost during their attempt to explore the Arctic.Late Summer: The Irish potato famine, which would become known as the Great Famine, started with widespread failures of the potato crop. 1846 February 26: American frontier scout and showman William F. â€Å"Buffalo Bill† Cody was born in Iowa.April 25: Mexican troops ambushed and killed a patrol of U.S. soldiers. Reports of the incident inflamed tensions between the two nations.April-August: Francis Parkman traveled from St. Louis, Missouri to Ft. Laramie, Wyoming, and later wrote of the experience in the classic book The Oregon Trail.May 13: The U.S. Congress declared war against Mexico.June 14: In the Bear Flag Revolt, settlers in northern California declared independence from Mexico.December: The Donner Party, a party of American settlers in wagon trains, became stranded in the snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and resorted to cannibalism to survive. 1847 February 22: U.S. troops commanded by General Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican Army at the Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War.March 29: U.S. troops commanded by General Winfield Scott captured Veracruz in the Mexican War.June 1: Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of Americas richest and most competitive men, raced a steamboat against rival Daniel Drew in the Hudson River. Many thousands of New Yorkers lined the citys docks to watch the paddle wheelers race.Late summer: The potato famine continued in Ireland, and the year became known as Black 47.September 13-14: U.S. troops entered Mexico City and effectively ended the Mexican War.December 6: Abraham Lincoln took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. After serving a single two-year term, he returned to Illinois. 1848 January 24: James Marshall, a mechanic at John Sutters sawmill in northern California, recognized some unusual nuggets. His discovery would set off the California Gold Rush.February 23: Former president John Quincy Adams, who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts after leaving the presidency, died after collapsing in the U.S. Capitol building.July 12-19: A conference at Seneca Falls, New York, organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizbeth Cady Stanton, took up the issue of Womens Rights and planted the seeds of the suffrage movement in the U.S.November 7: Zachary Taylor, Whig candidate and a hero of the Mexican War, was elected President of the United States.December 5: President James Knox Polk, in his annual address to Congress, confirmed the discovery of gold in California. 1849 March 5: Zachary Taylor was inaugurated as the 12th president of the U.S. He was the third, and last, candidate of the Whig Party to hold the office.