Lady Fidget, Lady Squeamish, and Mrs. Dainty are all assigned names that evoke traditional qualities assigned to women. These names imply that they are delicate and unable to handle difficult situations—that they are, in a word, fragile. The words "fidget," "squeamish," and "dainty" are all intended to elicit specific aspects of stereotypical femininity. "Fidget" calls to mind the image of a person with a short attention span. "Squeamish" implies a decidedly laughable aversion to anything dirty or uncomfortable. "Dainty" evokes a sense of delicacy.
These names and their implications contradict the ladies' actual behavior and topics of conversation, generating situational irony that is, in turn, ripe for spawning satire. The play calls to attention the fact that women are often neglected sexually and emotionally by their husbands. Such a topic of conversation would be unlikely to come up amongst women attempting to embody the traditional, self-sacrificing stereotype of upper-class femininity. While on the surface, these ladies aspire to traditional concepts of honor and dignity, they use this attitude to mask their actual desires. Horner calls the three women out for this, noting that they view pretensions of honor and dignity as unrelated or even opposed to the sexual liberation they secretly crave.
The Country Wife is intended as a satire of social and sexual dynamics during the time period in which Wycherley lived. As such, the play contains several characters that embody particular aspects of these dynamics: Pinchwife, for example, represents the moralizing viewpoint of those who consider the city and all its excesses a den of the utmost iniquity. Wycherley portrays this viewpoint as silly and out of touch, deploying his satirical lens through Horner, the character most inclined to criticize the social and sexual habits of those that surround him.
Toward the end of Act 2, Scene 1, Horner directs such satirical critique against the ladies Squeamish, Dainty, and Fidget:
DORILANT. What a devil are these?
HORNER. Why, these are pretenders to honour, as critics to wit, only by censuring others; and as every raw, peevish, out-of-humoured, affected, dull, tea-drinking, arithmetical fop sets up for a wit, by railing at men of sense, so these for honour by railing at the court and ladies of as great honour as quality.
Horner's criticism of these women may well be accurate to their behavior; for he, as a character himself, tends to focus on exposing those who hide their own vices behind masks of virtue while critiquing others. At the same time—as is thematic for The Country Wife—the reader cannot unthinkingly trust a singular satirical perspective, as Horner himself is equally worth criticizing for his misogynistic and reductive views of women.
