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Setting
Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Act 1
Explanation and Analysis—Women's Oaths:
In a conversation with Pinchwife towards the end of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner undermines the sanctity of traditionally held vows and covenants within society. He uses a simile that compares women to soldiers when it comes to their oath-keeping ability:
Unlock with LitCharts A+HORNER. So, then, you only married to keep a whore to yourself. Well, but let me tell you, women, as you say, are like soldiers, made constant and loyal by good pay rather than by oaths and covenants. Therefore I’d advise my friends to keep rather than marry, since too I find, by your example, it does not serve one’s turn – for I saw you yesterday in the eighteenpenny place with a pretty country wench.
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Explanation and Analysis—Marriage Vows:
At the end of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner reveals his views on marriage to an aggravated Pinchwife, who claims that his wife will never make him a cuckold. Voicing his skepticism, Horner waxes poetic about how undependable the marriage vow truly is, using a simile to get his point across:
Unlock with LitCharts A+HORNER. But tell me, has marriage cured thee of whoring, which it seldom does?
HARCOURT. ’Tis more than age can do.
HORNER. No, the word is, I’ll marry and live honest. But a marriage vow is like a penitent gamester’s oath, and entering into bonds and penalties to stint himself to such a particular small sum at play for the future, which makes him but the more eager, and not being able to hold out, loses his money again, and his forfeit to boot.
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Explanation and Analysis—Nature and Sexuality:
In a quick aside at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1, Horner issues a short, pithy epigram, using simile to describe his current situation to the audience:
Unlock with LitCharts A+A quack is as fit for a pimp as a midwife for a bawd; they are still but in their way both helpers of nature.
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Explanation and Analysis—Humans and Animals:
Throughout The Country Wife, human beings are generally depicted as being at the complete mercy of their baser instincts, revealing the extent to which certain characters entertain reductionist views of their fellow humans. One such means of communicating this reductive worldview comes through comparisons to animals, which happens throughout the play—thus forming a motif based on multiple similes. Horses are common subjects of comparison, with two such similes occurring in Act 1:
Unlock with LitCharts A+ALITHEA (aside). A-walking! Ha, ha! Lord, a country gentlewoman’s leisure is the drudgery of a foot-post; and she requires as much airing as her husband’s horses.
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Explanation and Analysis—Sexuality and Disease:
As Quack and Horner converse at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 1, the two exchange a series of similes to describe the effect that Horner's falsified condition will have upon the young ladies of the town:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Quack: And you will be as odious to the handsome young women as —
Horner: As the smallpox. Well —
Quack: And to the married women of this end of town as —
Horner: As the great ones; nay, as their own husbands.
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Explanation and Analysis—Mistresses:
In Act 1, Scene 1, Harcourt, Dorilant, and Horner all offer up a simile to describe the role of mistresses—and women in general—in the context of casual sexual encounters. The misogyny of the three men is evident in the passage:
Unlock with LitCharts A+HARCOURT. No, mistresses are like books. If you pore upon them too much they doze you and make you unfit for company; but if used discreetly you are the fitter for conversation by ’em.
DORILANT. A mistress should be like a little country retreat near the town, not to dwell in constantly, but only for a night and away, to taste the town the better when a man returns.
HORNER. I tell you, ’tis as hard to be a good fellow, a good friend, and a lover of women, as ’tis to be a good fellow, a good friend, and a lover of money. You cannot follow both, then choose your side. Wine gives you liberty, love takes it away.
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Act 2
Explanation and Analysis—Seducer as a Basilisk:
In Act 2, Pinchwife and his young wife, Margery, come into conflict when a mysterious "young gallant" of unknown identity claims to be attracted to Margery. Though Pinchwife knows the "young gallant" to be Horner, he avoids revealing to his wife the identity of her admirer, fearing that he himself will be cuckolded. As he tries to convince his wife that she shouldn't go into town, Pinchwife uses an allusion and a simile to compare Horner to a basilisk:
Unlock with LitCharts A+MRS PINCHWIFE. Was it any Hampshire gallant, any of our neighbours? I promise you, I am beholding to him.
PINCHWIFE. I promise you, you lie; for he would but ruin you, as he has done hundreds. He has no other love for women, but that; such as he look upon women, like basilisks, but to destroy ’em.
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Explanation and Analysis—Humans and Animals:
Throughout The Country Wife, human beings are generally depicted as being at the complete mercy of their baser instincts, revealing the extent to which certain characters entertain reductionist views of their fellow humans. One such means of communicating this reductive worldview comes through comparisons to animals, which happens throughout the play—thus forming a motif based on multiple similes. Horses are common subjects of comparison, with two such similes occurring in Act 1:
Unlock with LitCharts A+ALITHEA (aside). A-walking! Ha, ha! Lord, a country gentlewoman’s leisure is the drudgery of a foot-post; and she requires as much airing as her husband’s horses.
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Act 3, Scene 1
Explanation and Analysis—Birds in Cages:
At the beginning of Act 3, Scene 1, Alithea and her sister, Mrs. Pinchwife, discuss the emotional and physical ramifications of marriage. Both women use similes during the conversation, initially avoiding any direct or targeted statements of discontent:
Unlock with LitCharts A+ALITHEA. Sister, what ails you? You are grown melancholy.
MRS PINCHWIFE. Would it not make anyone melancholy, to see you go every day fluttering about abroad, whilst I must stay at home like a poor, lonely, sullen bird in a cage?
ALITHEA. Ay, sister, but you came young and just from the nest to your cage, so that I thought you liked it; and could be as cheerful in’t as others that took their flight themselves early, and are hopping abroad in the open air.
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