The Country Wife

Pinchwife imagines the country as a place of innocence and the city as one of wickedness. The title is a pun on the first syllable of the word “country,” implying that his purpose of finding any wife is to use her as an object for sex. Pinchwife agrees that he only married because he “could never keep a whore to [him]self” (56). He attempts to keep Margery from experiencing the city, planning to rush her back to the country as soon as Alithea’s wedding is complete, but she does so anyway. The country represents a place where women have fewer rights, as illustrated when Margery admits that she never wanted to marry Pinchwife in the first place. Pinchwife believes there are far fewer opportunities for a woman to be exposed to temptation in the country. Pinchwife hopes that he can train and control a country wife, whereas a city wife would not accept his authority so willingly. To Pinchwife, the city is a corrupting force, and the city life has even tainted Alithea, whose claim to her virtuous reputation is legitimate.

Although the city is a corrupting force in the play, this corruption is not necessarily unfavorable.