Interrelationships in Three Plays

Social value attached to cruelty, power, and beauty finds expression in these plays as a consequence of romantic entanglements. CW and LM contain a fairly strong connection between the emotional line and social values, although CW is a cynical adult comedy and LM a melodramatic tragedy of youthful folly. CL makes such a connection, but it is less convincing in that play than in either of the other two.

The action of both CW and LM deals with confused or exploitative romantic entanglements. In CW, the May-December entanglement of the Pinchwifes gets further complicated when they arrive in the city to encounter a society informed and marked by expectations of sophisticated and elegant manners, decorous public behavior, and squalid sexual gymnastics of which the predatory Horner is a master. Mrs. Pinchwife's beauty, chastity, and reputation are at great social risk because Mr. Pinchwife has not equipped her with social skills of any kind. She is credulous, hence powerless, in the face of social and sexual predators. The original dumb blonde, she is unable to disse

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ould Mr. Pinchwife be deceived in this way, should Mrs. Pinchwife be discredited publicly, or should they be left to their relationship undisturbed? Wycherley leaves such matters open. Adultery is not his concern, for sexual calculus and athletics are in place before the play starts. The real question is the fraudulent manipulation of motives, actions, and feelings, which can have social consequences for those affected by the fraud. Horner's social understanding prevents the fraud from overtaking and destroying the Pinchwifes, shielding them from the cruel power of the beautiful people. One's cruelty is not one's power in LM, as Millamant suggests is the case in Way of the World. But as personified in the self-absorbed Millwood, beauty is both cruel and powerful, to be put in the service of sex, which is itself a game to the degree it serves Millwood's deeper motives. Whereas in CW adultery is an afterthought of social behavior instead of a moral judgment, in LM it is an instrument and phase of moral degradation, which can only worsen when guilt is removed from the equation. When Barnwell attempts to retrieve the merchant's money from Millwood, she not only taunts his remorse but also seduces him into killing his rich uncle for
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Some common words found in the essay are:
CW May-December, Yes CW, Millwood-obsessed Barnwell, CW LM, Iiii Millwood, CW Wycherley's, Bevil Myrtle, Whereas CW, IV LM, LM CL, cruelty power, power beauty, cw lm, cruelty power beauty, social value, personal power, social values, romantic entanglements, beautiful people, george winchester stone, dramatists dryden, british dramatists, winchester stone jr, jr carbondale ill, stone jr carbondale,
Approximate Word count = 2141
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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