Susanna Centlivre's A Bold Stroke for a Wife is a very funny and romantic tale. Even though from the very beginning I knew how the ending would turn out, there were still some surprises hidden within this play that shocked me. One of the experts that shocked me the most was Periwinkle's advice to Colonel Fainwell about family:Periwinkle: Pish! Women are no rarities. I never had any great taste that way. I married, indeed, to please a father and I got a girl to please my wife; but she and the child (thank heaven) died together. Women are the very gewgaws of the creation; play things for boys, which, when they write man, they ought to throw aside.
I am just very interested, and a little disturbed, about the attitude towards women within this play. Although the Colonel only agrees with Periwinkle to humour him, it is still a little frustrating to hear him (as well as Periwinkle) speak in such a way. Do anyone perhaps think that the author may have put in this ridiculous character, who makes such statements, to satirize and make fun of the revolting patriarchal conventions that were practiced within this time?
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Do anyone perhaps think that the author may have put in this ridiculous character, who makes such statements, to satirize and make fun of the revolting patriarchal conventions that were practiced within this time?
I definitely think so - the author is a woman, after all. Not to say that women can't, themselves, dislike "women" in general... as weird as it sounds, it happens. But I do get the impression that it's intended satirically in this play.
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