Horner is a rather problematic hero. We enjoy his wit and sexual success. He is adept at playing “the system,” – the games that Londoners seem to revel in. And yet, even as we enjoy his peccadilloes, we must acknowledge that his ruthless exploitation of everyone’s folly and weakness is clearly less than savory. He clearly seems superior to many of his foolish or short-sighted victims but his easy acceptance of the cost of his success -public degradation – is rather problematic. Consider Horner as a hero or a comic protagonist.

Throughout The Country Wife, we see Mr. Horner expertly claiming, and then proving, that women’s sexual appetites are never satisfied. When they play begins, the reader may chuckle gently to themselves about how ridiculous the concept of the play is, but by the end they may be shaking their heads in disappointment or maybe just shaking in laughter. In my opinion Horner is a comic protagonist because that is merely what he is written as. Characters in novels and short stories are only ever what the author intends them to be; anything other than that is a projection of the readers onto Mr. Horner. Whether these projections are due to the readers own personal feelings on the subject, or whether the projections are in place due to the expectations of society, Mr. Horner is still a two dimensional character written by Wycherly to examine specific nuances of a (somewhat) hilarious subject.

Mr. Horner believes that by becoming asexual in women’s eyes that he’ll be able to better seduce them. The methods of cuckoldry that Horner previously engaged in were very much different, for he would befriend the husband and then cuckold them. In this method, he intends to befriend the women (by being asexual) and then having sex with them. He also claims that women who hear of a eunuch will be incredibly intrigued by this prospect and want to investigate. Of course Horner is correct in these assumptions (though I don’t believe they would float in today’s standards) and finds himself engaging with many women by the end of the play. If this act doesn’t seem noble it’s because it truly isn’t. I don’t believe Horner does this in a way to be malicious to the husbands however, and he sees it as more of a game, or even a way of life. Many people appear to be loose in moral values, but that doesn’t mean that they are outright detestable people, and Horner falls into this category. He is merely living the life he is accustomed to by living in the city; we may as well blame the city for Horner’s beliefs. Horner is also dealing with the citizens, or cits. They are believed to be less intelligent and less quick witted than someone of Horner’s quality, which contributes to the reader feeling more closely to him, or more able to identify him as their protagonist.

In one specific case during the play, specifically with Pinchwife, I find that Horner is found in the best light. Margery throughout the play is very open about finding different men, rakes, and actors attractive, something that drives her husband Pinchwife insane. Constantly throughout the play he is so concerned with being the cuckold he often doesn’t realize that Horner is doing very little work to steal his wife from him, as Pinchwife himself is doing the work for him. Horner merely has to be a charming individual as Pinchwife drives his wife further and further away from him. This is a reason why Horner is a comic protagonist in my eyes, he does very little work to entice Margery to sleep with him often times seemingly relying on Pinchwife to do the work for him. Pinchwife isn’t the only one attempting to get Horner to sleep with his wife however, for Margery joins in the fun as well. A prime example is in Act 5 Scene 1, when Margery tricks her husband into believing that Alithea is the one who wants to sleep with Mr. Horner. Of course Pinchwife believes that he would rather have a disgraceful sister than a disgraceful wife (when in reality he very badly doesn’t want to be cuckolded.)

Pinchwife’s fear of being cuckolded is essentially what causes his downfall in the end. He is often demeaning towards Margery and in Act 4 Scene 2 he even threatens her with a penknife. “Write as I bid you, or I will write whore with this penkife in your face.” (103-104) If the reader were to compare Horner to Pinchwife, they would see very different values. Pinchwife being very uptight and even at times threatening versus an easy going Horner, who has concocted a hilarious plot to sleep with all of the cities women. Classically, a protagonist would be described as the “good” guy, and I believe that Horner is one of the best out of our list of choices. We have Sparkish, whom is literally so unintelligent he cannot tell that he does not truly have friends, and cannot even tell when one of these friends is attempting to steal his wife to be away from him. In the same vein we have Harcourt, whose most brilliant trickery of the play is to claim to be his own twin brother. In my opinion, Horner may be devoid of certain morals but is still the most cunning and best figure the reader has to enjoy in the story. I also contend that Horner is truly doing a social justice, especially in the case of Pinchwife. Pinchwife spends a majority of his time guarding his wife from various rake attacks that he believes to be coming from all sides at all times, when that time could better be spent doing anything else. Horner also has a sense of humor, something that Pinchwife certainly doesn’t have (though to be fair they are in very different positions, but Sparkish certainly wasn’t as detestable a character as Pinchwife was). We see this in Act 3 Scene 2 when Horner speaks to Margery the first time, when she is disguised as her brother James. He is kissing “him”, telling “him” to deliver these kisses to “his” beautiful sister (but Horner actually knew it was her in a disguise). He even encourages everyone to kiss “him”, giving Pinchwife quite the scene, maybe even adding insult to injury. “How! Do I suffer this? Was I not accusing another just now for this rascally patience in permitting his wife to be kissed before his face?”(540-544)

Horner is in many ways a protagonist and an antagonist, and it is easy to argue for either side of him. Though lack of strong moral values isn’t always a good thing, I believe that Horner’s rakish attitude and actions are indeed what wins the reader over, as they are able to overlook some of his less attractive qualities. It’s also very easy to accept him as a comic figure, due to his adventure throughout the city and with the citizen’s wives. If the story had been written from Pinchwife’s point of view, it would not have been much of a story at all as the reader would be unable to identify with any of the characters.