Random comments on Farquhar’s The Beaux’ Stratagem

While I don’t have much to say about this play, I will write whatever comes to my twisted little mind. In comparison to The Fair Penitent, this was the best play ever written. However, when looked upon in isolation, it is only a marginally good play. Good enough though. The dialogue between Mrs. Sullen and Sullen is actually quite funny at times (well, to a certain extent, anyway) and Mrs. Sullen is probably one of my favourite characters so far. The various hijinks of Archer were also interesting. The excessive amount of characters arbitrarily entering the narrative was a little confusing at first, but not to the point that I was ever lost.

 As for the play’s themes, this play is heavily concerned with the pursuit of money and how it is intermingled with private desire (as in the case of Aimwell and Archer and the constant attempt of Bonniface and other highwaymen to trick others in order to get money). In past plays like Behn’s The Rover, relationships, which involved money (such as marriages of convenience), were highly criticized and, in this play, they are opposed to a much lesser extent.

 It is also interesting to note that, although Mrs. Sullen benefits considerably from her divorce from Sullen, like Lesbia’s marriage to Beaumine in Trotter’s Love at a Loss, the divorce is decided primarily decided by other characters, mostly male characters such as Sir Charles and and Archer. At least, it appears that the divorce is primarily presided over by them. Her freedom from social constraint thus appears not entirely of her own making (not very surprising for a Restoration play written in a patriarchal context).

In addition, like most of the Restoration plays that we have read, the play offers an extreme form of marriage in which a woman has no freedom while it tries to remove from these social constraints, so that she can satisfy her private desires, while still following her public duties in this patriarchal society. In plays like The Country Wife or The Rover, the extremes of marriage such as forced marriages and marriages of convenience are criticized, although marriage itself is never actually disparaged by the playwrights. 

 Unlike The Way of the World which reveals the excessive behaviour of Lady Wishfort, the play also does not attack the social conventions concerning a woman’s honour because Mrs. Sullen never seeks to achieve her private desires with Archer while married. In fact, most of the Restoration plays, which we have read, do not strongly attack the concept of honour and reputation, even though rakish characters like Willmore do so (and their criticism is never really taken seriously). The exceptions may be The Country Wife and The Way of the Word.

On a side note, I may go see No Exit on Thursday and will post my comments afterwards. Will comment on Susanna Centlivre’s A Bold Stroke for a Wife soon enough.