The Imagery of ‘Longsuffering Husbands’
Arnolphe states, “What other town on earth is known/For husbands so long-suffering as our own?/…One husband’s rich; his helpmeet shares the wealth/ With Paramours who cuckold him by stealth;/Another, with a scarcely kinder fate/Sees other men heap gifts upon his mate-/Who frees his mind of jealous insecurity/By saying that they’re tributes to her purity” (Act 1, Scene 1) .The husbands’ long suffering is accredited to their wives’ barefaced adultery. Such husbands elect to disregard infidelity for the sake of the survival of the matrimonies. Accordingly, they suppress mortification arising from the unconcealed cuckoldry.
The Imagery of “Unaccomplished Wife”
Arnolphe declares, “In short, I want an unaccomplished wife,/And there are four things only she must know: To say her prayers, love me, spin, and sew” ( Act 1, Scene1 ). Arnolphe’s inclinations accentuate his ideology that having a modest wife is likely to upsurge the accomplishment of their matrimony. An unaccomplished wife would not exploit her awareness to destabilize Arnolphe.
