Heywood Exposes the Flaws of Whately

The Whately’s A Bride-Bush offers interesting insight into Frankford’s curious friendship with Wendoll. After the wedding, Frankford voices his contentment with his new marriage. He recounts his life’s blessings: high birth, wealth, well-educated, “but the chief / Of all the sweet felicities on earth, / I have a fair, chaste, and loving wife, / Perfection all, all truth, all ornament” (A Woman Killed iv.9-12). Frankford isn’t praising the joys of a new life partner, but listing his marriage under his life accomplishments.

This view of marriage corresponds with Whately’s marriage manual, which states that wives must “carry the stamp of fear upon them, and not be cutted, sharpe, sullen, passionate, teechie; but meeke, quiet, submissive” (38). This is clearly not the marriage based on companionship we think of today, but rather a marriage of ownership.

With standards like these, it’s only logical that a lonely aristocrat would look to an equal, another male aristocrat, for true companionship rather than his wife, a subordinate, who might as well be a ‘child or servant.’ And we all know how dull children and servants can be.

It is this imbalance in the relationship that causes Frankford to invite Wendoll into their home, which ultimately leads to dissolution of their marriage. In this way, Heywood subtly attacks Whately’s views on marriage, illustrating how a marriage based on possession and submission rather than companionship is mortally wounded from the start.