Joi Hill
My focus is on John Dryden’s representation of love and marriage. Precisely, in Marriage a la Mode, Dryden presents marriage without love. Dryden exemplifies this in three ways. First, certain characters are bored with their marriages. During the time of Marriage a la Mode, fathers chose whom their children married to keep the money circulating among the wealthy. Since people could not choose the person that they wanted to marry, they rarely grew to love their partners. This leads to Dryden’s representation of the “boredom marriage.” Second, Dryden represents marriages as lacking love because their basis is the “foolish marriage vow.”
Dryden shows marriage without love with characters wanting other sexual partners. Since their mates are not pleasing to them sexually anymore, they feel that there is no harm in finding a different partner.
John Dryden lived from 1631–1700; he was an English poet, dramatist, and critic whose life revolved around the English Royal Society. In 1662, Dryden was chosen to be a part of the Royal Society. He married Lady Elizabeth Howard in 1663. Since Dryden was private, it is unknown whether his personal experiences had a direct influence on his play; however, Marriage a la Mode displays both successful marriages and unsuccessful ones.
Boredom is one key factor that Dryden uses as a reason why love does not exist within some marriages in Marriage a la Mode. The problem begins when the couples are forced into unwanted marriages and they do not know each other. This is especially true of Palamede and Melantha. Money is the basis for these arranged marriages. However, what holds the marriages together in the beginning is sexual passion. After the passion, there is nothing left to hold the marriage together. To make matters worse, they only experience the sexual side of their partner. Dryden’s characters do not realize that a successful marriage is dependent upon people knowing their partners sexually and intellectually. Dryden’s characters reveal their strongest emotions in the bedroom and not elsewhere.
Dryden also presents marriages without love, and some characters treat marriage as if it is an incurable disease that will not go away. Dryden represents the agony of marriage through Palamede who characterizes marriage as “being such an unreasonable thing to impose upon me . . . ’tis hurrying a man to execution without giving him a chance to say his prayers.” Clearly, love is not an issue within most marriages in this book.
However, the one couple that demonstrates true love, Palmyra and Leonidas, faces the threat of execution because of the unconditional love that they share. This point highlights the conflict between love and marriage in this play.
Dryden also examines how couples betray their vows for casual sex. The characters did not marry for love and since they are not being pleased sexually at home, they feel they have a right to seek pleasure elsewhere. At the first sight of Doralice, Palamede declares her as his mistress. Through situational irony, Dryden connects the characters: Palamede declares his sexual attraction to Doralice (Rhodophil’s spouse) and Rhodophil declares his sexual attraction to Melantha (Palamede’s mistress).
Respect is something that the couples in Marriage a la Mode are definitely lacking. In time, the couples discover the involvement with each other’s mate; however, the thought of being caught was never a deterrent. It also did not decrease the desire to be with another sexual partner. Dryden portrays the people as being simple minded because their need for sexual passion overshadows the need for love, and they do realize that one night of passion could lead to a lifetime of regret.
Therefore, there is no guilt over betrayal in this play; instead, the couples realize that if someone else could appreciate their mate, then they must have something special. As analyst Mark Hogarth states, “Dryden’s Marriage a la Mode implies that love and marriage are opposites.”
Work Cited
Dryden, John. Marriage a la Mode. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1981. Hogarth, Mark. “Marriage a la Mode Critic’s Review.” New York Times, March 20, 1990.