Love and a woman's will in Hyde Park

Hyde Park’s three subplots focus on marital relationships (existing or potential), but we do not see much romance in the play. Carol falls in “love” with Fairfield when he appears to be what she can’t have, while Julietta chooses Bonvile because she values his apparent desire to become virtuous over Trier’s jealous affection. Mistress Bonavent responds to the letter revealing that her husband has returned to her after seven years by simply exclaiming, “Blessed delivery!” and proceeding to conceal/ignore his arrival without difficulty (4.3). Her switch from new to old husband in the play’s final scene is a swift decision that seems unaffected by emotion. Does love exist in this play? If not, what replaces it in the decision to marry?

Regardless of the existence of love in these relationships, though, it is significant that the marital decisions are made by women. Each woman must choose between two or three competing suitors, who are competing for her heart rather than her fortune, her father’s approval, etc. The play places much emphasis on a woman’s will, especially in Carol’s insistence on keeping her “humour” (among other things), and in Julietta’s self-assertion in rejecting Trier and standing up to Lord Bonvile to defend virtue (“’Tis the first liberty / I ever took to speak myself; I have / Been bold in the comparison, but find not / Wherein I have wrong’d virtue, pleading for it” 5.1). These women clearly hold more power than the women of most of the comedies we’ve read, but are we to see them as independent? Julietta rejects Trier, but she puts up with his suspicion and thus deals with Bonvile’s unwelcome advances throughout the play. Mistress Bonavent chooses to remarry, but this choice stems from her desire to not “Be held a cruel woman” (1.2). Do the women make choices based on what they desire, or is female agency undermined by male and societal influence?