This article is about the play. For the 2009 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

, see Orphan (film)

Orphan (film)

Orphan is a 2009 psychological thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard. The film centers on a couple who, after the death of their unborn child, adopt a mysterious 9-year old girl...

.

The Orphan, or The Unhappy Marriage is a domestic tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

, written by Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...

 in 1680. It was first produced at the Dorset Garden Theatre

Dorset Garden Theatre

The Dorset Garden Theatre in London, built in 1671, was in its early years also known as the Duke of York's Theatre, or the Duke's Theatre. In 1685, King Charles II died and his brother, the Duke of York, was crowned as James II. When the Duke became King, the theatre became the Queen's Theatre in...

, and starred Mrs. Barry

Elizabeth Barry

Elizabeth Barry was an English actress of the Restoration period.She worked in big, prestigious London theatre companies throughout her successful career: from 1675 in the Duke's Company, 1682 – 1695 in the monopoly United Company, and from 1695 onwards as a member of the actors' cooperative...

 as Monimia, Thomas Betterton

Thomas Betterton

Thomas Patrick Betterton , English actor, son of an under-cook to King Charles I, was born in London.-Apprentice and actor:...

 as Castalio and Mr. Jo. Williams as Polydore. It precedes Venice Preserv'd

Venice Preserv'd

Venice Preserv'd is an English Restoration play written by Thomas Otway, and the most significant tragedy of the English stage in the 1680s. It was staged first in 1682, with Thomas Betterton as Jaffeir and Elizabeth Barry as Belvidera...

and is therefore the first of Otway's two famous tragedies. Written in blank verse

Blank verse

Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...

, it is the play that made Otway famous. The Orphan remained a stock piece on the stage until the 19th century. Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway

Thomas Otway was an English dramatist of the Restoration period, best known for Venice Preserv'd, or A Plot Discover'd .-Life:...

 was purported to have been deeply in love with Mrs. Barry, and it has been suggested that this play was inspired by this unrequited love.

Plot

Half the youth of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 is at war but Acasto, a nobleman retired from court and living in the country, encourages his sons Castalio and Polydore to stay home, study art and politics, and avoid the company of women. As well as having a daughter, Serina, Acasto is the guardian of a young girl, Monimia. Both Castalio and Polydore are in love with Monimia but Castalio, being the first-born twin, claims to have the right to woo her first. He secretly contracts himself to Monimia in marriage but Polydore overhears and makes plans to replace Castalio on the wedding night. Using the wedding-night signal of "three soft strokes on the chamber door" he is allowed access to Monimia's bedroom. When Castalio then attempts to enter the room using the same signal he is believed to be Polydore, and turned away. When everything is discovered and explained the next day, there is only the prospect of death for those involved.

Prologue

In the prologue, Otway praised the Duke of York

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 and congratulates him on his safe return from Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

:

The baneful cloud's withdrawn,

And happiness again begins to dawn;

Since back with joy and triumph he is come,

That always drove fears hence, ne'er brought 'em home.

Oft has he ploughed the boist'rous ocean o'er,

Yet ne'er more welcome to the longing shore,

Not when he brought home victories before;

For then fresh laurels flourished on his brow,

And he comes crowned with olive branches now.

Receive him! Oh, receive him as his friends;

and dedicates the published edition of the play to the Duchess of York, suggesting strong Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

sympathies.