Women Flashcards
Portrayals of women
Capability and agency of women
Female transgression + impact on others
Women’s fatal flaws
Female expectations
Women as a victim of their gender
Causes of female transgression
Duchess - personal happiness
Eve - desire for knowledge
Female fatal flaws
Duchess - defying brothers in pursuit of her own desires
Eve - ambition, and questioning divine authority
Webster context for women
Gender roles
Revenge tragedies
Milton context for women
Genesis
Puritanism
Great chain of being
Duchess’ first words to Ferdinand
“To me, Sir?”
“You already know…”
“…what a man is”
Ferdinand to duchess
“Lusty…”
“…widow”
Ferdinand
“The right noble…”
“…duchess”
Antonio about duchess
“Diamonds are of most…”
“…value…that have passed through most jeweller’s hands”
Duchess
“Whores by that rule…”
“…are precious”
Ferdinand
“I am going into a…”
“…wilderness”
Duchess on marriage
“She is often found…”
“…witty, but is never wise”
Bosola about duchess
“Notorious…”
“…strumpet”
Ferdinand
“Your whores…”
“…blood”
Ferdinand
“I will marry for…”
“…your honour”
Duchess (liar)
[she puts her ring…]
[…upon his finger]
“For nothing lovelier can be found…”
“…in woman, than to study household good”
“The wife…safest and seemliest…”
“…by her husband stays”
“Fairest, unsupported…”
“…flower”
“Thine shall…”
“…submit”
Eve’s punishment
“Children thou shalt bring…”
“…in sorrow forth”
“But of this tree we may not…”
“…taste nor touch; God so commanded”
“What fear i then…of”
“…God, or death, of law or penalty?”
“She plucked…”
“…she ate”
“Into her heart…”
“…to easy entrance won”
“For inferior…”
“…who is free?”
Eve feels her what?
“My power”
“Disturbances on earth through…”
“…female snares”
“At his feet…”
“…fell humble”
“On me exercise not…”
“…thy hatred”
“Her seed shall…”
“…bruise thy head”
Empson on miltons views on women
“Milton thought men ought to control women”
Gilbert on eve as a victim of her gender
“Eve is a patriarchal ideal of womanhood, deprived of her autonomous identity”
1995 London production - what does the duchess do when Ferdinand comes into her chamber?
She slaps him, and threatens him with his own dagger
Tennenhouse on womanhood and sovereignty
“Womanhood and sovereignty are logically incompatible”
Callaghan on female desire
[female desire was seen as a] “disease and monstrous abnormality”
