The ambiguous female voice : recovering female subjectivity in Elizabeth Cary's The tragedy of Mariam, the fair queen of Jewry
Master Thesis
2008
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University of Cape Town
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The Tragedy of Mariam, The Fair Queen of Jewry (circ) 1604 deals with the difficulties of a woman to express herself in a society that enjoins women to silence and to the private realm of the home. In the play Cary debates the actions of several female characters, presenting the reader with the understanding that they are wilful subjects who act to push the boundaries of the patriarchal confines of the royal household in which they find themselves. But Cary does not unequivocally endorse these women's actions. The main protagonist of the play is Mariam whose public voice and failure to comply with her husband forms the central drama of the play. Drawing on the ambiguity that is evident in Cary's play, I explore female subjectivity in the play with regards to two of the most influential ideologies in early modern England: those of marriage and religion. Every woman in early modern England, as with all the women in Cary's play, were either married, to be married or had been married. Protestant ideology became the ambiguous space where women were for the first time considered as spiritually equal. But the family and marriage were social and gendered constructions that drew on Christian discourse in order to reinstate the notions of gender difference and ensure the submission of women in the home and in the family.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110).
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Broumels, M. 2008. The ambiguous female voice : recovering female subjectivity in Elizabeth Cary's The tragedy of Mariam, the fair queen of Jewry. University of Cape Town.