The Role of the Renaissance Woman through Literature: Restrictions & Trajectory

Abstract

Most of Elizabethan tragedies are notorious for their male characters, and people tend to remember female characters as secondary contributors of the development of the plot. However, female characters also play important roles. Without them, many vendettas would not have been fulfilled. In contrast, women during the Renaissance were –supposed to be- confined to the private sphere, and this differs drastically with the role of female characters in Elizabethan tragedies. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to revisit The Spanish Tragedy and The Duchess of Malfi, two representative plays belonging to the beginning and the ending of the Elizabethan period, respectively, in order to determine if there was a bridge which let women into the public sphere, and if there were changes regarding the role of the Renaissance woman throughout this period by means of analysing these plays.