Female Transgression and Educational Messages in Early Modern Culture and Drama

This MA dissertation focuses on the influence of the Italian Renaissance on English culture and society. The overall structure takes the form of three chapters. Chapter One looks at the effects that this new current had on the education of English women during the early modern period: virtuous models of behaviour for women are proposed to define woman's role in society. The main aim of this chapter is to investigate contributions of Italian Renaissance thought and how they were proposed in early modern England. During this period, through prose, poetry, and artistic works female behaviour models were suggested. Chapter Two and Three focus on plays from the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres. The educational message addressed to women is explicit, especially in two plays from approximately the same period which use the city of Padua as a setting: William Shakespeare’s comedy The Taming of the Shrew and John Webster’s revenge tragedy The White Devil. In the first play a parallel between the Italian setting and Shakespeare’s England is shown, with the vivid descriptions of sixteenth-century scholars and the investigation of how the theme of education is linked to the taming of the shrew. In Webster’s play, the focus is on the consequences for the female protagonist after her adultery. In the trial scene, the woman faces the situation using her daring eloquence as a defence. Her transgressive words lead her to dark consequences. A parallel between the play and historical accounts of Vittoria Accoramboni is also explored. The thesis ultimately proposes to investigate how female transgression was represented in the above plays, and how educational lessons were imparted to their female protagonists as a result of their transgressions.