The Roaring Girl: The Status Of Women

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Recommended: The portrayal of women in Shakespeare's plays

During the early modern period when many of the following texts were written, the position of a woman in society was dictated by the patriarchal nature of familial relationships. Women were seen as subordinate in favour of their husbands and fathers.
The definition of ‘empower’ is “to give power or authority” (Dictionary.com, 2015). There will be 3 sections of this essay, each part looking at empowerment, the historical context of its respective play and its portrayal of women. It will examine the identities of women in society from a feminist perspective with the focus being mainly on three early modern texts in particular; The Duchess of Malfi, The Roaring Girl and The Witch of Edmonton. Each of these plays both empowers and disempowers …show more content…

Written by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton between 1607 and 1610 and first published and performed in 1611, it is based on the infamous woman of London, Mary Frith (c.1584-1659), who was frequently in trouble with the law over the first decade of the seventeenth century. By cross-dressing, she displayed that identity was just a manipulation of signs and appearances. Often there are moments in the play in which Moll can be seen to act like a man and even overpower one, thus making a mockery of the idea of gender identity (Mousley, 2000, …show more content…

Not only does Moll ignore temptation when Trapdoor attempts to persuade her into theft in order to have her executed, she also helps Sebastian change his father’s idea of his poor sweetheart Mary Fitz-Allard by using her own persona as a contrast to Mary. Moll/Mary Frith is compared to Mary Fitz-Allard in an unfavourable light, essentially making Mary a foil to Moll. In addition to them both having the same initials of M.F, they each are misunderstood by Sir Alexander Wengrave and by the end of the play he believes them to be honest and honourable

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