"How came that widow in": The dynamics of social conformity in Sidney, Marlowe, Shakespeare and Hooker
Abstract
My study focuses on widowhood as emblematic of the dynamics of social conformity in early modern England. One precipitated by sudden change, the state of widowhood came to emblematize the ambiguity, conflict, and ideological accommodation which characterized this pluralistic, at times volatile, society. The shift from a feudal to a capitalist economy is only one of many changes that destabilized it. Changing religious and political systems kept England in a state of flux; the long presence of a powerful female ruler complicated gender relations. In this largely patriarchal society, one ordered along marital lines, widowhood represented not only uncontained and potentially uncontrollable individuality, but one which because female threatened to upset carefully maintained gender boundaries. My study examines the means by which early modern England society revised the official social narrative in an attempt to contain the perceived threat of widowhood. In chapter one, I focus upon problems of gender in early modern England, arguing that an established belief in a single sex biological model destabilized the widow's gender identity. In chapter two, I examine Sidney's manipulation of cultural ideals in the New Arcadia through the juxtaposition of the widows Parthenia and Cecropia. In chapter three, I examine Virgil and Marlowe's Didos to show the means by which early modern English society attempted to accommodate problems with an established model of virtuous widowhood. In chapter four, I read Cressida against Chaucer's Criseyde, as one with an uncertain social status. Traditionally that of widow, Shakespeare's enigmatic heroine floats free from delimiting social constraints, revealing in turn the limits of conformity. I conclude my study with an examination of Hooker's views on marriage in Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, noting how a change from a Catholic to a Protestant state religion decisively destabilized the position of widows within his society.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Ross, Purdue University.
Subject Area
British and Irish literature|Womens studies|European history|Theater
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