Volume 4, Issue 1, 2010

Women’s Position in the Renaissance Period: The Case ofThe Tragedy of Mariam     Ya-huei Wang

 

Abstract
 

This essay discusses the position of women in the Renaissance period through the play The Tragedy of Mariam. In The Tragedy of Mariam, each woman is alone in her posture against tyranny and survival under the patriarchal system except Mariam. Mariam is a woman who breaks the convention of the silent woman, and challenges her husband’s authority while maintaining her physical and moral virtues. In doing so, she becomes a symbol of scapegoat or sacrificial lamb whose death both frees the heroine from her impossible position and cleanses the kingdom of tyrannical misjudgments. Full Article