Women Beware Women: Analysis of Setting
"Women Beware Women: Analysis of Setting" delves into the intricate environments of the play, highlighting Florence as a significant backdrop. This city, a hub of political intrigue and cultural richness in the seventeenth century, serves as the stage for the central adulterous plot, inspired by a historical Florentine scandal involving a Venetian bride. The narrative suggests that the alienation experienced by the protagonist, Bianca, in a city filled with strangers exacerbates her vulnerability to seduction, illustrating the moral complexities of urban life.
The contrast between various settings, such as the widow's house and Lady Livia's residence, emphasizes themes of social class and the dynamics of power. The widow's house, where Bianca is initially concealed, symbolizes her innocence, whereas Lady Livia's home becomes a site of betrayal and sexual corruption, reflecting a more decadent lifestyle. The Duke's court further exemplifies this moral decay, culminating in a tragic conclusion marked by luxury, lust, and treachery that disrupts the societal order of Florence. Collectively, these settings not only enhance the play's drama but also serve as a commentary on the societal forces influencing women's fates in a patriarchal world.
Women Beware Women: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1657
First produced: c. 1621-1627
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Tragedy
Time of work: Early seventeenth century
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Florence
*Florence. City in the Tuscany region that was one of Italy’s main centers of culture and political intrigue in the seventeenth century. The main plot’s adulterous triangle derives from an actual Florentine scandal surrounding an unfaithful Venetian bride. Although Middleton’s Venetian source sympathized with Bianca, Middleton himself does not blame her fall entirely on Florence’s immorality. However, he does suggest living in an alien city whose inhabitants she describes as “all strangers to me, Not known but by their malice,” made her more vulnerable to seduction.
Widow’s house
Widow’s house. Home to which Leantio, in the opening scene, brings his stolen Venetian bride, intending to hide the “treasure” of her beauty “under this plain roof.” In the first striking use of upper-and lower-stage dynamics, a window in this house displays Bianca to the duke, below, riding to St. Mark’s Temple. Soon afterward, Bianca despises both fidelity and the poverty of her mother-in-law’s house.
Lady Livia’s house
Lady Livia’s house. Home in a higher-class milieu, dominating the second and third acts, where both Bianca and her subplot counterpart, Isabella, are betrayed into sexual corruption by Livia. Here, in an even more dramatic counterpoint of upper-and lower-stage actions, Middleton has the duke rape Bianca in an alcove while, below them, Livia defeats the mother-in-law in a chess game that clearly parallels the sexual “game” upstairs. Here Livia also facilitates her brother’s incestuous affair with their niece, while simultaneously promoting Isabella’s loveless marriage to a lascivious idiot. Although fashionable, Livia’s home resembles a house of prostitution.
Duke’s court
Duke’s court. Palatial and decadent setting for the play’s last two acts, in which luxury, lust, and treachery prove fatal for six sinners. In the final scene, a masque celebrating the duke’s marriage to Bianca ends in mass death, upheaving “the general peace of Florence.”
Bibliography
Dawson, Anthony B. “Women Beware Women and the Economy of Rape.” Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 27, no. 2 (Spring, 1987): 303-320. Argues that Middleton presents female characters as trapped in an economic hierarchy that reduces them to commodities for male use. This presentation is complicated by a need to maintain a conventional Elizabethan perception of women as naturally corrupt.
Holmes, David M. “Women Beware Women and The Changeling.” In The Art of Thomas Middleton. Oxford, England: The Clarendon Press, 1970. Places the play within the context of Middleton’s late work. Asserts that Bianca is vulnerable to seduction because of a repressive upbringing that does not prepare her for a morally corrupt world.
Kistner, A. L., and M. K. Kistner. “Women Beware Women: Will, Authority, and Fortune.” In Middleton’s Tragic Themes. New York: Peter Lang, 1984. Asserts that Middleton insists upon the individual moral responsibility of his characters. Characters ignore their awareness of sin in order to satisfy their overriding will, thus bringing on catastrophe.
Ribner, Irving. “Middleton’s Women Beware Women: Poetic Imagery and the Moral Vision.” Tulane Studies in English 9 (1959): 19-33. Investigates the play’s characterization, action, and imagery; concludes that the play is an incisive social commentary on the destructiveness of avaricious ideals.
Wigler, Stephen. “Parent and Child: The Pattern of Love in Women Beware Women.” In “Accompaninge the Players”: Essays Celebrating Thomas Middleton, 1580-1980, edited by Kenneth Friedenreich. New York: AMS Press, 1983. Examines three dominant love relationships of the play, which demonstrate a similar parent-child incest pattern and explain the stylistic shift in the final act. Suggests that a possible source lies in Middleton’s biography.