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A 7 page essay that discusses this Shakespearean work from a feminist perspective. Shakespeare's Elizabethan era was characterized by an "oppressive patriarchal culture," yet within this society, there are existed contradictions, "pressure point," so to speak, where there were "opportunities for resistance" (Findlay 7). This is the theoretical position taken by Alison Findlay in her text A Feminist Perspective on Renaissance Drama (1999). Using Findlay's feminist position, it possible to interpret Shakespeare's manipulation of the trope of virginity in Measure For Measure as offering a feminist perspective. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
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7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khmfmsh.rtf
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resistance" (Findlay 7). This is the theoretical position taken by Alison Findlay in her text A Feminist Perspective on Renaissance Drama (1999). Using Findlays feminist position, it possible to interpret
Shakespeares manipulation of the trope of virginity in Measure For Measure as offering a feminist perspective. At the onset of the play, two opposite spaces are clearly delineated, the
city and convent (Findlay 32). The city, in this case Vienna, is a world of sensual license, and the "realm of Eve" (Findlay 32). The importance of Eve to Renaissance
audiences is crucial in understanding how this point would be perceived, as Even was the key figure in the contemporary conceptualization of the nature of women (Woodbridge 11). This sensual
world is overseen by Mistress Overdone, a woman who has already exhausted nine husbands (Findlay 32). The character of Juliet, Claudios pregnant fiance, personifies the position of women within this
carnal world (Findlay 33). The antithesis of this is the convent of St. Clare, which is a "space of chastity and withdrawal" from the world and personified in the
character of Isabella (Findlay 33). Findlay suggests that that women viewing Measure for Measure in the Elizabethan age would have perceived Isabellas desire to join the Order of St.
Clare within the historical context of the work of Mary Ward, who established her "own missionary order, the Institute of Mary, in 1609 (Findlay 34). Through the context of Mary
Wards writing female spectators of Measure For Measure, may identify with Isabella in ways that allow for resistance to "the masculine bias of the text and its ways of categorizing
women" (Findlay 34). If the convent life offers no appeal for the female spectator, they are attracted by the "integrity and autonomy" demonstrated by both Isabella and Mary Ward in
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