No Such Thing as a Woman

Anne and Susan are never allowed to define themselves as humans or as women. Anne and Susan are continually defined by their bodies and how the men in the play perceive those bodies.

I loved Robbie Steiner’s comments on Anne in his post:

Anne may have had a loving and generous husband, bust she is still property. Her marriage was arranged, so she was simply passed from one family to another, not unlike a slave. If she has been considered property her whole life, could she have learned to make her own decisions? This is debatable. When Anne is wooed by Wendoll, she says, "What shall I say? My soul is wand'ring and hath lost her way." (372) This statement makes Anne look consumable. A modern (and perhaps feminist) rewriting of this line might read, "While Wendoll is in charge, I'm just his property, so how can I refuse his advances?"

Robbie really catches a moment where we see Anne struggle for what identity she is supposed to conform to. Is she supposed to follow the prescribed doctrine of society on chastity and how she should act? Or should she obey her husband’s command to obey the commands of yet another man. The idea of women as property has been prevalent for much of our history. I think that as a domestic tragedy, Heywood had many reasons for writing the characters of Anne and Susan as so stereotypical. Many modern feminists would say that these women have bought into and are acting out the female identity given and defined by men. “Sexuality is to feminism what work is to Marxism: that which is most one’s own, yet most taken away.” (Mackinnon) These women are expected to embody the “perfection” that Sir Charles and other men in the play place on their shoulders. These women strive to act out their perceived roles and Anne even commits suicide in order to redeem her identity from her husband! If men define women in terms of “the opposite of men”…then what the heck is woman but everything a man isn’t or doesn’t want to be!?

I think that Anne shouldn’t be considered a “cheating wife” but a victim of the domination schemes projected on her by men. How else could Anne have reacted to someone in authority commanding her to have sex with him? Her husband just announced to everyone, servants included, that Wendoll was in charge and that he would be gone all day! Talk about entrapment…

This play has a continual moralistic theme about how women should act properly, we root for Susan when she refuses the advances of Sir Acton and we feel confused and slightly shocked when Anne just hops into bed with Wendoll. Think of the reaction Heywood’s audience must have had at Frankford’s forgiveness of Anne before her death. On and endnote..I think it is interesting to look at the last scene between Anne and her husband. If you look closely you might see a strange mirroring of the concept of last rites and confessing of sins. But here, Anne is still a sinner, yet it is a man and her husband who absolves her of her sins and restores her position!
Note: I apologize if anyone finds this a little sexist…been reading a lot of feminist literature lately!