This book focuses on female tragic heroes in England from c.1610 to
c.1645. Their sudden appearance can be linked to changing ideas about
the relationships between bodies and souls; men's bodies and women's;
marriage and mothering; the law; and religion. Though the vast majority
of these characters are closer to villainesses than heroines, these
plays, by showing how misogyny affected the lives of their central
characters, did not merely reflect their culture, but also changed it.