Domestic Feminism Politics Cary s Hidden Voice

Domestic Feminism in Politics: Cary’s â€Å"Hidden† Voice Throughout the semester, and the number of various works and authors explored, analyzed, and detailed in reading, research, and extrapolation, few had come to interest me as particularly as Elizabeth Cary’s, The Tragedy of Mariam, The Fair Queen of Jewry. What has come to pique my interest in this specific work, is in trying to understand the underlying motif of the work, I have come to discover, and explore in my own writings, that Mariam is not only significant for having the first publicly published female playwright, but that the work brings into focus the domestic, political, and religious doctrine of the period of the publication. That despite the overwhelming patriarchal dominance in the 17th century English society, Mariam forwards Cary’s ideals in expressing feminism; the independence and agency of women, in a society ruled by patriarchs in court and clergy. Demonstrating that in wielding c ompeting interpretations of feminism in interaction with Herod’s monarchy, men and women may meet their ultimate success or downfall in a patriarchal society. In this play, it is noted that nearly every mouth is in motion at one point or another, be they man or woman. For this essay, I will focus on Cary’s expressions of feminism, as it is presented in The Tragedy; abstract, revealed in not only the dialogue, but in the motions of the dialogue, or even through the lack of speech altogether. Nearly all mouths can be considered