Female Transgression in Thomas Middleton sWomen Beware Women

Evil, sinful, weak, and lover of Satan are just a few adjectives used to describe women throughout history and the Jacobean age is no exception. During the Jacobean age, a time in which women were thought to be incomplete human beings, soulless, and mere possessions of men, various women dare to challenge the idea of their inferiority in society s views. That matter leads to their transgression. The female issues and positions should have in a society convinced of her innate transgression are the chief among Thomas Middleton s concerns in his plays including Women Beware Women (1621).The aim of the study is to trace the cases of female transgression with its relation to society s views and male supremacy in Thomas Middleton s Women Beware Women. The study deals with the definition of female transgression and the character of woman in the Jacobean age on the one hand, and in Middleton s Women Beware Women on the other hand. Then, it traces the female transgression which can be considered as a woman s refusal to submit to social norms and her attempt to achieve her goal by plotting and tricks. Finally, the study refers to the reasons behind women s transgressive acts in this play. The study ends with Notes and a Bibliography.