Women and Shakespeare's Cuckoldry Plays

Focusing on six plays by William Shakespeare, early modern English court records, marital complaints and private letters, Cristina Leon Alfar identifies a series of cultural narratives that disclose the various motives for and strategies of men’s accusations of adultery and women’s practical and cogent answers. In Shakespeare, Cuckoldry, and Women, Alfar explores the enabling function of bonds between women that allows them to work against the violent power of the men and to alter the dramatic direction, energy, and matter of the plays.