Episode 861: Women Beware Women Indeed...

Have forced myself to stay up to finish reading Women Beware Women. Not going to bother sacrificing more sleep for The Changeling, even though the word on Facebook is that it's the better play of the two. A bit annoyed that I haven't managed to read it, as it actually sounds like the sort of play that I would really be into, but Carol Rutter's lecture today was brilliant as always, and I feel like I know enough about the play to make it through tomorrow's seminar. Women Beware Women strikes me as being a tad overly melodramatic on the page, but I'm sure the massive carnage in the final scene plays out fantastically on the stage. It does seem excessive though, having practically everyone die, like Shakespeare does in Hamlet. That's tragedy for you, I guess? Carol's point about whether we should really beware the men in the play rings quite true though. Normally, I'm not a fan of feminist readings, but I'm quite happy to accept that characters like Bianca and Livia act in the manner that they do because of the patriarchal societal structures they are inevitably tied up in, and that the men of the play are just as guilty as the women of being faithless and scheming.