nly, Kyd would reduce the women of the play to merely that of a man's counterpart, or an object of contention when wanted by more than one man. However, Kyd’s depiction breaks from this confining definition of women, and in the case of Bel-Imperia fulfilled the roles of lover, avenger, and martyr. And although the character retains a number of complexities, her actions are above all determined by the male influences in her life.The tragic strength of Bel-Imperia in The Spanish Tragedy is admirable to a point; however, it is a very different depiction of the Renaissance woman that we find in The Arden of Faversham. Within the first few lines of the play, Arden’s wife Alice is portrayed as a “false and wavering” woman, and her changeability is further evidenced by her affair with Moseby, and her lack of emotion for him after her husband’s murder. The adulteress is a familiar role to find women of the Renaissance theatre in, however, it is this very stereotype that forwards the movement of the play.The action of the play surrounds the attempted murder of the Arden by a number of different characters, but it is Alice whose motive gains the majority of our attention throughout the play. Her changeable character, and inconstant love for both Arden and Moseby, creates a less than flattering depiction of women in general. Her distorted image of what the murder of her husband, seemingly out of mere boredom, will accomplish for her is so obvious that it is nearly laughable. The numerous failed attempts on Arden’s life also assist in creating the image of this incapable, and inconstant woman. As the story progresses, and the murder attempts are continuously thwarted, Alice’s perceptions of the events become increasingly distorted. Her musings over Moseby and comparison to Endymion (XIV, 141-153) illustrates Alice’s absurd naivet in imagining the murder as a fairy tale romance.Her intentions ...
