A Weak Woman in a Strong Battle

Download or read book A Weak Woman in a Strong Battle written by Jennifer Lillian Lodine-Chaffey and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reception of women's speeches, Jennifer Lodine-Chaffey argues, depended on their performances of accepted female behaviors and words as well as physical signs of interior regeneration. Indeed, when women presented themselves or were represented as behaving in stereotypically feminine and virtuous ways, they were able to offer limited critiques of their fraught positions in society. The first part of this study investigates the early modern execution, including the behavioral expectations for condemned individuals, the medieval tradition that shaped the ritual, and the gender specific ways English authorities legislated and carried out women's executions. Depictions of the female body are the focus of the second part of the book. The executed woman's body, Lodine-Chaffey contends, functioned as a text, scrutinized by witnesses and readers for markers of innocence or guilt. .