ABSTRACT
When Margaret Cavendish travelled to England in 1651 with the intent of pleading to the newly-formed government for income from her husband’s sequestered estates, she had little idea that this request would be made only on her behalf and have such a hostile reception. Cavendish’s characters show a distinct progression from convention to defiance and highlight the power of space and stagecraft in determining the extent to which women’s agency and happiness are possible. The close interweaving of silence, shame, and stagecraft that makes up the fabric of The Winter’s Tale seems to have intrigued Margaret Cavendish, judging from the number of times she returned to the idea of depicting women on trial in her plays. Cavendish highlights the need for women to claim their own right to speak and to be believed by placing them at the centre of the action and in control of the stage space in the plays.
