ABSTRACT
From a feminist standpoint, one of the most striking features of the second tetralogy is the restriction of women’s roles. We have already seen how the formidable power of the women warriors in the Henry VI plays and King John was replaced in Richard III by the pathetic laments of mourning widows and bereaved mothers. In the second tetralogy, women’s roles are further constricted. There are fewer female characters; they have less time on stage and less to say when they get there. Moreover, virtually all the women we see in these plays are enclosed in domestic settings and confined to domestic roles. The only exceptions to the wholesale domestication of female characters are the disreputable, comic women at the Eastcheap Tavern: Mistress Quickly, the hostess; and Doll Tearsheet, the prostitute.
