ABSTRACT
In Chapter 8, women are punished to induce their obedience and conformity. Domestic violence does not invalidate the early modern idea of a happy marriage, and deviant female behavior does not always need to be rectified or punished by the state or the Church. Such behavior can be punished by men themselves as they take domestic law into their own hands. While moralists in the early modern period cautioned restraint (Ruff 132), men had complete authority over their wives. Gratian’s twelfth-century Decretum decreed that “A man may chastise his wife and beat her for her own correction; for she is of his household and therefore the lord may chastise his own…so likewise the husband is bound to chastise his wife in moderation” (Ruff 133). The popularity of the theme of mariticide (husband murder) in the pliegos sueltos was likely due to the fact that it was so unusual and, therefore, more horrific, representing “a fundamental subversion of the domestic hierarchy” (Staub 130), and was even considered a form of petty treason. However, “male violence as a kind of household discipline” (Staub 130) hardly warranted attention unless it was particularly brutal. In several pliegos sueltos men devise ingenious methods by which to punish transgressive women. An especially unique form of punishment is enacted on several women, but not by their husbands. Instead, they are transformed into human–animal hybrids through divine or demonic action.
