League 1

Victoria League
ENL 3222
Dr. FX Gleyzon
9 December 2015
Clearing the Fog of the Virgin/Whore Binary in Renaissance Writing
Introduction
In Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and Renaissance,
Carole Levin and Jeanie Watson explain that male Renaissance writers
framed women in the familiar metaphors of courtly love and viewed
women in terms of a binary: as either queenly virgins or dissipated whores,
the latter of which were often described as monsters who failed masculine
ideas of feminine perfection (160). Men dominated the field of Renaissance
writing, prescribing a male-centric view of the world and women. The gender
roles and ideals present in Renaissance writing enforce the idea of a gender
binary wherein women either fulfilled femininity in the role of the virgin or
failed femininity as the whore, becoming masculine under the definition of
the binary.
Catherine Cox traces the origins of the binary to the Aristotelian
masculine/feminine paradigm (144), in which a man must protect and rule
over his women while the women stay home. Housed within this paradigm,
the Christian virgin/whore binary incorporates the Virgin Mary placed in
opposition to Eve. A woman performing as the virgin fits into a set of
behaviors based on centuries of devotional practice related to the Virgin
Mary and aims to make femininity into a positive and desirable ideal to

League 2
transcend Eves legacy of sin (145). The whore seeks to instead redeem
Eve by negating femininity itself rather than emulating the Virgin Mary
(145). The whore fails the tenets of femininity, leading to images of
witchcraft, monsters, demons, and vermin due to her unnatural behavior
(155). Feminist readers will praise the whore for spurning patriarchal ideals,
seeing her as a path-breaker instead of a failure.
Feminist discourse calls the male representation of women in the
virgin/whore binary the male gaze, which is patriarchal, ideological, and
phallocentric, and gives the male viewer pleasure at the expense and
objectification of the woman subject (Snow 30). However, Edward Snow, a
prominent literary scholar, notes that this critique of female characters may
actually be furthering the patriarchal agenda by reduc[ing] masculine vision
completely to the terms of power, violence and control (31). Such a
viewpoint runs the risk of occluding whatever in the gaze resists being
understood in those terms (31, emphasis in original). Three Renaissance
texts, King Lear, The Faerie Queen, and The Tragedy of Mariam, validate
Snows concerns by challenging the binary in some way. Although all three
texts adhere to the binary in varying degrees, King Lear introduces a bigendered character to challenge gender norms, while The Faerie Queene
challenges the tenets of feminine perfection with two characters to reflect its
audience and subject, Queen Elizabeth I. The Tragedy of Mariam, the clearest
challenge to the virgin/whore binary, contains two female characters
exhibiting both masculine and feminine characteristics to manipulate the
patriarchy.

League 3
Binary Adherence
As a play written by a male author, William Shakespeares The Tragedy
of King Lear predictably provides two female characters that clearly adhere
to the virgin/whore binary. Shakespeare presents Regan and Goneril,
daughters of King Lear, as feminine failures. When Lear abdicates and asks
them to prove their love to him, both sisters launch into opulent speeches to
flatter Lear and win the throne as opposed to genuinely expressing their
love. Later in the scene, the reader discovers that the sisters feel nothing for
him, as Goneril says, The best and soundest of his time hath been / but
rash. Then we must look from his age to / receive not alone the imperfections
of long-engraffed / condition, but therewithall the unruly waywardness / that
infirm and choleric years bring with / them (Shakespeare 27; I.i.341-346).
They have no trouble insulting him or lying to him to gain the power they
desire. Goneril proves to be the most evil of the two sisters, while Regan is,
according to Catherine Cox, the least powerful and most socially proper
(155). While Goneril lashes out against Lear, Regan elects to avoid
confrontation, although she still wrongs him by disrespecting him: I have
this present evening from my sister/ Been well informed of them [Lear and
his retinue], and with such cautions/ That if they come to sojourn at my
house / Ill not be there (81; II.i.117-120).
The reader feels disgusted by the actions of the sisters and instead
pities Lear for the pain he endures at his daughters hands, as they trick,
maim, and kill people without second thoughts. Cox notes that the malign

League 4
behavior of Goneril and Regandemonstrate[s] just about every negative
stereotype of gender and gendered identities (155). The sisters display
whore behavior through acts of evil, like manipulatingand plotting;
although many male characters behave similarly, Karen Raber notes that
women like Goneril and Regan are monstrous in part precisely because they
are women (337, emphasis added). They function as a cautionary tale for
the damaging consequences of gender run amok (156); male writers
present powerful women as monsters to discourage women from taking up
male positions of power. The sisters treachery shows itself most overtly in
connection with their unnatural gendered identities (156), demonstrating
to a male audience that women not following the natural feminine gender
identity will become treacherous, villainous, and ruin society.
The Faerie Queene, written by male author Edmund Spenser, contains
multiple female characters that fit both ends of the virgin/whore binary and,
according to Shea Simmons, embody consummate, patriarchal archetypes
ascribed to women (89). One common feminine trope in The Faerie Queene
is the damsel in distress, of which Florimell is a clear example. In Book 3
Canto 1, a lustful man chases her and a company of knights rushes to rescue
the beautiful lady:
A goodly Ladie did foreby them rush,
Whose face did seeme as cleare as Christall stone,
And eke through feare as white as whales boone:
Her garments all were wrought of beaten gold,
And all her steed with tinsell trappings shone,

League 5
Which fled so fast, that nothing mote him hold,
And scarse them leasure gaue, her passing to behold
So as they gazed after her a while,
Lo where a griestly Foster forth did rush,
Breathing out beastly lust her to defile
Which outrage when those gentle knights did see,
Full of great enuie and fell gealosy,
They stayd not to auise, who first should bee,
But all spurd after fast, as they mote fly,
To reskew her from shamefull villany. (Spenser 330)
This type of event repeats throughout the text with multiple female
characters, making the damsel in distress an overwhelming female image.
Another character that fits the virgin role is Una, a beautiful, loyal, and
virginal woman who represents purity (Simmons 90). Spenser dresses her
modestly, drawing the readers attention to the way her outward appearance
actively represents her purity and follows the patriarchal hegemonic ideal
of a woman (90-1). She, of course, pairs up with the hero of Book 1,
Redcrosse, and saves him multiple times with her purity. Unas foil, Duessa,
represents the Whore of Babylon and tricks, seduces, and schemes against
people, highlighting Unas purity through her own failure of ideal femininity.
Compared to Unas modest and beautiful appearance, Duessas monstrous
true appearance with scabby skin, a bald head, and no teeth proves that
she is significantly divergent from Una in terms of the virgin/whore binary
(93). Acrasia, another character who sits on the whore end of the binary,
functions as an evil temptress that traps men with sexual desire. These few

League 6
characters represent the many other minor characters that Spenser clearly
situates on either end of the binary.
As expected, Elizabeth Carys The Tragedy of Mariam presents the
least binary adherence because a woman penned the text. The main
character, Mariam, challenges the feminine ideal she previously embodied
and subsequently dies for her actions. In a modern feminist text, such a
direct patriarchal challenge would result in some degree of success to show
the importance of directly challenging the patriarchy and the binary.
However, readers must remember that Cary wrote during a period where
women were not allowed to openly defy their gender roles (lest they end up
portrayed like Regan and Goneril, or Duessa and Acrasia), so Mariams death
was inevitable. Her defiance, after many years of adhering to the patriarchy,
creates what Alexandra Bennett calls a discrepancy between outer behavior
and inner thoughts and dooms her from the moment that her husband
[Herod] becomes aware of this aspect of her nature (302). Framed by
Herods sister Salome, who successfully sways Herod, Mariam dies under
charges of adultery and treason. Karen Raber notes that Herod, in trying to
condemn her, cannot decide whether [Mariam] is guilty of treason, of
adultery, or simply of talking too much becausethese crimes are
indistinguishable in the patriarchal society they live in (338). While
Mariams death is a concession to the binary and the prescribed societal
status of women, Cary frames Mariams actions so they do not adhere to the
virgin/whore binary.

League 7
Non-binary Adherence
Although King Lear heavily stresses the whore through Goneril and
Regan and the readers subsequent sympathy for Lear, the third sister
Cordelia presents a challenge to the virgin/whore binary by inhabiting
multiple gendered roles. The sisters stereotypical villainy and their
negative portrayal highlight Cordelias goodness and femininity, which
contributes toCordelias ultimate identity as martyr (Cox 155), but also
draw parallels to aspects of her character that fit within the whore trope.
Strictly feminist readers may miss the fact that she is ambiguously
constructed (143) if they are not looking for characters that resist the
virgin/whore binary. By choosing to remain silent and not fulfill the
expectation of love and flattery, when Lear asks the sisters to praise him,
Cordelia does not follow the virgin ideal. She knows her sisters are lying
about their feelings, and decides to tell the truth: Nothing, my lord I
cannot heave / my heart into my mouth. I love your Majesty / According to
my bond, no more nor less (Shakespeare 13; I.i.96-102). Nothing she can
say will portray her love for him, so she remains silent. However, Cordelias
silence can be read in two ways: one, as a demonstration of love and
goodness, and two, as an exhibition of arrogance, a kind of haughty
navet (Cox 150). She refuses to fit within the virgin/whore binary by
performing ambiguously as both masculine and feminine (153). Her
unnatural genderposes a threat to natural order, regardless of her loyalty
to Lear and her high morality (156).

League 8
Cordelia could not possibly inhabit one single gender role in this play,
as Shakespeare places her in a situation where she must perform several
competing gendered identitiesdaughter, son, wife, [and] mother (150) in
regards to her family. Lear, with no wife, mother, or son, relies on Cordelia to
fulfill these roles. He originally intended to give Cordelia, his favorite
daughter, a large share of the thrones power, indicating her performance as
a surrogate for the son Lear never had. Cordelia may remind Lear of the wife
he lost, and later in the play, Cordelia acts as a mother by taking care of the
aging and mad Lear. Her silence in the face of Lears question of love and her
failure to perform appropriately corresponds to her ambiguous status in
Lears family and court (150). To survive in the many roles Lear assigns her,
she must constantly shift her gender identity (150). Cordelia may also be
Shakespeares way of alluding to the recent rule of Queen Elizabeth I; his
audience would be familiar with the concept of a woman in power who shifts
between the masculine and the feminine virgin (155).
Spenser too honors Queen Elizabeth Is multi-gendered and powerful
position with Belphoebe and Britomart, two female characters in The Faerie
Queene. With the play dedicated to her, Spenser had to include powerful
heroines that challenge the binary. As Joyce Garson notes, both women
embody female virtues of chastity but also occupy typically male spaces of
warrior-hood and power, performing almost masculine energy (1).
Belphoebe, the huntress, represents Elizabeths role as the ruler of England,
yet also embodies her Virgin Queen title. This unusual combination of
gendered traits, portrayed in a positive light by Spenser, is a potentially

League 9
difficult feat, yet Spenser succeeds (2). Belphoebe performs the essentially
masculine traits of courage, endurance, and readiness to die for a principle
through the traditionally feminine form of faithful devotion and
unquestioning self-sacrifice (4). Ultimately, her hero(ine)ism reflects upon
the masculine strength of her feminine chastity, easily visible in her outward
appearance of a hunter combined with her womanly beauty and values (4).
Britomart similarly combines the masculine and the feminine. As a
knight, she fulfills a typically male role and hides her gender behind her
armor, but represents chastity through her virtues, her beauty, and her pure
love for Arthegall. Kristen Bennett positions Britomart as an oxymoron, a
dual sexed character through her beauty and armor, potentially in order to
mirror Elizabeths two bodies: her political self and her real self (5).
Readers can also view Belphoebe in this light; the combination of male and
female traits mirrors Elizabeth Is reconciliation between her political office
and her status as a woman. It is important to note that Spenser revised
Britomarts fate in the later 1596 version of The Faerie Queene, originally
published in 1590, to more accurately portray Queen Elizabeth Is glory (2).
Thus, Spensers creation of these bi-gendered characters reflects most
strongly upon his consideration and respect for his audience rather than any
intention to challenge gender norms. However, Spenser does address the
relationship between women and power in Book 3, Canto 2:
Here haue I cause, in men iust blame to find,
That in their proper prayse too partiall bee,
And not indifferent to woman kind,

League 10
To whom no share in armes and cheualrie
They do impart, ne maken memorie
Of their braue gestes and prowesse martiall;
Scarse do they spare to one or two or three,
Rowme in their writs; yet the same writing small
Does all their deeds deface, and dims their glories all.
But by record of antique times I find,
That women wont in warres to beare most sway,
And to all great exploits them selues inclind:
Of which they still the girlond bore away,
Till enuious Men fearing their rules decay,
Gan coyne streight lawes to curb their liberty;
Yet sith they warlike armes haue layd away:
They haue exceld in artes and pollicy,
That now we foolish men that prayse gin eke tenuy. (342)
Spenser identifies women as the original owners of traditional masculine
roles and power, which jealous men then revoked. In reflecting Queen
Elizabeth Is success as a ruler, perhaps Spenser needed to revise the origins
of the virgin/whore binary to place the blame on men instead of on Eve, a
revision that may set the stage for Aemilia Laniers 1611 text Salve Deus
Rex Judaeorum.
Elizabeth Carys play is, in Alexandra Bennetts words, an exploration
of duplicity, multiplicity, and their implications for women (298). Cary
positions the two main female characters, Mariam and Salome, as foils, yet
constructs similarities that say much about [her] designation of the
potential for female constructions of subjectivity (298-303). They inhabit the

League 11
gray area of the binary, furthering Cordelias multifaceted gender identity
and Spensers combination of male/female traits in Belphoebe and Britomart.
Mariam begins as the ideal woman of the [Renaissance] conduct books
(Raber 327), properly portraying femininity and the virgin ideal through her
beauty and through her faithfulness to her cruel husband, Herod, as well as
her control over her temper by speaking her opinions alone or with him.
However, the opening of the play foreshadows Mariams later gender
duplicity. She argues with herself about whether she should feel happy that
Herod is presumed dead or mourn him: Oft have I wished that I from him
were free...But now his death to memory doth call / The tender love that he
to Mariam bore / And mine to him (Cary 80). Mariam clearly had thoughts
that opposed her outward performance for Herod, but kept those thoughts to
herself, showing that she possessed a deliberate discrepancy between her
inner and outer selves (A. Bennet 301). The chorus addresses this prevalent
theme of juxtaposing outward performance and inner thoughts by asking,
When to their husbands they themselves do bind, / Do they not wholly give
themselves away? / Or give they but their body, not their mind / Reserving
that, though best, for others, pray? (Cary 111). Upon hearing that Herod
may still be alive, she makes a conscious decision to stop performing this
discrepancy, even though she could continue to use her obvious sex appeal
to maintain domestic harmony (A. Bennett 301). This decision brings her
virgin/whore combination to the forefront because it causes her to speak
truthfully, publicly, and deny Herods advances. This, of course, leads to her

League 12
death, but she succeeds in staying true to her inner self, articulat[ing]
herself as an autonomous subject (302) to escape patriarchal rule.
Salome, Carys ultimate non-binary creation, seems portrayed as a
monster since she lies, schemes, manipulates, and kills without shame or
honor, traits that she considers superficial layers of behavior, easily shed
when circumstance demands (Raber 335). At first glance, she appears to
possess no combination of virgin/whore traits, as she clearly fails her
femininity and fits in the whore trope (an association strengthened by her
sexual promiscuity). However, Salome also tries to pave the way for her sex
to escape from the patriarchys oppression, desiring to benefit all women
from her attempt to divorce her husband: I'll be the custom-breaker: and
begin / To show my sex the way to freedoms door (Cary 87). Salome
embraces the mismatch of her inner desires and ideal feminine outer
appearances, mak[ing] a deliberate decision to profit from her skills by
operating behind the scenes to manipulate others and gain power (A.
Bennett 303). Mariam possesses an innate and usually hidden possibility for
duplicity, but Salome is explicit in fabricating her personae, modifying her
behavior to conform to whichever paradigm will get her what she wants
(303). The people around her know that she has no shame and honor and
will change her behavior to suit her environment, showing that Salomes
success and Mariams failure are due to Salomes ability to manipulate
herself and others perceptions of her (306). She is able to operate on the
same playing field as the men around her by using her economic, political,

League 13
and familial power, and shifting her gender performance within and outside
the virgin/whore binary to suit her environment and needs (Raber 336).
Conclusion
Mariam and Salome both function as stand-ins for Cary, who wrote this
play just after marriage and seems to be navigating the issue of belonging to
a man but having individual thoughts and feelings. Salomes ability to
manipulate herself and situations appears to be Carys ideal choice;
Mariams direct patriarchal challenge and inability to continue acting as the
virgin ideal lead to her death, while Salomes whore-like character actually
succeeds and lives by performing whichever gender is necessary to survive.
Carys challenge of gender norms and the virgin/whore binary by creating a
spectrum of performance lie in her own personal exploration of gender
possibilities and a desire to open the door for women in the same way that
Salome desires to lead her sex to freedom. This reason is markedly different
from those of Shakespeare and Spenser, who appear to be reflecting the
gender duality already presented by Queen Elizabeth I, with the possibility
that Shakespeare uses Cordelia to challenge the roles that women can fill.
Cary instead forges new possibilities, on some level proving that the
patriarchy cannot be deconstructed by anyone but women.
Through Carys work, the reader can most clearly see gender
performance as a province of fluid female agency as opposed to a
manufactured structure that puts women in stereotypic category[ies] (A.
Bennett 304; Raber 336). Women can conform to given expectations in their

League 14
outward behavior yet still maintain their autonomy by noting and using
chances to act upon their inner thoughts and desires as Salome does (A.
Bennett 305). Cary does this herself, using the opportunity to write a play as
a way to challenge patriarchal norms and explore her own marital dilemma,
yet she still adheres to Renaissance standards by killing Mariam and, for a
time, staying with her own husband and living femininely at court. Her play,
combined with her life choices, demonstrate the very gender fluidity she sets
out to explore in The Tragedy of Mariam. Shakespeare and Spenser cannot
reach this level of feminist agency, although they do contribute to the
growing need for female characters that problematize the virgin/whore
binary and set the stage for later works to build upon their construction of
women.

Works Cited
Bennett, Alexandra G. Female Performativity in The Tragedy of Mariam. Studies in English
Literature 1500-1900 40.2, (2000): 293-309. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.
Bennett, Kristen Abbott. Re-conceiving Britomart: Spensers shift in the fashioning of feminine
virtue between books 3 and 5 of The Faerie Queene. The AnaChronist (2009): 1-23.
Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Cary, Elizabeth. The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry. Womens Writing of the
Early Modern Period, 1588-1688: An Anthology. Ed. Stephanie Hodgson-Wright. New
York: Columbia University Press, 2002. 78-137. Print.

League 15
Cox, Catherine S. An excellent thing in woman: Virgo and Viragos in King Lear. Modern
Philology 96.2 (1998): 143-158. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Garson, Joyce Marjorie. Images of the Self: Chastity Figures in The Faerie Queene.
Dissertation, University of Toronto, Department of English (1977): 1-507. Web. 7 Nov.
2015.
Levin, Carole and Jeanie Watson. Ambiguous Realities: Women in the Middle Ages and
Renaissance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987. Web 8. November 2015.
Raber, Karen L. Gender and Political Subject in The Tragedy of Mariam. Studies in English
Literature, 1500-1900 35.2 (1995): 321-43. Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of King Lear. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine.
Folger Shakespeare Library (1608). Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Simmons, Shea. The Angel in the Allegory and the Monster in the Middle: Feminist Theory in
Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene. The Sigma Tau Delta Review 8 (2011): 89-97.
Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Edmund
Spenser. Ed. R.S. Bear. London: Grosart, 1882. (n.p.). Web. 7 Nov. 2015.
Snow, Edward. Theorizing the Male Gaze: Some Problems. Representations 25 (1989): 30-41.
Web. Nov. 7 2015.