Sex and the Female Tragic Hero

Abstract

Tragedy has often been defined as a representation of the struggle between the individual and the community. Opinions have varied about whether audiences tend to side with the individual or the community. The question is of particular interest in the Renaissance because of what seems to be growing recognition of the individual and a growing imagination of identity apart from the community.¹ As this sense of separate identity grows, there also develops in the drama at least the illusion of a subjectivity defined by the perception of an individuality of character. This illusion of subjectivity is particularly powerful, of course, with the male characters who are the focus of the tragedies.