A Feminist Reading of the ways in which Timberlake Wertenbaker portrays violence against women in her plays, with specific reference to The Grace of Mary Traverse (1985) and The Love of the Nightingale (1989).

Abstract

This dissertation is a feminist reading of the ways that playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker portrays acts of violence against women in two of her plays - The Grace of Mary Traverse (1985) and The Love of the Nightingale (1989). Using work on gender and feminism from Mackay (2015), Thompson (2001), Bowden and Mummery (2009), York (2011) and Cameron (1995) and on violence against women from Romito (2008), Johnson et al. (2008) and True (2012), this study argues that Wertenbaker uses portrayals of violence against women in her plays to reflect upon the patriarchal society in which we live today.