Elizabeth Cary’s Mariam and the Critique of Pure Reason
Hamlin, William M.
Early Modern Literary Studies 9.1 (May 2003)
Abstract
Most discussions of Elizabeth Cary’s Tragedy of Mariam have concentrated either on the play’s explorations of female resistance to patriarchal tyranny or on contradictions within prevailing political and gender discourses. My essay, while fully acknowledging the importance of this body of criticism, deals rather with Mariam’s emphasis on epistemological concerns. Placing the tragedy within the world of theological dispute in which Cary and her readers lived, I focus in particular on the philosophical issues of doubt, credulity, and certainty so central to Mariam’s action and choral commentary. Working from strong textual evidence of Cary’s familiarity with Montaigne, I argue that Mariam insistently questions the too-sharp distinction between rational and affective realms that the Chorus and several major characters routinely assume – and that contributes significantly to Mariam’s death. Cary, in my view, nurtures a readerly skepticism in her audience, with the result that the Chorus’s claims become necessary antecedents rather than final adjudications in an ongoing dialectic of judgmental assessment.
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