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Margaret's Role In 3 Henry Vi

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The true nature of Margaret’s character and voice is discovered by diving straight into her rich and spirited history. Margaret appears prominently in Shakespeare’s history 3 Henry VI, and it is imperative to study her past and her character within this play in order to understand her more fully in Richard III. Her role in 3 Henry VI is remarkable as she is constantly defying societal norms and gender expectations. The assumption dominating the time was that women would accept their inferiority to men, and due to this lowly position, Valerie Traub argues they were expected to strive for four virtues which included obedience, chastity, silence, and piety; none of which Margaret feels obliged or compelled to pursue (130). On the contrary, Margaret’s …show more content…

However, Margaret does not feel the pressure to remain married, on the contrary, she feels it is her right to emancipate or divorce herself from what many would argue was her only source of power- queendom. Although she originally fulfills two roles typically expected of women in this time, as the wife of Henry, and the mother of Edward, she later denounces her marriage and will lose her son. Her striking statement to her husband that “thou preferr’st they life before thine honor”, and her declaration that “I here divorce myself/ Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed/ until that Act of Parliament be repealed/ Whereby my son is disinherited”, reveal her desires (1.1.246-250). She separates herself from Henry, and claims her son for herself all within a few short lines of the play. Ultimately, power and control are her obsessions as a queen; and much of her strength and contradiction to women of her time is revealed in her ability to wield power to a greater extent than her weak husband. Scholars like Mary Rose McLaren would agree, as she describes Margaret’s character in 3 Henry VI as “powerful and obsessive”, and “manipulative and dogmatic”

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