The representation of women in Elizabethan sonnet sequences

Abstract

This thesis proposes to analyse Elizabethan sonnet sequences Astrophil and Stella by Philip Sidney, Amoretti by Edmund Spenser, Delia by Samuel Daniel and Diana by Henry Constable from the point of view of feminist criticism. The chapters focus on three different aspects: the representation of the female body as stereotyped and deconstructed; the representation of female behaviours and non-behaviours as indicators of their morality; and the representation of women as non-human creatures, be that heavenly beings, the monsters of classical mythology or natural elements.