The Roaring Girl: Peeling Back the Roaring Layers

The Roaring Girl presents characters that demonstrate a freedom from subordination for women from the patriarchal society rules and expectations through building walls of natural beliefs and displaying the cracks of imperfection they hold to represent an unsolid foundation. It delivers a portrayal of the underlying power through various layers in all of the women it portrays to a society that seemingly thrives on inequalities for women. The subtleties of side stories, including Mistress Gallipot and Mistress Openwork, prove equally as important as the main story of our protagonist, Moll, unfolds. Peeling back the layers of these stories display various levels of empowerment for women for the reader to discover. Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton explored the “roaring girl” as more of a conception of a woman fighting for equality on various levels, rather than solely focusing on a particular woman observed to portray masculinity, to display the many layers of this concept.

There is extensive history that supports the idea of men being the idea of perfection and woman being seen as imperfect, or more categorically, deformed that helped pave the way in developing the mentality of men being the sex of more value. The idea of the one-sex model stated that both men and women have the same sexual reproductive system. The difference is: one is external (as in the man) and one is internal and contains a womb (which is said to be the undeveloped penis), which was indicated as a deformity. Early philosophers stated that this was determined by the strength, and sometimes quantity, of the father’s sperm. Thomas Lacquer sums up Hippocrates’s theory of the contest of sperm supremacy by stating, “If both partners produce strong sperm, a male results; if both produce weak sperm, a female is born,” (p. 39). Galen added that the inclusion of heat generated from the sperm is also a deciding factor in determining the sex of the baby. He also concluded that women also have sperm, as contrary to Aristotle’s belief, and that “humans are the most perfect animal, and man is more perfect than woman, because of ‘excess of heat,’” (p. 40). The historical support of the claim that men were viewed as the perfect model of a human being and women being imperfect fed the idea of men having more value than women.

The gender roles were also reiterated by the one-sex model claim. Lacquer stated that Aristotle “certainly regarded male and female bodies as specifically adapted to their particular roles,” (p. 29). We can see the ideology of roles and women being considered as less perfect being challenged in The Roaring Girl. Dekker and Middleton created a story around Moll, the cross-dressing heroin that is used to demonstrate this freedom from subordination for women. Moll’s story serves as the ultimate portrayal, but the side characters contain more subliminal roles that prove that there are inconsistencies in these claims.

The Roaring Girl introduces Moll Cutpurse who defies these identity roles by not only dressing in men’s clothes, but she performed men’s duties, talked like a man, and acted like a man. Her defiance to conform to society’s “laws of nature” portray her as the ultimate roaring girl, one that stands up for her rights and one that fights to be treated equally, or at least, break the boundaries of women’s roles of being nothing but subordinate. Sir Alexander shows his repugnance for a woman who attempts such empowerment and subordination of women’s minds and bodies. He describes Moll as:

A creature, saith he, nature hath brought forth

To mock the sex of woman. It is a thing

One knows not how to name: her birth began

Ere she was all made: ‘tis woman more than man,

Man more than woman, (Dekker/Middleton, p. 16).

He continues by calling her a varlet, which is defined as “a person of a low, mean, or knavish disposition,” (Oxford English Dictionary). Presenting this view of women like Moll was used strategically by Deker and Middleton to show a common understanding amongst the masses and what was presented through historical theories, such as Laquer’s one sex model, in order to present contradictions to such theories.

Other men, such as Laxton, attempted to prey on her in attempts to show his masculinity and show that she should be subordinated. Laxton is quoted telling the audience that Moll “were a marrow-bone before an Italian, he would cry bona roba till his ribs were nothing but bone. I’ll lay hard siege to her, money is that aqua fortis that eats into many a maidenhead,” and concludes with, “Where the walls are flesh and blood, I’ll ever pierce through with a golden auger,” (p. 31). This is a direct relation to the idea that women’s virtue can be bought and every woman has a price. Dekker and Middleton point out that Italian’s were fond of unorthodox positions and if an aphrodisiac such as Moll were in front of them, they would call her a prostitute. Laxton feels that he can utilize money to buy her off in order to subordinate her sexually. Dekker and Middleton present these types of characters in order to set the stage for natural gender conformity in order to break them with representations of the roaring girl conception.

Moll’s strong character does not allow her body to be bought, nor does she ready to relinquish her life to that of a man. She has no desire to step down and be obedient because she is the epitome of wit and spirit and can subordinate a man, just as they do to women. She is a roaring girl, one that relies on only herself and is quite content of being the head of her own household.

In peeling back the layers of representations of a roaring girl, Dekker and Middleton display characteristics in supporting character, Mistress Gallipot. While she is not of typical appearance in what was known to be a roaring girl, she displays qualities that break the norm of expectations of subordination of women. She discusses her displeasure of her husband’s lack of masculinity. She ends up taking advantage of her husband by swindling him of money. She makes him think she was previously promised to Laxton and if he agrees to pay him money, Laxton will leave her alone. As they meet, she puts on a show and her husband has no reason to doubt her. When he leaves, she asks Laxton how he liked her wit in concocting such a plan and he responds “By which the serpent did the first woman beguile did ever since all women’s bosoms fill; Y’are apple-eaters all, deceivers still,” (p. 70). This is a direct comparison to Eve’s falling as she gives into the serpent’s temptation. Laxton calls all women “apple-eaters” because they are still deceitful in their actions. Regardless of his views, Mistress Gallipot bends the rules of natural subordination of women by reversing these roles with her husband by comparing his behavior as one that breaks the natural dominance a man brings to the marriage. She tells Master Gallipot that she cannot be subordinate to an “apron husband” and we see this breaks his dominance knowing that he does everything to try to please her.

Continuing to peel back the layers of the representation of a roaring girl, we run across an instance concerning Mistress Gallipot and Mistress Openwork. Goshawk and Laxton attempt to convince the women that their husbands are cheating on them, in order to have their way with them. The men perceive women to be gullible and allow themselves to be vulnerable in

Dekker and Middleton push the boundaries of the roles of the sexes by displaying many layers of roaring girls hidden in the shadow of one dominant, roaring girl. There is a bright contrast of how women and their roles were perceived by men amidst the main story of a woman who was portrayed as breaking the norms of natural subordination of women. Dekker and Middleton prove that there are imperfections of historical beliefs of gender roles and what they ought to be by introducing woman who appear to be desirable in appearance and virtue that also break these roles. To represent falseness of historical claims, they presented the ideas of natural conformity that currently existed and displayed the holes in these systems through multiple layers by using different characters in various scenarios.