A Woman Killed With Kindness

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, sexual content, and death by suicide. 

Consider the play’s structure. What thematic parallels exist between the two storylines? How do language, pacing, or other literary elements draw attention to these parallels?

Heywood is a well-known Early Modern playwright, but he is not so well known as Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, or Christopher Marlowe. Compare A Woman Killed with Kindness to a play by one of these other authors. What similarities exist in subject matter or style, and what do those similarities tell you about the era in which the works were written?

Compare Anne and Wendoll’s fates. How do their storylines expose double standards surrounding male versus female sexual behavior? Does the play endorse that double standard? How can you tell?