A Woman Killed With Kindness

Anne Frankford is John Frankford’s wife, having just married him at the start of the play, and the titular “woman.” Everyone praises Anne for her intelligence, beauty, and obedience, framing her as a perfect woman by the standards of the day. Indeed, Anne has little characterization beyond the praise she receives from men and the obedience she shows her husband, making her central to the theme of Marriage and Gender Roles in a Patriarchal Society. The play frames her affair with Wendoll as an archetypal seduction; she is initially “enchanted” by Wendoll’s flirtation, implying a loss of good judgment, and then unable to break off the affair without risking exposure. For an audience inclined to judge female sexual “sin” harshly, these details would have mitigated her transgression. 

Indeed, Anne is characterized by a persistent understanding of her “crime” of adultery. In the end, Anne chooses to starve herself, mirroring the religious fasting common among women trying to reach a closer relationship with God and thus suggesting her continued virtue. Whether such extreme penance is necessary within the play’s social and moral context is, like her punishment, open to various interpretations.

Wendoll is a young man of some means who begins the play as one of Francis’s supporters. After the brawl, though, Wendoll reports the event to Frankford and ends up staying in Frankford’s home. Frankford forms an immediate friendship with Wendoll, and Wendoll’s monologues indicate that he is also devoted to Frankford. However, Wendoll cannot restrain his desire for Anne, which leads him to have an affair with her, betraying Frankford’s trust. By the end of Act IV, Wendoll is exceedingly comfortable in his abuse of Frankford, readily accepting the role of “husband” when Frankford leaves town. He also becomes more public in his displays of affection toward Anne, such as insisting on playing cards with her and flaunting their closeness in front of Cranwell. Though Wendoll struggles with feelings of guilt regarding both Frankford and Anne, he ultimately resolves to flee England, hoping to erase the affair from his personal history over time.

Wendoll is the primary antagonist of the Frankford plot and a character who struggles with his role as the play’s “villain.” He constantly reflects on his desires and obligations, noting his love for Frankford but also his seemingly unrestrainable attraction to Anne. His behavior toward Anne similarly shifts as time goes on: At first, Wendoll is flirtatious, saying Anne’s sighs make him bleed, but by the time the affair is discovered, Wendoll has grown callous and lustful, criticizing Anne’s reluctance and effectively coercing her into sleeping with him. Despite being capable of introspection, Wendoll is ultimately self-serving and inconsiderate. His more ethical impulses do not influence his actions at all, in contrast to Frankford, whose prayers bring him patience and restraint. Conversely, where Charles and Anne’s mistakes are acts of impulse, the fact that Wendoll does weigh his options before choosing to pursue the affair makes him the most straightforwardly immoral character in the play.

Francis Acton is Anne’s brother and Frankford’s friend, and he begins the play as a friend to Charles, as well. However, when Francis and Charles make a wager on hunting, Francis becomes upset at his loss and starts a fight with Charles. Despite instigating the fight, Francis afterward presses charges against Charles for killing his best falconer and huntsman. It is only when Francis meets Charles’s sister, Susan, that his hatred of Charles wanes, and he decides to help Charles to secure a marriage with Susan. 

Francis is a brash character but less villainous than Shafton, a minor character who uses a loan to extort Charles. Unlike Shafton, Francis is not dishonest about his reasons for hounding Charles, though his actions make him the main antagonist in the Charles, Susan, and Francis plot. He remains somewhat morally ambiguous throughout the play; paying Charles’s debts and dropping the charges against Charles would seem to mark redemption, but Francis does so because of his interest in Susan. What’s more, that interest is itself framed as another possible avenue to harm Charles, with Francis saying he intends to satisfy his hate by means of Susan. That Francis ultimately chooses to marry Susan despite her impoverished state suggests a degree of genuine emotion for her, though her reluctance to enter the marriage somewhat complicates this “happy ending.” Regardless, the proposal cements Charles and Francis’s friendship once again, and in the final scenes, Charles and Francis are no longer at odds.

Charles Mountford is another wealthy gentleman; he lives with his sister, Susan. Charles often acts impulsively but accepts responsibility for his behavior, making him a foil to both Wendoll (who acts reflectively but sidesteps accountability) and Francis (who acts impulsively and avoids accountability). Specifically, Charles kills two men in the brawl with Francis, and though he attributes these murders to his “rage,” he says that he must pay the price for what he did, staying at the scene and accepting his arrest. Indeed, Charles is so tormented by his behavior during the brawl that when Shafton tries to extort Charles, he readily accepts this additional “punishment.”

Charles is the deuteragonist of the play, forming the main focus of the plot that also involves Susan and Francis. Besides his strong sense of personal honor, Charles’s main traits are his love for his sister and his pride in his family, which are placed at odds when Susan reveals Francis’s desire for her. Charles assumes that Francis intends to harm Susan but insists that Susan accept Francis’s intentions to save the Mountford family. Charles frames the situation as one in which he and Susan both profit from Francis’s kindness, indicating that Charles values the family honor more than the well-being of his family members. Even when Francis marries Susan, Charles remains complicit in objectifying his sister and trading her as a commodity. The play largely frames this as a positive resolution to the conflict, though certain details, such as the contrast between Susan’s resigned tone and Charles’s effusive praise for Francis, temper the celebratory mood and suggest a more critical reading of Charles’s character.