'The worst extremity': Early modern jealousy in Edmund Spenser and Mary Wroth

This thesis examines the complex characterisations of early modern jealousy in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene and Mary Wroth's The Countess of Montgomery's Urania . The introduction examines the various cultural influences on, and manifestations of, jealousy in an attempt to contextualize jealousy within the early modern period, as well as to draw attention to its rich nuances and complexities. The introduction focuses on the literary, theological, and socio-political background to the early modern concept of jealousy, as well as established stereotypes and attributes of the jealous character. The first chapter analyses Spenser's text in the context of jealousy's potential for intense self-examination and subsequent self-improvement. The second chapter examines Wroth's representations of jealousy, in the Urania which not only provide a female perspective on gender and identity in the early modern period, but also demonstrate a skilled reworking of Spenserian episodes. Both the continuity between Spenser's and Wroth's texts, as well as their polyvalent and multiple manifestations of jealousy, provide insight into the dynamics of gender and identity in the early modern period.