If there is one theme in fiction that I keep seeing, it is the fact that women are the catalyzers of bold actions, such as homicide. In Richard II Act 1 Scene 2, the Duchess of Gloucester wishes her nephew luck in slaying Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk, for her husband and brother had been slayed. And in the opera Don Giovanni, Donna Anna seduces her husband into agreeing to avenge her father’s death. Both women use their grief to manipulate the men around them.

I find this both intriguing and slightly insulting. That women are portrayed as such devious creatures strikes hard on my feminist button. Not only that, the playwright William Shakespeare seems to love sculpting scheming female characters, such as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, and Tatiana of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Like sweet venom sits

The spider waits for its mate

Only to eat him

-Megan P. Low