The Darker World within : Evil in the Tragedies of Shakespeare and His Successors

This exploration of the Stuart preoccupation with the darker side of the psyche suggests that fascination with evil perhaps precipitated the radical sociopolitical and cultural changes of the midcentury and that recurring depictions of declining patriarchal authority in plays by Shakespeare, Middleton, Massinger, Ford, and Shirley made possible the cultural assault on monarchy and patriarchy of the period.