Absolving Frankford: Analyzing “Kindness” in A Woman Killed with Kindness Elliot Amoroso College

It is easy for a modern audience to look upon the actions of Master Frankford in Thomas Heywood’s A Woman Killed with Kindness and recoil in disgust. While his actions may be starkly seen as emotional abuse today, within the world of the play his punishment for Anne is praised as a gentlemanly solution to his wife’s adultery. Close readings of the text provide insight into Frankford’s actions and allow the reader to see beyond their initial perception that he is more a domestic abuser. By analyzing the way A Woman Killed with Kindness presents its acts of kindness committed by Frankford and the subplot characters, the difference between the emotions found in the main plot and subplot, and the way it juxtaposes his actions with alternative solutions he could have taken, I will attempt to prove through comparisons with the side story involving Sir Francis, Sir Charles and Susan that A Woman Killed with Kindness views Frankford’s actions as genuine acts of kindness.

The most immediately apparent signifier that Frankford’s actions are genuinely kind is how the play distinguishes false kindness from true kindness. Juxtaposing the actions of the characters brings the differences between the sincere acts and the disingenuous acts into...