Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses antisemitism.

A theme that unites both the historical and present-day sections of the novel is the struggle for female autonomy. In Elizabethan England, Emilia’s gender means that she is a second-class citizen who must depend on men for economic survival. She understands that she is “a decorative object” to adorn Hunsdon’s home and must make the best of her lot as his mistress. Though Hunsdon is kind, he, like Alphonso and the other men in her life, sees her as less important than a man. Emilia thinks, “Men believed that women were meant to exist on the fringes of their lives, instead of being the main characters in their own stories. But why would God have given her a voice if it wasn’t meant to be used?” (112-13). She struggles to write her own stories, both in the form of the plays and in her own life. However, her freedom is drastically curtailed by being “owned like a wife” by Alphonso (243), who repeatedly abuses her and is legally allowed to do so.

Eventually, Emilia comes to see the struggle for autonomy as a generational battle, beginning with Eve and ending sometime in the future.