Queen Margaret of Anjou

Character Analysis

The widow of Henry VI, one-time vigorous prosecutor of the Lancastrian cause, has survived into old age as a kind of Fury voicing curses and horrible prophecies. In her speeches, so highly rhetorical and formalistic, the major theme of the play receives repeated emphasis. She lives to see, and practically to gloat over, the fulfillment of one curse, one prophecy, after another. It is she who makes understandable why — in accordance with that mathematical scheme of justice which she constantly dwells upon — Queen Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, and even the little princes should suffer.

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