Noah’s Uxor: A Shrew Worth Redeeming

Abstract

This essay seeks to explore how humor is used in the medieval biblical dramas concerning Noah’s ark to present a wife who is truculent but worthy of being saved. The character refuses to follow a typical medieval view of husband-wife hierarchy and instead asserts herself in a way that would be unacceptable to most husbands. However, because her tyrannous behavior is slapstick rather than offensive, her role as an unruly woman becomes more acceptable. The comic trope of the shrew allows her to break the conventional role of the wife, but still be saved from the flood.