Not only does Nicholas have traits that are perceived as masculine, but Tyson as well, as he is strong-willed and authoritative. His authoritative personality is evident in his demanding and serious tone of voice, as he sternly states “You’ll find that I can’t be disarmed with pretty talk, young woman. You have no business at all in this house,” (Fry 27). Tyson’s authoritativeness is linked to masculinity because self-confidence and assertiveness leads to dominance, a key component of masculinity. Furthermore, Tyson also has the masculine trait of being strong-willed. Despite the fact that Thomas is begging to be hung and confessing to the crimes that Jennet is accused of, Tyson is unyielding, refusing to listen or even acknowledge the opinions of others. After Jennet interrogated Tyson about the validity of his accusation on page 40, Tyson disregarded her defense and simply says, “You are both under arrest.” Although there is little to no evidence against Jennet, Tyson stubbornly continues to accuse Jennet of being …show more content…
This is especially evident in the response of the male characters when a woman challenges them in the slightest. For example, Tyson and Tappercoom were intimidated and threatened by Jennet as her accused occupation as a witch and this causes them to jump to conclusions and manipulate facts in order to transform them into evidence against Jennet. Specifically, Tyson mentioned her that she is “wealthy, they tell me” (Fry 40), and “quite affectingly handsome” (Fry 41). When Tyson says “all’s not glorious within,” Tyson implies that her wealth and attractiveness are too perfect and comes to the conclusion that therefore there must be something wrong with Jennet. Just by the simple existence of Jennet, Tyson felt as though his masculine dominance was threatened by Jennet, because she is intelligent, wealthy, powerful, and mysterious, which truly sheds light on the frailty of masculinity. Jennet did not have to physically or verbally threaten Tyson, but however, his masculinity was immediately and easily challenged by just her presence as a strong and independent woman. Similarly, despite Eliza’s lack of education, Eliza’s wisdom and knowledge of being kind challenged Higgins’s superiority. Unlike the intelligence of Higgin’s, Eliza’s inherent wisdom and warm