Webster's theatre was also Shakespeare's theatre: but their tragedies are very different. Webster has a reputation for angst-ridden, obsessive, and debased characters and the creation of a sick and decaying world. Yet his heroines are amongst the strongest characters, man or woman, in Jacobean drama. This book shows that Webster's plays portray a world in which patriarchal, aristocratic politics are dissected and diseased. Through close analysis of key moments, scenic and dramatic structure, characterisation, theatricality and imagery, this book enables students to appreciate Webster's individual contribution to our dramatic heritage. Through such textual reading, we learn how he uses drama to debate contemporary political and social issues, most explicitly those of gender. The book provides students with effective reading, critical and analytical tools with which to approach Webster's plays as dramatic scripts for our time, and as rivals to Shakespeare's major tragedies.