From mermaids to female naval officers, the relationship between women and the sea, both in history and literature, has been complex. Sailors traditionally had conflicting superstitions regarding a woman's place on a ship, and this sense of conflict carries over into two early modern dramatic works, namely Heywood's Fair Maid of the West and Shakespeare's Pericles . Bess and Marina, the main female characters in both plays, draw a fine line between the captors and the masters of the sea, and similarly between the roles of strong heroines who act outside their gender roles and women heteronormative rules mastered by the respective male characters. Indeed, the sea seems to have either a connection with independence or confinement for the two female protagonists, which ultimately relates to their "proper" (non-threatening) place as wives and traditional housewives. In order to understand the maritime culture that drives Heywood and Shakespeare's work, we must first explore the tensions of the time between women and the sea. Traditional opinion, at all levels, at the beginning of the voyages "was that women had no place at sea. They were not physically or emotionally strong enough [and] the men were distracted and driven to vice" ("The Early Days", section 1). These ideas automatically link women to traditional gender stereotypes and reinforce the idea of ​​women as sexual beings (whether they like it or not), a concept that finds its parallel in the dramatic works of Heywood and Shakespeare. Many superstitions also linked women to bad weather, as many sailors believed that women on board ships led to "terrible storms" that were "doomed to destroy the ship and everyone on board" (section 1 ). However, these superstitions were not taken into account. means that there was no ...... middle of paper ......umn, 1993), 589-609.Helms, Lorraine. “The saint in the brothel: or, eloquence rewarded.” Shakespeare Quarterly, 41.3 (Fall 1990), 319-332. Heywood, Thomas. The beautiful girl of the West. Robert K. Turner, ed. Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 1967. Howard, Jean E. "Gender, Race, Sexuality, and National Identity in Heywood's Fair Maid of the West." » Women, “race” and writing in the early modern period. Margo Hendricks and Patricia A. Parker, eds. New York: Routledge, 2004. Rodgers, Silvia. “Feminine power at sea”. RAIN, 64 (October 1984) 2-4.Shakespeare. Pericles. Stephen Orgel, ed. New York: Pelican, 2001. “The Beginnings of Women at Sea.” Southampton Port Cities. Plimsoll: Digital Maritime Archives. 2005. February 28, 2008. Thorne, WB “Pericles and the “incest-fertility” opposition. » Shakespeare Quarterly, 2.1 (winter, 1971) 43-56.