Gender Roles In Machiavelli's The Prince

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While neither Machiavelli’s The Prince nor Shakespeare’s Henry V focus explicitly on gender roles, they both make assumptions and implications sufficient to illustrate their opinions about the nature and place of women in relation to men. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, men and women are depicted in traditional gender roles with women as tricky and unreliable, but ultimately yielding to men who are portrayed as tough and immovable. Shakespeare’s Henry V acknowledges these ideas, but also portrays women as able to influence events within the small domain they are given. Throughout The Prince Machiavelli gives definite instructions as to how a prince should and should not behave which often conforms to the traditional image of men as being tough …show more content…

Though she is a successful inn owner, she marries Pistol and in doing so gives up her autonomy as demonstrated when her husband commands her to “let housewifery appear” and “keep close” in his absence (Henry V 2.4.62). Subjugating herself to the will of her husband appears to conform to the inferior societal role of women found in The Prince. However, it is also clear that she has much more guile than subservience when it is revealed that she was “troth-plight” to Nym and “did him wrong” in marrying another (Henry V 2.1.20-21). This too seems to conform with Machiavelli’s notion that women are flighty and deceptive, “devils incarnate” (Henry V 2.3.32-33). However, it also brings up an important point: Mistress Quickly actually had a choice and she made it of her own free will. Though the exact reasons for her choice to marry are unknown, there is no mention of love or any strong emotional attachment regarding her apparently swift change of partner. This indicates that Mistress Quickly chose, not out of irrationality and a desire for chaos, but out of prudence, a quality associated with great men in The

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