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William Shakespeare's influence on society
Role of women in Shakespeare's writings
Role of women in Shakespeare's writings
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Recommended: William Shakespeare's influence on society
Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare, provides less freedom and control for independent women than other Shakespearian plays in existence. Unlike other the other plays, the function of marriage is not necessarily a crystal clear punishment or reward. Union to higher power depends upon individual qualities and specific situations that are unable to be classified as fitting only into comedy or tragedy. The explanation of "Measure still for Measure" (IV.i.414) focuses on punishments and retributions as well as an obedience to transferred power.
The Duke’s reign has shaped an atmosphere in Vienna fraught with indulgence and an overall disregard for the law. The Duke wishes to have more order in Vienna but is unsure how to bring it about himself, so he has called upon Angelo to take over his rule. Claudio’s later sentencing will serve as an example to change the course of the kingdom. The characters may be divided into groups depending on their opinions of fornication and other sexual behaviors considered offenses by the new leader.
Isabella exemplifies the conflict between hedonism and religion. Isabella presents one extreme of the spectrum: abstaining completely from sexual activity in order to become a nun while Mistress Overdone represents the other end: managing the prostitution business on the backstreets of Vienna. Isabella seeks to retire from these sins of the “common people” by attempting to join the safe and pure environment of a convent. Lucio removes her from this “haven” causing her to be vulnerable to the sins of others. Isabella must question her values about acceptability and propriety, emotionally hold onto her chastity when it is asked for, and decide whether or not to marry, never to return to the nunnery....
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...in accordance to why it legal for the act to take place. The relationship between Claudio and Juliet parallels the contract of marriage of Angelo and Mariana with both parties willing. However, Angelo is unaware of the switch and therefore only one person is a willing party. Perhaps the Duke justifies the legalities through “tricking” Angelo in order to progress his strategy. At the end of the play, the Duke remains in disguise to continually manipulate his subjects while allowing them to believe that they are acting of their own volition. This manipulation also serves as a test of their devotion to their positions. When the Duke asks for Isabella to marry him, she is not given the chance to respond verbally. This final situation will highlight the transference of power over to the Duke with the loss of her sexual independence, or to God and her eternal soul.
middle of paper ... ... Again, we see that things, which appear less direct, may have actually contributed more to the situation. & nbsp; It does take two to tango. Juliet also promoted the relationship, and was too stubborn to listen to her parents' wishes. It was originally Juliet's idea for the two to wed. & nbsp; "If thy bent of love be honourable, thy purpose marriage, send me word tomorrow by one that I'll procure to come to thee, where and what time thou wilt perform the rites, and all thy fortunes at thy foot I'll lay." & nbsp; Juliet also could have avoided disaster had she respected her parents a bit more.
“From Lieutenant Nun,” a memoir written by doña Catalina de Erauso, tells an intriguing story of a young Spanish female and her advantageous journey through Spain and the New World. Her family intends for her to become a nun but, that is not the life she seeks for herself. Therefore, she breaks away from the convent in hopes of finding somewhere to make her fortune by passing as a male. Catalina’s story is noteworthy because it gives readers another perspective of exploration focusing on self-discovery during the seventeenth century emphasizing how passing as a male is the only thing that secured her ability to explore. In the memoir, Catalina repeatedly reminisces about clothing and, whether she consciously or unconsciously does so, she allows the reader to see that this is an important aspect of her exploration. Throughout Catalina’s journey, clothing plays an increasingly important role not only in her travels but, also her personal life because it symbolized ones status, role, gender and privileges.
Shakespeare's comedies A Midsummers Night's Dream and Much Ado About Nothing have many parallels while Measure for Measure is a problem play with a completely different tone. Comparing and contrasting these three plays provides insights into the views of Shakespeare concerning comedy.
Since 1970, when the Isabella of John Barton's RSC production of Measure for Measure first shocked audiences by silently refusing to acquiesce to the Duke's offer of marriage at the end of the play, Isabella's response (or lack thereof) to the Duke's proposal has become one of the most prevalent subjects for Shakespearean performance criticism.See, for example, Jane Williamson, "The Duke and Isabella on the Modern Stage," The Triple Bond: Plays, Mainly Shakespearean, in Performance, ed. Joseph G. Price (University Park: Penn State UP, 1975), pp. 149-69; Ralph Berry, "Measure for Measure on the Contemporary Stage," Humanities Association Review 28 (1977), 241-47; Philip C. McGuire, Speechless Dialect: Shakespeare's Open Silences (Berkeley: U of California P, 1985); and Graham Nicholls, Measure for Measure: Text and Performance (London: Macmillan Education, 1986). However, attention to this issue has tended to overshadow another ambiguous aspect of the same stage sequence: the question of why the Duke asks Isabella to marry him in the first place. It is generally agreed that the text provides no evidence to suggest a romantic attachment to Isabella on the Duke's part until the moment of his proposal, but the play's stage history reveals a pattern of attempts to supply what the text lacks, either through stage business or interpolated declarations of love. Hal Gelb notes, "Critics and directors have so keenly felt a sense of the marriage as a tacked-on after-thought that they have sought ways to prepare it earlier in the play" ("Duke Vincentio and the Illusion of Comedy or All's Not Well that Ends Well," SQ, 22 [1971], 31). These attempts, based on a culturally specific conception of matrimony as prompted by erotic desire, disregard other textually prominent motivations for marriage grounded in Renaissance moral, social, and financial concerns. Ann Jennalie Cook, comparing contemporary notions of marriage to those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, writes, "Despite the romantic ideas expressed in plays and poetry, most marriages were contracted on the basis of interest rather than affect. Society demanded a legitimate male heir to preserve the family name and properties. Moreover, the financial arrangements of a marriage settlement were essential to insure that both parties could live securely until death. Marriage was also viewed as the safest outlet for the healthful discharge of sexual appetites.
In the play Measure For Measure by William Shakespeare many twist and turns are made to create the plot of the play. The play is a comical relief play meaning that the play will end in multiple marriages, and throughout the play there will be random places where the scene will bring back the attention of the people in the audience who were drinking alcohol beverages. The play has five major characters along with few other minor characters who develop the plot of the play as well.
By the end of the play, we see Claudio’s transformation from being an immature, love-struck boy who believes gossip and allows himself to easily be manipulated grow into a mature young man who admits to his mistakes and actually has the capacity to love the girl he has longed for. The wedding dance of Claudio and Hero along with Beatrice and Benedict shows how order is now restored in the city of Messina, and order given to the life of Claudio.
During the Elizabethan era women had a status of subordination towards men. They had a role to marry and oblige to their husband’s wishes. Shakespearean literature, especially illustrates how a woman is psychologically and physically lesser to their male counterpart. The play, Othello, uses that aspect in many different ways. From a Feminist lens others are able to vividly examine how women were subjected to blatant inferiority. Being displayed as tools for men to abuse, women were characterized as possessions and submissive; only during the last portion of the play did the power of women take heed.
The struggle of women to fight for equal rights has always been a problem in society. This issue has transcended from generations and can be tracked down from many literary sources: books and articles, the conflict women went through to even be able to voice their point in in any matter, even ones that included them. William Shakespeare, as said by Scott Guffey, manages to bring “fourth [the] highly believable and realistic” (Guffey 2) judgment and belittlement of women during the Renaissance period in Othello. Shakespeare does this by establishing societies need for women to portray the image of the perfect wife and signifying the repercussion that occur when those needs are not meet. He illustrates what happens to Desdemona and Emilia’s credibility and treatment after their husband’s accuse them of cheating, an allegation that causes them to no longer hold the only thing women were valued for: their image of an impeccable wife. Although, they were both strong women by defying important men in their life, gender was represented as a source of supremacy, in Othello, and challenging those norms ultimately lead to both of these women’s demise.
In the play, Claudio has been sentenced to death for getting his fiancee pregnant (his crime was not so much getting her pregnant, but having sex with her at all). Claudio's sister, Isabella, who is in the process of joining a nunnery, feels that Claudio has done wrong, has sinned and committed a crime, but she feels that the sentence--death--is too strict. So, she goes to the ruler of the city, Angelo, to plead for her brother's life. The previously virtuous Angelo falls into lust with Isabella, and he propositions her to save her brother by having sex with him (Angelo). Now, remember that Isabella is in the process of becoming a nun. She, of course, rejects this propos...
Romeo and Juliet is set during the Elizabethan period when women had to acquiesce to men. This was known as a patriatical society. It was the time when fathers decided whom their daughters should marry. In the Elizabethan period events such as marriage were more traditional and were taken very seriously as well as the fact that men were more powerful than women. The Elizabethan period was a period of internal peace between the English Reformation and the battles between Protestants and Catholics as well the battles between the Parliament and the Monarchy that repulsed the seventeenth century which relates to the Period that Shakespeare wrote the play because it creates this contrast that people were fighting over reputation for example, Capulet wanting to give his daughter Juliet to a rich and respectable man like Paris rather than someone like Romeo who does not have a reputation in the society. However, In the Elizabethan society men were the ''head of the household'' so the women of the Elizabethan society had no say in anything or anyone as well as not being able to know what the men had been up to because the men were seen as the dominant sex but on the other hand, in the twenty first century the women are mostly controlling the men such as a wife of a footballer. Men that were married were able to masquerade (sleep with another women or cheat) on their own wife's and even if the wife of the husband found out about the situation, she could not have done anything about it. She would either accept the situation or leave the husband but rarely women of the Elizabethan period did that because most of the men in the Elizabethan society were rich. As soon as the play starts, Shakespeare wants the audience to know that there is goin...
Centuries ago in Elizabethan England there were many traditions about marriage and the treatment of women. One strong tradition of these times was the practice of marriage between races. Interracial marriages were considered extremely taboo. (High Beam). In this era marriages were arranged by the parents with strong help from the local church. The individuals had little choice as to who they would marry. (Elizabethan England Life). Yet another example of these traditions was the respectable treatment of women. While the husband was in charge of his wife, as was the father, the husband were expected to treat the women right (Elizbethi). In spurning all of these traditions, Shakespeare demonstrates a view of marriage far different from that of Elizabethan England, in doing this he is trying to plant new ideas in the people who read or view the play.
Before meeting Juliet, Romeo thought he was deeply in love with Rosaline. Romeo says, “When the devout religion of mine eye, Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire; And these who, often drowned, could never die, Transparent heretics, be burnt for liars. One fairer than my love? The all-seeing sun Ne 'er saw her match since first the world begun.”(Act 1, Scene 2) Here, Romeo rambles on about how there never was a girl so perfect as Rosaline. However, no more than two acts later into the play, Romeo is singing praises into the ears of Juliet, attempting to bed her the night they met. Ann Lander’s poem, “Love or Infatuation?” states, “Love is not based on sex. It is the maturation of friendship that makes sex so much sweeter. You must be friends before you can be lovers.” Romeo and Juliet knew nothing of each other before that fateful night, and in fact were enemies because of their family 's schism. Their relationship is solely driven off off sex, as Romeo stated, “Wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” (Act 2, Scene 2) To be able to have intercourse, Romeo and Juliet rushed to be wed under the secrecy of Friar Lawrence. “The Differences” says, “Infatuation says, "We must get married right away. I can 't risk losing him." Love says, "Be patient. Don 't panic. Plan your future with confidence." Romeo and Juliet did not plan their relationship at all, instead they rushed through it, throwing caution into the wind. If given time and different circumstances between their families, Romeo and Juliet would have had to keep their relationship secret. Alas, they were unable to do so, therefore Romeo and Juliet are not in love, but instead have an intense sexual desire between
To begin, Juliet challenges her family expectations in favour of living a life where she can express her love to Romeo, who is her family’s enemy, freely. For example, as Romeo and Juliet speak with each other on the balcony, she states “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet” (II, ii, 100-102). Juliet understands society will not allow her to be with Romeo, a Montague, because he is the family’s (Capulet’s) enemy. But due to her intense love toward Romeo, she is ready to give up her family ...
From the beginning of the play the Duke shows his fascination with the art of disguise. He has Lord Angelo takes his place and he in turn becomes a friar in disguise. Throughout the play this notion of false identity and exchange of identity plays an important role for the Duke and also for the characters in the play.
The people do not fear the Duke so he tries to win them over another way; he selfishly puts Angelo in power, knowing that Angelo’s faults will make the Duke look like a better leader. The duke is a soft ruler and cannot bring himself to punish his people when they commit a crime. When his loses the respect and fear of his people, he puts Angelo in charge of the people, knowing that he may not be fit for the task. The duke may have saw putting Angelo in power and dressing as a friar as a way to establish law and order in Vienna but still being the merciful leader he is known as. When the Duke asks Lord Angelo to take over, Angelo refuses and says that his skill must be tested some other way first. The Duke responds by saying: