Roles of Women During the Renaissance as Seen in Shakespeare's Henry IV

Roles of Women During the Renaissance as Seen in Shakespeare's Henry IV

The plays of Shakespeare can be used as a window upon Renaissance society. However, if one looks through this window and does not leave behind the ideals of a modern society, the view may become distorted and not be as pleasing as it was for Shakespeare's contemporaries. In I Henry IV, the characters of the women are not equally developed as the male characters; but their interaction, or lack thereof, depicts the changing, yet somehow stagnant, roles of women during the English Renaissance.

In I Henry IV, the "themes of public and private life are brought together" (Speaight, 163). Elizabethan society was marked by gender seperation, both publicly and privately. Lady Percy does not play an active role outside of Hotspur's private life. To Hotspur, a woman's world was "To play with mammets and to tilt with lips (2. 2. 91), a gentle powerless occupation that did not mix with man's domain of "bloody noses and cracked crowns" (2. 2. 92). Although women writing during this time affirmed that women are "tender foft and beautifull, fo doth her difpofition in minde correfponde accordingly; she is milde, yielding, and and vertuous"(Sowernam, 43), women among the higher social classes began to question their inferiority to men as a result of the new emphasis on education for women.

The heightened exposure to Biblical and classical influences among Renaissance women created paradoxical results. "Education was designed to fill specific private functions and responsabilities" (Travitsky, 5). Women were not encouraged to leave their place within the home, but instead were encouraged on the "development of the home as a school of faith" ...

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...lewd, froward, and unconstant men, and Husbands. Divided into Two Parts. The first proveth the dignity and worthinesse of Women, out of divine Testimonies. The second shewing the estimation of the Foe-minine Sexe, in ancient and Pagan times: all which is acknowledged by men themselves in their actions. Written by Ester Sowernam, neither Maide,Wife, nor Widdowe, yet really all, and therefore experienced to defend all. London: Printed for Nicholas Bourne, 1617. STC 22974. University Microfilms Reel no 1188.

4. Spaight, Robert. Shakespeare: The Man and his Achievement. London: J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1977.

5. Travitsky, Betty, ed. The Paradise of Women: Writings by Englishwomen of the Renaissance. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1981.

6. Watson, Curtis Brown. Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960.