Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Features of jacobean theatre
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Features of jacobean theatre
The Roaring Girl, composed by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton, around 1607-1610, is a "subversive city drama about the firm Moll Cutpurse who takes all affairs seriously and challenges anyone who disagrees with her opinions." The plot itself isn't anything exciting or striking for a Jacobean play. Yet, what makes this an extremely intriguing play is the character of Moll Cutpurse (in light of the genuine Mary Frith, otherwise known as Moll Cutpurse,) a lady who dressed and carries on in a "masculine" manner. Drilling deep into the dialog of the characters truly demonstrates a manifestation of this character and the breaking of sexual orientation standards, and that it is the thing that separates this play from different bits of the same period. The dialect is poor, the jokes coarse, and the plot is just excessively entangled, making it impossible to take after. It has something to do with a …show more content…
The decision of music, be that as it may, was irritating. It was noisy and domineering, a blend of rock, jazz and ska, with one scene where Moll comes up from the focal point of the stage, playing an electric guitar and singing. The male characters in The Roaring Girl don't uncertainty Moll's conviction not to wed, but rather they do bring issue with her optimal conditions under which she would marry. In both occasions the male characters show their uneasiness towards ladies and the limitations set on them. There was one reclaiming scene with Mistress Gallipot and her spouse, around a letter the previous had gotten and a mystery beau, which was delightful. Truth be told, Lizzie Hopley, as Mistress Gallipot, was the main high point for me in the play. Be that as it may, I had no clue what that scene needed to do with whatever remains of the play; what plot there is so convoluted, and there are such a large number of characters, that it was too difficult to take
Gender roles and inequality are still evolving and continue to change. It has only been not that long ago that women started to break out their outlined roles and looked at about the same or- almost the same level- as men on a wide scale basis. Indeed, some women in certain parts of the world are still represented in the same way as in both plays that will be compared in this essay. The characters in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll's House highlight the challenges of gender roles. The attention focused on points of comparison and contrast of men vs women's reactions in the course of both plays, which, allow the audience to think about gender identity and role conflicts. The other common shared view in both plays is that they are both showcased from a female perspective.
In my essay I will be analysing two critics Jan H. Blits and Mary Hamer that discussed whether or not women did play a vital role in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
One opportunity this version of the play gives us is the ability to see Miss Y with Mr. X and see her reactions while she is with him. In the first scene Miss Y looks at Mrs. X and her children with contempt (like she is described doing in the text when Mrs. X talks about her children). However, when Mrs. X leaves, we see her making very slow and deliberate movements obviously trying to get the attention of Mr. X on her way out. When she eyes him as she passes and he seemingly ignores her, she rolls her eyes, obviously not content with his reaction. In the way Miss Y and Mr. X are portrayed in this first scene, we already start to get the impression that Miss Y obviously wants Mr. X or that there is already something going on between them.
Rose, Mary Beth. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988.
This paper will look at the different conceptions highlighted by Bulman in his article through the use of different methods used by the actors in the play. Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare captures the different conceptions of gender identity and different sexualities within the Elizabethan period.
Margaret is an intelligent, articulate, and ambitious woman who desires to rise up in social status by marrying a man of higher social rank. She attends to those above her, in hopes of elevating her status as she becomes closer to the upper-class. As a minor character, she plays a small yet crucial role in advancing Don John’s plot to slander Hero and spoil her wedding. As a lower-class character, Margaret serves as a foil to the rich girls, particularly Hero, who embodies every attitude and mindset Margaret does not. But she also offers an alternative perspective on the upper-class characters in the play. Because Margaret is victimized because of her social ambitions, punished for wanting to rise above her ...
Howard, Jean. "Cross-dressing, The Theatre, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern Eng- land." Shakespeare Quarterly 39 (1988): 418-40.
The title page offers an immediate insight into the patriarchal constraints placed on women in early modern England. Although The Tragedy of Mariam is the first known English play to be authored by a woman, the fact that Cary is unable to give her full name is indicative of the limitations on women writers of the period. This semi-anonymous authorship...
The light and dark imagery that Shakespeare uses in this passage describes Juliet as a young and eager lover. Romeo associates Juliet with light meaning goodness. Then Romeo says that Juliet looks like the excellent night. The night that Romeo speaks of represents Rosaline. Romeo basically says through with light and dark imagery, that Juliet is as good as Rosaline to love. Romeo then compares Juliet to a "winged messenger of heaven" who filled with lightness and goodness. He says that all humans look upon this kindness as the messenger "bestrides the lazy puffing clouds" while doing his errands. Romeo explains using this imagery that everyone looks at Juliet because she gives off a stunning and intricate outlook.
Kemp, Theresa D. Women in the Age of Shakespeare. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2009. Print.
With the restoration of Charles II to the throne following the fall of the Commonwealth and Puritanism came a surge of sexual and artistic freedom in England. This new libertine ideology brought with it not only the reemergence of the theatre, but and a society that embraced freedom of sexuality and thought in a way that was unprecedented. It is this new libertine society that provided a context for the writings of Aphra Behn. While Behn observed men like rakish Charles II and the effeminate Earl of Rochester enjoying England’s newfound open mindedness, she was forced to navigate, or rather circumnavigate, the limitations that remained in place for women. In a time when actresses were first appearing on stage and Charles II’s mistresses were regarded practically as pop culture icons, women were finally breaking out of the private sphere and being thrust into the public eye.1 While women, and even their sexualities were at last being celebrated outside of the domestic sphere, it was far from on their own terms, and entirely relative to the roles they filled for men. While the society so often characterized by the court of Charles II was on the whole highly performative, women were expected to perform in a much more specific way than their male counterparts. On and off stage women were expected to conform to a limited selection of character types that started with wife and ended with whore, and the spectrum between was narrow if not nonexistent.
The general public may also have preferred strength in female characters as a reflection of pride for their beloved monarch who was one of the few highly competent English rulers in spite of her gender and the sexism of the time in which she lived. Regardless of his reasoning for scripting women the way he did, Shakespeare was most certainly an advocate for feminism when he wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream. From the feminist perspective, liberal thinking and open-mindedness like William Shakespeare are welcome to invade our modern literature and lives for the next four hundred years. Works Cited Greene, Lenz, Neely, eds., pp. 113-117
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest provides dialogue that portrays the social expectations and stereotypes imposed upon women in Elizabethan times. Even though the play has only one primary female character, Miranda, the play also includes another women; Sycorax, although she does not play as large a roll. During many scenes, the play illustrates the characteristics that represent the ideal woman within Elizabethan society. These characteristics support the fact that men considered women as a mere object that they had the luxury of owning and were nowhere near equal to them. Feminists can interpret the play as a depiction of the sexist treatment of women and would disagree with many of the characteristics and expectations that make Miranda the ideal woman. From this perspective, The Tempest can be used to objectify the common expectations and treatment of women within the 16th and 17th Centuries and compare and contrast to those of today.
Leininger, Lorie Jerrel. “The Miranda Trap: Sexism and Racism in Shakespeare’s Tempest.” The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Eds Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz et al. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. 285-294
The feminism of Shakespeare’s time is still largely unrecognized. Drama from the 1590’s to the mid-1600’s is feminist in sympathy. The author