After reading two of William Shakespeare's works: Twelfth Night and Midsummer
Night's Dream, one will notice an immense difference in the way that a noble woman compared
to an average woman, attracts a man and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These
differences are evident in conversations and actions of particular characters in Shakespeare's
plays, including Maria and Olivia from Twelfth Night and Hermia, Helena, and Titania from A
Mid Summer Night's Dream. Sixteenth and seventeenth century art also demonstrates a
hierarchy of women in relation to their nobility and social class, so Elizabeth When a Princess,
Mary Queen of Scots in White Mourning, Two Women Sewing, and Interior with Two Women at
a Linen Chest, will also be used to explore early modern England. Finally this society will be
compared to American present-day society, a society in which a woman's worth is determined by
her outer appearance. Is there a similarity in the early modern English and present day
Americans's vanity?
Twelfth Night shows a woman's value is based on her position in society and does so
early on in the play. The play proves that a noble woman has equal or more power than a man in
this society. Olivia, a noble woman, has several men who try to court her and she holds
emotional power over them. These men are infatuated with her because of her status in society.
This power is the equivalent to a beautiful woman in present-day American society. It is evident
that Olivia has emotional power of nobleman Orsino when in Act I Scene I he declares, "O, she
that hath a heart of that fine frame/ To pay this debt of love but to a brother,/ How will she love
when the rich golden shaft/ Hath killed the fl...
... middle of paper ...
...rn England. Susan Frye. Philidelphia: University of
Philidelphia Press, 2010. P42.
Pieter de Hooch. Interior with Two Women at a Linen Chest. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1663.
Pens and Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England. Susan Frye.
Philidelphia: University of Philidelphia Press, 2010. P 174.
Roghman, Geertruid. Two Women Sewing. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1600. Pens and
Needles: Women's Textualities in Early Modern England. Susan Frye. Philidelphia:
University of Philidelphia Press, 2010. P161.
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Norton Shakespeare Volume 1:
Early Plays and Poems. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
P 849.
Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night." The Norton Shakespeare Volume 1: Early Plays and
Poems. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. P 1691.
her is inferior to Rochester and others of high class. She is forced into this social
... because of her beauty. And Morgan leafy while she might be an all-powerful sorcerer, she is a ultimately a manipulator and scapegoat.
...n he tried to intimidate her earlier and that she would be so bold to his face. The criticism faced by the characters in the plays demonstrate the idea that women are inferior to men and should not speak out for themselves.
Dash, Irene. Wooing, Wedding, and Power: Women in Shakespeare’s Plays. New York: Columbia University Press, 1981.
To illustrate the profound effects of proprioceptive loss, Oliver Sacks documented a clinical case of a woman who lost all proprioception (1985). Sacks declared that the sense of our bodies relies on three things: vision, the vestibular stystem, and proprioception. His client lost all proprioception and could not walk without watching her own legs, or talk without listening to her own voice. She could not truly determine if she had a body. The patient could not perform any motor movements most people would deem natural without relying on environmental feedback to achieve the simplest maneuver. Oliver Sacks' clinical story reflects how much the mind depends on proprioception for even the most rudimentary actions not thought consciously considered. The following research demonstrates the importance of proprioception.
At this time of the play being Shown Men had power over women and this
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.
Even though women’s rights has evolved drastically, today and throughout history, women still largely adhere to men’s demands. Men, who withhold most of the power in relationships, tend to expanded their own power at the cost of these women, displaying that anybody in a position of power can become uncontrolled. A similar scenario of imbalanced power appears throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays women as pawns in a mostly male world, due to their desire for acceptance from men, women are led to their downfall, showing that in seeking a man’s approval, they often fall victim to men’s greed and manipulation.
Evaluate and respond to the presentations of women in the Romantic period. Feel free to discuss presentations of women, by women (such as Austen’s Persuasion) as well as presentations of women by men (such as the “she” in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”). Consider the following questions: are these presentations problematic? What do they tell us about the values and briefs of the Romantic Period? Do any of these presentations subvert (complicate, or call into questions) the time’s notions of femininity?
Men have so much control in this society and Shakespeare has a little bit of a change in the women in his play.
Complications also arose when viola fell in love with her master, duke orsino, while at the same time had the love interest of orsino, the countess Olivia, trying to woo her. This placed viola in an extremely difficult and complex situation on one hand, she loved the duke and would have liked to do all she could to win his heart. But because she was his servant, she was obliged to serve him and help him win the hand of Olivia. What was a poor girl to do ?
This fact plays a crucial role in the mood of the play. If the reader understands history, they also understand that women did not really amount to any importance, they were perceived more as property.
Schizophrenia. Most people know what this is. But what most people don't know is that it is a serious mental illness that each person has a risk of developing in their life. It is quite common with mental patients. Half the people in mental hospitals are schizophrenic. This mental illness can cause many challenges in anyone's day to day life. Many people don't understand what it means to have a mental illness. They don't understand the struggle mental patients have to suffer with. There are many things that people with schizophrenia go through.
...d be the same as the patients and there would be a less likely rejection after a transplant. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to treat “many neurological, cardiovascular, and hematological diseases” (Ballaro). By using stem cells to create different tissues, more organs could be used for transplants. If dedicated scientists continue the research, incomprehensible progress could be made in this field and many lives could be saved by this process. In merely 56 years, the human species went from building the first successful airplane to landing on the moon; anything can be achieved through knowledge. If this determination was applied to learning about cloning, millions of lives around the globe would be saved from horrible diseases. In the future, therapeutic cloning can be a treatment that is used by many, and why should any human be denied a treatment option?
Demographics are quantitative statistics that measures a participants self. The demographic characteristics that are being measured are gender, age, parents’ marital status and family income. Most studies hypotheses that girls will have higher levels of emotional bullying but the findings and data suggest otherwise. Franks, Rawana and Brownlee (2013) find that more boys are victims and bullies of emotional bullying than girls, but Turkmen et al...