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Female sexuality in shakespeare
Gender roles and sexuality addressed in Shakespeare`s plays
Female sexuality in shakespeare
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-Rosalind, As You Like It, (3.2.200-01) William Shakespeare’s plays plow various topics that have focused on sexuality, from gender reversal to adultery to bestiality. But perhaps the most reproducible and emphasized topic is homoeroticism. This focus on homoeroticism proceeds from the prohibition of women on the English stage and the subsequent female roles young boys would play. In As You Like It, desires manifest and play out in identity rather than chaotically circulating in a magical setting. The play focuses on the formation of identity and how identity—particularly social and gender identities—dictates and validates desire. Shakespeare’s play sheds the light on female amity, for heterosexual love and desires disrupt Rosalind and Celia’s relationship. Amity between same-sex friends does not necessarily suggest a homoerotic relationship: for “the question…was not, am I heterosexual or am I homosexual, but where do my greater emotional loyalties lie, with other men or with women” (Smith 65). Though the play contains homoerotic elements, the representation of homoeroticis...
is that of witchcraft and evil. This is a primary theme in the play as
... reality of their state of affairs and characters. The play is swathed in deceit on diploid levels, both the plot and the underlying personalities and motivations bear disparities between appearance and reality.
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.
To commence, in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, there were many important rules in regards to acting that players had to consider when performing in the Globe theatre. When Shakespeare wrote his plays, he included as many female characters as he did male characters. Nonetheless, the traditions and values of the Renaissance did not allow women to act or become actors, due to the fact that it was considered immoral for a woman to be on stage. At the time, they had no social status other than their association with their husbands or fathers. Moreover, actors were considered to have a low social status, thus it was considered improper and socially unacceptable for a woman to become a performer. Instead of editing all of Shakespeare’s texts to adher...
By denying us a context for understanding this magical moment, Kushner disables our ability to judge these moments, and once Kushner has denied our ability to repudiate the elements of magic in the play as distinctly fabricated and separate from reality, he continues to build the blurring between fantasy and reality through the inclusion of magical details and events more directly intertwined with
...ing something that they had either experienced or had a family member experience. As a result, it caused them to identify with the play. The manner in which this play has been configured such that it is drawing on the predatory and imperialistic tendencies displayed by multinational conglomerates provides a way for today's audience to identify with the plight of the characters and their realm.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s comedies contain many marriages, some arranged, some spontaneous. During Queen Elizabeth's time, it was considered foolish to marry for love. However, in Shakespeare’s plays, people often marry for love. With a closer look into two of his most famous plays As You Like It and Twelfth Night or What You Will, I found that while marriages are defined and approached differently in these two plays, Shakespeare’s attitudes toward love in both plays share similarities. The marriages in As You Like It’s conform to social expectation, while the marriages are more rebellious in Twelfth Night. Love, in both plays, was defined as
Rosa Park’s woman of history. She was born in Tuskegee Alabama, on February 4, 1913. Rosa Park’s childhood brought her early experiences with racial discrimination. Rosa's mother moved the family to Pine Level, Alabama to live with her parents, Rose and Sylvester Edwards—both former slaves and strong advocates for racial equality; the family lived on the Edwards' farm, where Rosa would spend her youth. While riding the public transport she was told to give up her seat to a white passenger after a long and hard day of work. After this act of injustice it cause a city wide bus boycott. It help to launch a nationwide effort to end segregation and for colored people to get the respect they deserve after all the years of slavery.
Many characters undergo a change in William Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It”. Duke Senior goes from being a member of a court to being a member of a forest and Orlando changes from a bitter, younger brother, to a love-struck young man. The most obvious transformation undergone, is undoubtedly that of Rosalind. Her change from a woman to a man, not only alters her mood, candor, and gender, but also allows her to be the master of ceremonies.
As readers may already know during the Elizabethan Era, Theater people were thought of as low class people, especially the women. Women were not allowed to act in any of the playhouse plays, however, they were allowed to start acting in 1660. Back then a woman would be busy taking care of household problems such as cleaning and making sure things were ok in the house. Also back in those times women were thought of as prostitutes if they acted in plays and it was considered as bad luck. That’s why the young men played the roles of the women because of their higher pitched voice and appearances.
Love is the central theme in the play ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, the author expressed many types of love in the play. Some of them are, brotherly love, lust for love, loyal, friendship love, unrequited love, but of course, romantic love is the focus of this play.
Throughout the 17th century society revolved around a gender hierarchy that both men and women must follow. Many at the time believed that this hierarchy was instilled by God and nature, as seen in their religious books like the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer; both of which were to be taken very seriously. It was the norm for women to believe that their sole purpose in life was to maintain their social worth by being obedient to their male superiors such as fathers and husbands. However, many women began to question these gender roles. As tensions continued to rise, women would often express their ideas through poetry or prose. Two female poets in particular are Anne Finch and Mary Astell; both
Gender issues and social commentary are especially relevant in published criticism of Shakespeare's As You Like It since the beginning of the 1990's, as evidenced by the number of articles published in scholarly journals during the past twelve years. Janet Gupton's review in Theatre Journal, published in 2001as well as Louise Schleiner's article in the Shakespeare Quarterly in the fall of 1999, both deal with the treatment of gender-subjectivity.
Identity is a person's idea and expression of their individuality and how they are recognized. In King Lear by William Shakespeare the tragic play displays examples of identity, and how effective it is. The importance of identification and how it can be easily drained is displayed through out the play. Some characters fail to keep ahold of their identity and that causes many disastrous changes in their life. The concept of identity is inconstant and fragile, the precipitations of tragic events occur when characters lose or uncover their identity. Shakespeare clearly shows how characters are forced to redefine and rediscover themselves through suffering, change in social position and disguise.
I feel as if boys had actor role models to look up to within theatre. The idea that Shakespeare may have written roles especially for boys, and that the characters may have been female, may have been an inspiration to boys to take on those roles. During the eighteenth century it was mainly males who played characters on stage, and for the more comedic roles it was probably easier for boys to play the characters as they would tend to have a crack in their voice due to puberty that would add a comedic effect; especially with the younger or female characters on stage. Boy players would probably have been essential to Shakespeare’s writings as they would have been easier to create parts for. Boy players would have seen these opportunities to begin