William Shakespeare has many interesting female characters throughout all of his different types of works. Some of his women are leading ladies while others are just supporting characters that help move the story along. No matter the depth of the characters’ role, each lady gives some type of unthinkable personality trait that would be unique to women during Shakespeare’s time. Macbeth, Othello, and King Lear all have female characters that portray women who wouldn’t be seen during the time of William Shakespeare’s writing. It took creativity and skill for Shakespeare to get his characters around the censor who would check the plays. His female characters are strong, but not overtly so. He gives them characteristics of his time, but also gives them new traits one wouldn’t normally see in the women of his time. During the time of William Shakespeare, it was very immoral to court a woman on stage. This may become a problem for a play-write, but this problem was solved with one simple solution: have men play the women. When males play females on stage, the reader of a future generation may see some homosexual tones. During this era, this would be completely normal. When the plays were performed, there were rarely any women in the audience. The groundlings, people who couldn’t pay for seats high up, were predominately male. On occasion, the females that were in the audience were whores and prostitutes. Women were rarely workers, they were meant to be homemakers and mothers. Women had a hypocrisy when it came to the rules of who they could marry. In reality, men could marry whoever they wanted. Men could marry above their social class and most controversially, under their social class. The same cannot be said for wo... ... middle of paper ... ...The one the other poisoned for my sake and after slew herself” (5.3.214-216). His comments just go to show what kind of women these girls were just by the personality of the man they fell in love with. Being a women in Shakespeare’s time seems as if it is nothing to be proud of. Women were treated poorly, almost like second class citizens. William Shakespeare did give women a bit of a voice and shed a new light on them through his plays. He showed that women could be strong, smart, and even showed that they could be violent and cruel. This would be a huge contrast to the quiet subordinate women he was used to seeing. Shakespeare contrasted the type of women he knew to the type of women he thought the world would never see. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Riverside Shakespeare, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997. 366-398. Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.”
Imagine being a woman in sixteenth century Europe. Females were raised to believe that they were subservient and that men knew better on any subject. Basically, women had no rights. They were considered property, first “owned” by their fathers and then control was “transferred” to the husband chosen for them. Marriage was not about love, but in most cases, it was a business deal that was mutually beneficial to both families – an interesting fact is that like young women, most young men had no choice in the selection of their future betrothed. These traditions and the gender roles assumed by men and women at that time had an impact on Shakespeare’s writing and performances and a great example of this is evident in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Women only experienced being housewives. They were never able to be in a male’s position because society didn’t think they were strong enough. Female authors wrote from their own perspective. I would imagine them writing about the power they wished to have. They wished to have characteristics that are similar to a man. They didn’t want to be stereotyped by society. Female Critics attempted to change these stereotypes by writing about them. Male authors also wrote from their perspective. I think they would write about how much power they have. Some didn’t think women needed more power. Then, Shakespeare came along and wrote the complete opposite of what society thought. He changed the way society thought about them.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
...These characters all show traits of wittiness, determination and strength. The traits Queen Elizabeth expressed as she ruled England, a single woman taking on a man’s job. Shakespeare included these characters in his play because he knew the Queen would enjoy seeing characters that portrayed her; it showed a sign a respect towards her. The Queen supported the theatre and Shakespeare in his work. Shakespeare thanks her by giving her females characters leads in his play with characteristics of her reflected in them. Queen Elizabeth ruled throughout Shakespeare’s life so it would influence him in his writings. She showed him through her rulings that she was a feminist. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted and to rule her country, she showed fierceness and compassion. Shakespeare took these characteristics and portrayed them in his female characters.
Shakespeare was clearly ahead of his time with his view of women. He likely drew inspiration for his female characters from Elizabeth I, the English monarch at the time. Like Beatrice, Elizabeth I was a strong and very independent woman, she was the sole ruler of England during her reign as she never married. Elizabeth I was a strong ruler, defying the traditional gender roles for women, which Shakespeare would have drawn from for his characters.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
During the times in which Shakespeare lived, women had certain roles which ensured they were a permanent underclass to men. In Women in Shakespeare’s world by Theresa D. Kemp, Kemp states that “The roles of early modern women included daughters and wives, sisters and mothers; they learned and worked and played but for the most part they were not expected to be school girls (whining or otherwise) As women they were expected to be the slightly beautiful beloved and not the balladeer. Women were not seen as fit to play soldier or the judge. And as keepers of the homes and the households, as in our own time, women withdrawn from a “world too wide” ( 29). This quote from Kemp shows how victorian women were seen a just a pretty face to do as told. They were to be obedient and non opinionated. A woman of that time period was very objectified and used, basically women weren't real people.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
My first impression of women in the time of Shakespeare and in the play was that they were of great importance, even after reading The Merchant of Venice. The main reason I thought that women were held in great esteem was because the greatest Queen who ever ruled England Queen Elizabeth was at the throne at the time. Also because after reading The Merchant Of Venice for the first time I thought that Portia was admired and was free/ independent. But after studying text more closely and looking for evidence of this conclusion. realised that most women were dependant on men and that strong female characters, such as Portia, were great role models but were the minority in the female population.
Shapiro, for example, goes so far as to claim that Shakespeare was 'the noblest feminist of them all.' Though Shakespeare pays more attention to the roles that men play in society and many of the female characters are constricted in their experiences. They do not have the same ability to be as fully human as the men. They do not learn by their experiences, except Paulina who is eventually chastised and pa... ... middle of paper ... ...
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.