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The portrayal of women in shakespeare plays
Shakespeare's portrayal of women in his plays
Shakespeare's depiction of women in his plays
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Portia and Calpurnia are each noble Romans, respectively the wives of Brutus and Caesar. Both women show loyalty towards their husbands, but also advise them when they are in distress. Portia said, “And when I asked you what the matter was, / You stared upon me we ungentle looks,” and Calpurnia had said, “Alas, my lord, your wisdom is consumed in confidence” (2. 1-2. 241-242, 49). These women both have a similar goal of pleasing and protecting their husbands as they were consumed in their personal conflicts. Portia noticed that Brutus was anxious, but stood by his side and promised to keep the secrets that he would disclose. On the contrary, Calpurnia observed an omen and became terrified by its results, and she too looked to protect the well-being
Casina to Olympio she enlists the help of her two slaves, Chalinus and Pardalisca, and her friend/neighbor Myrrhina to get revenge.
Calpurnia attempts to scare Caesar into staying at the house instead of going to the Capitol. She begins with ethos to establish her credibility and justify her concerns. Calpurnia “never stood on ceremonies”, but now they “fright her,” juxtaposing that the omens never scared her, but are frightening enough that she now is attentive to them. Because women were not as powerful in Rome, Calpurnia further credits her argument by including the “watch.” Using selection of detail, Calpurnia Even the guards, who are men, have seen the strange events, and they are scared. Since even men are scared, it should implicate to Caesar that he should be scared as well. Calpurnia sees a lioness, an image, normally associated with strength and courage, “whelp[ing] in the streets.” The lioness is essentially crying, scared of something. Caesar is also strong, but should be scared as well. When ethos fails to impact Caesar, Calpurnia switches to using pathos to try and scare Caesar. “Fierce fiery warriors [fighting] upon the clouds,” is an image that connotes war. In war, there is death and Caesar should be afraid of death. Calpurnia uses the image of “drizzled blood upon the Capitol,” connoting death, scaring Caesar of what is to come if he chooses to go to th...
Roman society operated under the authority of paterfamilias. Paterfamilias is where the oldest living male of the family was considered to be the father of the household; he had “virtual life and death authority over the entire household” (MPN, 107). He would make the all the decisions in the family, and made the rules and standards, including the moral standards that women were expected to follow. Ideal Roman women were valued for their piety, modesty, performance of womanly duties, and faithfulness to their husbands. In both their stories, Lucretia and Dido do what is necessary to maintain their image of the ideal Roman woman.
Ruth Vanita is an English professor at Delhi University who wrote this essay, “‘Proper’ Men and ‘Fallen’ Women: The Unprotectedness of the Wives in ‘Othello’,” as part of her work on the representation of wife-murder in Renaissance drama. The article was published in 1994 in the journal, Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vanita’s thesis is that the deaths of Desdemona and Emilia were a reflection of societal acceptance of violent behavior against women and in particular within the husband-wife relationship during the Renaissance.
Othello, by Shakespeare, involves two women; Desdemona and Emilia. These two women have a lot of things in common. Both have husbands who are full of adventure and physically powerful. Desdemona is the wife of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Emilia’s husband is Iago, is youngest of the two men, employed as a confidante to Othello. Iago is filled with so much guilt towards Othello; he wants total revenge and makes Othello’s life a living hell for him and anyone he loves. Othello doesn’t know any of this revenge and confides in Iago and trusts him with everything, because he is “the most honest” (2.3.6). While all this deceit is going on around them, both women are oblivious to it, and Emilia doesn’t
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly has impacted my life more than any other book I have read. It is about a young teenage girl who lived at the end of the 1800s in Texas. Calpurnia (“Callie Vee”) is the only girl out of seven children, right in the middle, and doesn’t really have a good relationship with her mom. One summer, however, Callie makes a friendship with her old grandpa who is considered a bit of a weirdo. He is actually a member of the National Geographic society, and he and teaches Calpurnia everything he knows about science and the natural world. Through this all, our heroine is learning about the rest of the world around her, including what the high expectations for a girl in her time period are.
Throughout the rest of the play we see Portia fight back not only through giving herself control of who she marries but also through deceiving the Duke into believing that she is a clever, young lawyer named Balthazar by writing a letter that the Duke receives from, supposedly, Bellario telling him that he cannot make the court hearing but he has sent a young man, a disguised Portia, called Balthazar to take his place. She starts the letter with flattery, saying, ‘Your Grace shall understand…’ This makes the Duke feel elevated and respected because Your Grace is a sign of humbleness showing respect and a feeling of status. She then writes that Bellario is ‘very sick’ so that the Duke would have sympathy for Bellario and therefore be more likely to agree to Balthazar being the prosecution councillor.
Across cultures, continents, and worlds, the majority of things within the scope of our very own humanity can be boiled down to two things: those who are dominant, and those who get dominated. Within these statuses lie stories of power struggles, rebellion, the rising and falling of those with influence, and the interconnection between a being with power and the people under his ruling. Through the visual works catered to this subject, we will discuss themes such as the power of immortalization, divinity amongst humans, what it really means to be a ruler, and many other details making up the ever-present, multifaceted relationship between rulers and their subject. With the assistance of the Blanton Museum of Art, I will be able to showcase
...how the outcome of ambitious men due to the lack of a solid female part in a male ruled world. Calphurnia exhibits value in her when she requests that Caesar lie to the Senate and stay home with her to guarantee his wellbeing. All of her efforts failed because of stronger male vicinity in her life. This lack of awareness on Caesar's part prompts his death. Portia wants an equal relationship with her spouse, keeping in mind she can deal with the physical torment and requests of a man; she can't deal with the enthusiastic requests of being a man. Although she might have self inflected a wound onto her physical being, she cannot change within. Both ladies are dismissed and disregarded. They are useless ladies. No matter what movements they may have performed or words they may have spoken, they didn't have the ability to change the story or destiny of their spouses.
From the expansion days of Ancient Rome to the fall of the Roman Empire, women have always succumbed to living subjacent to the status of their omnipotent and dominant male figures. After leaving her childhood home and the rule of her father, a young Roman girl would then be coerced into the dominion of her husband, often taking a plethora of roles, ranging from lover, caretaker, and best friend. It is often lightheartedly stated that, “Behind every great man is an even greater woman,” and William Shakespeare exemplifies this concept beautifully in Julius Caesar, in which he effectively used the spouses of the two main characters to add more depth, drama, and literary elements to the play, bringing it to life. Although the only two female characters in Julius Caesar, Portia and Calpurnia do not play a pivotal role in the overall plot of the story, their presence is vital in illuminating and developing the characters of their husbands, Brutus and Caesar. What they reveal about their husbands leads the reader to infer that Portia is the more admirable and redeeming character.
Everyone is deceived and believes Portia is truly a man therefore showing that she has the capabilities to exert the traits of a man. Portia is described as the “wise young judge” (IV, I, 228) and an “excellent young man” (IV, I, 252) by Shylock showing that he believes in the gender identity of Balthazar. Bassanio, Portia’s husband, is also fooled as he states that Antonio’s life is more valuable to him than Portia. Her credibility in turn gives her power over the men in the scene. She is able to use the balances of justice along with her knowledge in order to save Antonio. The turn in this scene is when she repeats, “A pound of flesh” (IV, I, 315) and states the specific words used in the document as no blood can be dropped from Antonio or else Shylock will be punished and strikes fear into Shylock. This shows that it is possible for a woman to obtain the masculine qualities of being powerful and intellectual. If Portia were to have not dressed as a man, but merely a woman, due to the social constructs of the time she would not have had any power in this situation. Portia tells Bassanio “I pray you, know me when we meet again” (IV, I, 432) which shows her feelings towards Bassanio not knowing her true identity, even through her disguise. Her actions were that of her individual, but due to her altering her appearance of gender it changed the way others viewed her
While reading The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare, the character of Portia caught my eye and stole my heart. As a woman of power, wealth and beauty, she is seen as the ultimate prized possession for many suitors from widespread nations. It seems, based of in-class discussions, that women in Shakespearean times usually were not highly educated or considered elite in any manner. The exception to this is women of royalty who gained their title through marriage or when the male of the household dies. Portia, the heiress to the throne after the death of her father, is a complex character portrayed beautifully through the eloquent writing of Shakespeare.
At the beginning of the play, Portia appears to have no real identity despite all her greatness and worth whereas Jessica, being a Jew appeared as a character with low self-esteem and emerges as having no commitment to her father's house. Shakespeare furthers this notion by enabling us to recognise Portia's wealth and status as he allows her to appear as very intelligent and bilingual. Portia speaks three languages, that of; French; Latin and Italian clearly emphasising her intelligence as well as ability. Shakespeare by allowing Portia to use rhetoric of law in Act 1 Scene 2 further prevail Portia's greatness. Portia's mention of `devise laws' and `decrees' convey her awareness of legal language and equally the legal sphere of life. However, it seems that at the beginning Shakespeare has given Portia potential but it remained impotent as she did not have the opportunity to use it. We therefore assume further that Shakespeare portrayed Portia's character to comprise of superficial nature; it emerges that Portia is controlled by her father and does thereby hold no control over her life. Her words to Nerissa; "I may neither choose who I would, nor refuse who I dislike, so is the will of a living ...
In the play “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare, women play an important role. The women are important factors in foreshadowing and in the development of many of the characters. To look at the role of women in the play we must look deeper in to the roles of the only two women in the play; Calpurnia, wife of Caesar, and Portia, wife of Brutus. Both of these women are key in foreshadowing the murder of Caesar. After Caesar’s murder we do not hear much of either of them.
Men fought the wars; defended their city by putting their lives on the line. Women had the duty of taking care of the home and nurturing the family. Men took care of a majority of the issues because they typically had more power in government and amongst the city. In a particular funeral inscription, a deceased wife is commemorated for her “defense against the common cause by asserting the truth” (Laudatio Turiae p. 94). This quote demonstrates the power of voice the women of ancient Rome obtained. But when push comes to shove, women knew how to take care of business. The same funeral inscription recently described, goes on to brag about how his late wife took matters into her own hands as someone attempted to seize her property. He writes: “You beat them back successfully and were able to defend our home.” (Laudatio Turiae p. 95). Although women are not commonly known for their strength, Roman ladies did not necessarily roll over and handover their possessions. This wife rolled up her sleeves and courageously took care of a troop of men from Milo. All in all, we can interpret that Roman women were commemorated for their grace when handling situations, but also had grit and stood up for what was rightfully