Shakespeare's Treatment of Women in His Plays

Some critics and other readers of Shakespeare's plays argue that he treats women with disrespect. However, he actually treats them with a great amount of respect. Shakespeare has been criticized by many modern writers for his portrayal of women.

The critics and other readers of Shakespearean plays think that he treats women badly for a few reasons, one being that most of the women in his plays die a tragic death. One example is in the play, Julius Caesar. In this specific play, Portia who is Julius Caesar's wife kills herself by swallowing hot coals. Portia was highly respected in life, and in order to be highly respected in death, she felt that she had to show her bravery in an excruciatingly painful death. This shows that Shakespeare expected women to behave in a masculine way. Another example is in the play Romeo and Juliet. Juliet, who is one of the main characters, ends up killing herself because she found the love of her life, Romeo dead. Both Romeo and Juliet's deaths were very tragic. Romeo had found Juliet and thought she was dead so he ended up stabbing himself. Once Juliet woke up, she found him lying dead in a pool of his own blood. She was so devastated at the sight and thought that he was gone, so she too stabbed herself. This also gives some proof to the critics that Shakespeare made his women overly dependant on men, and again shows that he expected women to act similar to men.

Some critics viewed the women in Shakespeare's plays as shrews. For example in the play The Taming of the Shrews, Kate was viewed as a shrew because she grew up without a mother to guide her through her life as a child to a young adult. Shakespeare proves that he feels that Kate is a shrew because she is not being guided by her mother...

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...inates against them and mentions derogatory comments towards them in his plays. These women become upset because Shakespeare sometimes represents women as non-intelligent people because of their sex. Most women do not agree with Shakespeare's thoughts or actions.

As you can see, some critics and readers of Shakespeare's plays feel that he discriminates against women, while others think that the way he writes shows that women are self dependent and are able to support themselves. Readers criticize Shakespeare because he does not show a great amount of respect towards women and does not appreciate them and also how they act. For a very long time, Shakespeare had boys play the roles of women, and excluded women from all of his work of literature. Then there came a time when Shakespeare finally allowed women to have parts in his plays and participate in his work.