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The role and power of women in ancient Greece and Rome
What women are in the tragedy of julius caesar
What women are in the tragedy of julius caesar
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In a cast of over 30 characters, there are only two women. This is a statement describing the world renown play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. These two female characters are Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Ceasar, and Portia, the wife of Marcus Brutus. Other than these two women, the cast is composed entirely of male characters. In a work of literature so populated by men, one may ask why Shakespeare takes the time to include any women at all. However, after further reflection, it is clear to see the reason as to why they are included. Upon including Calpurnia and Portia in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare deepens our understanding of their husbands, highlights the social values of the time, and highlights important ideas in the play.
Though Calpurnia’s marriage to Caesar differs from that of Portia’s, in both marriages, social values of time are reflected through the actions of Portia and Calpurnia. For example, through Portia’s interactions with her husband we see that throughout all of Rome, it was known to even the women, that women were seen as less important. However, a woman could gain respect by marrying, or being the daughter of an honorable man. Portia reminds Brutus of this as she tries to convince him that she is worthy of his respect and his secrets. “I grant I am a woman, but withal/ A woman that Lord Brutus took to wife./ I grant that I am a woman, but withal/ A woman well reputed, Cato’s daughter.” (292-295). With these words, Portia conveys the qualities that both men and women believe a woman must have in order to gain respect in their society. This is not the only social value conveyed through a wife’s inclusion. In Caesar’s words with his wife at the festival of Lupercal...
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...(II.1.285-287). Portia says this to appeal to the side of Brutus that values honor most. In doing so and questioning the honor of their marriage, Brutus promises to tell her everything he has been hiding. This shows that Romans will do anything to remain honorable in the eyes of their community and loved ones, including telling their best kept secrets.
By including Calpurnia and Portia in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare deepens our understanding of their husbands, highlights the social values of the time, and highlights important ideas in the play. Through their interactions with their husbands these aspects are revealed. Portia and Calpurnia manage to introduce these important details simply through their actions and words, even though they are the only two women in the play.
Works Cited
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
Over the course of time, the roles of men and women have changed dramatically. As women have increasingly gained more social recognition, they have also earned more significant roles in society. This change is clearly reflected in many works of literature, one of the most representative of which is Plautus's 191 B.C. drama Pseudolus, in which we meet the prostitute Phoenicium. Although the motivation behind nearly every action in the play, she is glimpsed only briefly, never speaks directly, and earns little respect from the male characters surrounding her, a situation that roughly parallels a woman's role in Roman society of that period. Women of the time, in other words, were to be seen and not heard. Their sole purpose was to please or to benefit men. As time passed, though, women earned more responsibility, allowing them to become stronger and hold more influence. The women who inspired Lope de Vega's early seventeenth-century drama Fuente Ovejuna, for instance, rose up against not only the male officials of their tiny village, but the cruel (male) dictator busy oppressing so much of Spain as a whole. The roles women play in literature have evolved correspondingly, and, by comparing The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Wife of Bath's Prologue, we can see that fictional women have just as increasingly as their real-word counterparts used gender differences as weapons against men.
In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare uses Portia to present to the audience the tragic flaw of the struggle to become manlier. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Shakespeare uses Portia to demonstrate that manliness is the highest virtue in society. Someone manly is a person who uses their nobility by flattering their power to one another to achieve their goals. Blits believes that the characters in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar use this nobility and try to gain something from it, he states, “The men we see in the play have the strongest desire for worldly glory and, regarding honor as the highest good, relentlessly strive to win it” (Blits 31). In her speech Portia mentions, “I grant I am a woman; but withal/
Obviously nobility and honour are a theme of this play and Blits clearly states that the main women of this play such as Portia does not fit into the role of an honorable character, even when she is married to the “Most honourable man in Rome.” According to Blits, “Rome is a man’s world. No one in Caesar has a good word for women.” Once again he is being sexist, not one bit of respect for women but this fits right into the play, the people of Rome seem to be somewhat of a sheep that don’t stand out.
...ined in the films Quo Vadis and Cleopatra and is compatible with their messages, while in the process is displayed as a negative thing. The incorporation of sexism and its unfavorable portrayal demonstrates the fault in such beliefs to audiences. However, in contrast, although Plutarch's Life of Antony also implies that women playing into sexist expectations is a bad thing, Plutarch appears to place the blame on women themselves and to encourages certain sexist elements to be maintained. If audiences are able to interpret how sexism plays into the great messages spread by such Ancient Roman films, perhaps audiences can learn to end the persistence of such gender inequalities in society. Perhaps if audiences learn from the directors' messages and recognize the faults in Plutarch's positive view of certain sexist elements, the fall of the misogynist empire can occur.
The play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare showcases many characters and events that go through many significant changes. One particular character that went through unique changes was Julius Caesar. The 16th century work is a lengthy tragedy about the antagonists Brutus and Cassius fighting with the protagonists Octavius, Antony, and Lepidus over the murder of Julius Caesar. Although the play’s main pushing conflict was the murder of Julius Caesar, he is considered a secondary character, but a protagonist. Throughout the theatrical work Julius Caesar’s actions, alliances, character developments, and internal and external conflicts display his diverse changes.
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice exemplifies a principle that is as unfortunately true in our time as it was in his - he who has money also has love, sex, and above all, power. In this case, the use of 'he' is deliberate; 'she,' in the Elizabethan era, rarely had either financial independence or much control over the course of her life. Portia, the deceitful heroine of the play, is a major exception. To put it bluntly, Portia is enormously rich. This unique position allows her to meddle in the affairs of the unsuspecting and somewhat dim male characters, and eventually gives her unprecedented power of self-determination. However, the play is more than a tale of feminine wiles overcoming male dullness of wit. Portia's wealth and intelligence may fuel her successes in marriage and the courtroom, but in each case it is her ability to usurp traditionally masculine roles that guarantees her victory. As Portia exploits the codependence of wealth, masculinity, and public power in her society, she becomes the only woman in the play who consistently controls her own destiny.
William Shakespeare is known to be the greatest writer in the English language, and till this day Shakespeare upholds the title of being the start of English literature. Something every reader has possibly observed is how Shakespeare portrays women. The majority of William Shakespeare’s plays objectifies women and in some ways shows his underline feelings towards women, and their roles in society. This is clearly shown through out Shakespeare’s play ‘Othello’. The society of Othello is completely controlled by men who are the military and political leaders of their homeland. Furthermore women are seen as powerless second-class citizens, who are in place for nothing more than to serve their men. But the horrendous actions and intense downfall of the men in Othello show how men are not nearly as authoritative and powerful as they seem. The boldness of the female characters proves that they are much more capable of just serving. Furthermore, by the end of the play, I admit the men of Othello are not the ones who perform courage and power instead; this title is given to the women in the play.
The women in Othello are few. A grand total of three have lines, and only two are truly important characters. The females in the play, in accordance to Shakespeare’s time period’s own Elizabethan English ideologies and the gender norms of the society in which the play takes place, are put firmly ‘in their place’. They are meek, soft spoken, and submissive, treated like possessions by the dominating men and almost completely disregarded as individuals with their own thoughts and emotions. Bawdy jokes and cracks at women’s sexuality are rampant, and husbands get away with frequent misogynistic rants at their wives’ expense. The female character who plays the most dynamic role in Othello is Emilia. In the duration of the play, we observe her evolution from a simple handmaiden, to a loyal wife enduring her husband’s maltreat, to a complex woman of conflicted feelings and fluctuating emotions. In this way, Emilia disproves the total weakness of women in Othello, and rises as her own sort of minor tragic hero, a preliminary feminist champion.
In the play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, I saw two main characters as tragic heroes. First, I saw Julius Caesar as a tragic hero because his will to gain power was so strong that he ended up losing his life for it. The fact that he could have been such a strong leader was destroyed when he was killed by conspirators. I saw Marcus Brutus as a second tragic hero in this play. Brutus was such a noble character that did not deserve to die. The main reason why he did die, however, was because he had led a conspiracy against Caesar and eventually killed him. These two characters were the tragic heroes of the play in my opinion.
The basis of Shakespeare’s plays appears to focus mainly around the dominant male character and his conflicts, which tend to deal with a woman. There are only three women in the play Othello; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way in which these women behave and present themselves strongly reflects the ideological expectations of women within Shakespeare’s imagined Venetian society as well as the Elizabethan society in which he lived. This patriarchal Venetian society presented in the play depicts women as possessions of men who should remain submissive and meek at all times. The women are expected to unselfishly and unreservedly devote their lives to serve their fathers until they are of age to do so, their husbands. All three women love their respective partners; however, all three are also rejected by them because they each devote more to their men than their men are capable of returning. Desdemona and Emilia display genuine emotions toward each other that are not reflected in any of the male to male associations.
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.
In the 16th century, women and men were defined as having specific and contrasting roles within society. Men were defined as being powerful and dominant while women were defined as being submissive and meek. These ideals can be seen across cultures and throughout time. With these definitions of gender roles in place, the text suggests that gender is a social construct therefore qualities of femininity and masculinity are subjective. This is shown when Portia cross dresses as the lawyer Balthazar (IV) and when the truths of the rings are discovered by the two women (V). The strong female characters in the play exemplify that women are not confined to their social construct as they manipulate the male characters. During the 16th century only
Throughout the play Shakespeare develops Portia’s character from what seems like a subservient woman, who is forced into a marriage, to an independent woman who is considered equal by her husband. The arranged marriage shows that Portia was given no freedom by her. dominant dead father, which may be why Portia seems to be horrible. comments about all the suitors that come to try to complete the life – changing the task of the. At the beginning of the play Portia has no control over her financial.
The play, The Merchant of Venice drastically altered the perception of women during the time as Shakespeare makes women during the Italian Renaissance appear independent and intellectual, such as the beautiful Portia and the young Jessica. This play shows that women are not only beautiful people to look at but also powerful and intelligent individuals. The characteristics of the women in this play show the possibilities of equality between men and
In his Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare wants the reader to admire Portia, arguably the most powerful character in the play. However, it is easy to mistake the word ‘admiration’ to mean simply a liking of someone’s positive virtues. Rather, we should like Portia because of those things that make her a multi-faceted character. Though she can appear to be an “unlessoned girl,” she is also conniving, manipulative, and powerful. Three examples that effectively show her prowess and as a result win our admiration of her occur during the casket, the trial, and the ring scenes.