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How women are portrayed in Shakespeare plays
Woman oppresion in literature
Women in the shakespearean era
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During the Shakespearean era, obeying husbands and fathers was looked at so highly that it matched obeying the King of England; the uppermost pedestal was reserved for the Shakespearean man. Gender roles lead to the development of self-individualism which divided the men from the women by establishing a deep distrust of women into the men along with an authoritative dominance, and in hand locked women into a permanent submissive position. One of the most oppressed groups throughout history has been women, which were socially, economically, educationally and religiously oppressed during the time period of Shakespearean society. Social normality and political views has been throughout time, arguably the most extreme oppression enforcement over social outcaste subgroups. Society also held a strong grip on artists and the creative messages of the work that artist deliver to the world, which can depict a sometimes hidden, or subtle dropping of opinions of the hard hitting issues at hand during the present time period. Shakespeare is deemed as one of the greatest known writer’s in English history, not only because he was tremendously attentive towards the Elizabethan era and the diverse struggles that haunted the streets of England in everyday life’s routine, but because he did more than just take notice, as he acted upon the travesties he observed by weaving the representation of the world he came to know through his artwork, leaving the world with irreplaceable pieces of literature and insightful history of Shakespearean society. Distrust of men towards women rooted in the Shakespearean era began with the horrendous failed marriage of Mary I and Phillip II of Spain. During Mary’s ruling she tried to revive Roman Catholicism in Englan... ... middle of paper ... ...r Reference to The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra." Http://uzspace.uzulu.ac.za/. University of Zululand. Sept. 2009. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Gerlach, Jeanne, Rudolph Almasy, and Rebecca Daniel. "WILLA V5 - Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender." WILLA V5 - Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender. Ed. Patricia Kelly. Virginia Tech, 1996. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Thorne, Sherri. "Shakespeare: Advocate for Women in The Taming of the Shrew." Http://www.hsu.edu/uploadedFiles/Faculty/Academic_Forum/2003-4/2003-4 AFShakespeare.pdf. Henderson State University Department of English and Foreign Languages, 2003-2004. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. Stephen, Carmen. "Renaissance Women: An Insight into 1 Henry IV." Women and the History Plays. University of Victoria, Dec. 1996. Web. 10 Feb. 2014. .
Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeare's Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
Examine the different ways in which Shakespeare presents the attitude towards marriage in the play, ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’
Petruchio physically asks her to sit on his lap “come sit on me” in a
While neither Machiavelli’s The Prince nor Shakespeare’s Henry V focus explicitly on gender roles, they both make assumptions and implications sufficient to illustrate their opinions about the nature and place of women in relation to men. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, men and women are depicted in traditional gender roles with women as tricky and unreliable, but ultimately yielding to men who are portrayed as tough and immovable. Shakespeare’s Henry V acknowledges these ideas, but also portrays women as able to influence events within the small domain they are given.
Relationships have differentiated greatly in the last few decades. Equal rights has become the slogan to bettering people all around the globe, however, there wasn’t always times when it was this way. From the beginning of time people have thought they were better than others. During the Industrial Revolution the Europeans believed they were better than others. Theories like Social Darwinism have been stated to justify the actions associated with one group or race believing superiority to another. Throughout time relationships have been affected because one person is “better” than another. The relationships in The Taming of the Shrew are accurate portrayals of relationships in the time period and how power in said relationships was divided.
Kemp, Theresa D. Women in the Age of Shakespeare. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2009. Print.
Neely, Carol Thomas. "Shakespeare's Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations." In Holland, Norman N., Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris, eds. Shakespeare's Personality. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
...se Katherine is a, in that time, controversial female character. Females were supposed to be sub missive creatures who listened to there masters, Katherine never listened to anyone which bothered people. She was also rude and violent, ladies were supposed to be polite and were told not to fight. One serious issue is that Petruchio tried such odd way to get Katherine to be have some were on the verge of torture. He did not let her eat or sleep and he forced her to agree with him or she could not do anything she wanted to.
During the Elizabethan era women had a status of subordination towards men. They had a role to marry and oblige to their husband’s wishes. Shakespearean literature, especially illustrates how a woman is psychologically and physically lesser to their male counterpart. The play, Othello, uses that aspect in many different ways. From a Feminist lens others are able to vividly examine how women were subjected to blatant inferiority. Being displayed as tools for men to abuse, women were characterized as possessions and submissive; only during the last portion of the play did the power of women take heed.
Throughout the historical literary periods, many writers underrepresented and undervalued the role of women in society, even more, they did not choose to yield the benefits of the numerous uses of the female character concerning the roles which women could accomplish as plot devices and literary tools. William Shakespeare was one playwright who found several uses for female characters in his works. Despite the fact that in Shakespeare's history play, Richard II, he did not use women in order to implement the facts regarding the historical events. Instead, he focused the use of women roles by making it clear that female characters significantly enriched the literary and theatrical facets of his work. Furthermore in Shakespeare’s history play, King Richard II, many critics have debated the role that women play, especially the queen. One of the arguments is that Shakespeare uses the queen’s role as every women’s role to show domestic life and emotion. Jo McMurtry explains the role of all women in his book, Understanding Shakespeare’s England A Companion for the American Reader, he states, “Women were seen, legally and socially, as wives. Marriage was a permanent state” (5). McMurtry argues that every woman’s role in the Elizabethan society is understood to be a legal permanent state that is socially correct as wives and mothers. Other critics believe that the role of the queen was to soften King Richard II’s personality for the nobles and commoners opinion of him. Shakespeare gives the queen only a few speaking scenes with limited lines in Acts two, four, and five through-out the play. Also, she is mentioned only a few times by several other of the characters of the play and is in multiple scenes wit...
In his novel, Othello, he uses the courage of the women in his literature to depict how women should be treated, and to contrast from how little respect they once obtained. The society in Shakespeare’s Othello is strongly dominated by men who were the political and military leaders of their homeland during the Elizabethan era. These men are expected to stay loyal to their reputations and to uphold the strong sense of character that earned them their positions in the first place. In contrast, during the Elizabethan period of time women were viewed as weak second-class citizens and inferior to males, with their only job being to serve their men.
Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.” Shakespeare’s Personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116-134.
Since the time of William Shakespeare, society has changed tenfold. A big change is how much more opportunities women have in modern times. Way back when, women did not get a say in most of what they did; males in their lives mostly bossed them around. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s classic play, The Taming of the Shrew, when Petruchio attempts to “tame” Katherine. As years passed, women gained more freedom. This can be seen in the adaptation of the Shakespeare work called 10 Things I Hate About You. It shows that roles have changed slightly, but the general idea of the story is similar. There are drastic changes in The Taming of the Shrew and 10 Things I Hate About You due to the changes in society. Those changes include different actions
The feminism of Shakespeare’s time is still largely unrecognized. Drama from the 1590’s to the mid-1600’s is feminist in sympathy. The author
William Shakespeare's play, "The Taming of the Shrew," has been a subject of debate regarding its treatment of women. Depending on the era, it could be seen as either offensive or acceptable. Act 4 Scene 1 is a focal point of this debate. During Shakespeare's time, women were treated as objects and had no say in their marriages. Men were considered superior and had complete control over women.