Analysis Of ' Snow Midsummer And Hroswit 's Martyrdom Of The Holy Virgins '

While many will agree that Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night is critically acclaimed to be one of the most entertaining and well-liked pieces that he has written, there tends to be a discrepancy over how the characters in the play are portrayed when it comes to the importance of gender roles. After reading James C Bulman’s article over the Globe’s more recent performance of Twelfth Night and Shakespeare’s original written version, I realized that there are many ways that this famous piece has been portrayed and each has its own pros and cons.

Feminist critical lens examines certain texts with a primary focus on both gender’s relationship with each other and how such relationships demonstrate effects towards beliefs, behaviors, and values. This critical lens also examines a patriarchal-centered society and how such society define and interact with women with an emphasis on stereotypes of both genders that are present and evident in the text being analyzed. William Shakespeare’s Othello can be scrutinized through the feminist critical lens. A deep analysis focused on feminism of the play Othello paves way for the judgement of different societal status of women in the period when the play took place, the Elizabethan society. Othello is a best fit that demonstrates how men were

The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,

The play Snow in Midsummer, written in 1241 by Guan Hanqing created a type of theatre known as zaju. With the available sources on Hanqing’s most pronounce play written, he managed to accomplish significant meaning of Death. The play demonstrates the central theme of death during the execution of Dou E, she made three vows: First, if she is innocent, the execution will cause the blood to not be spilled on the white cloth; second, the three feet snow will cover her body; third, after her death, there will be three successive years of drought, to prove that she is unjustly dead. Dou Yi’s death symbolizes Confucius beliefs through sacrificing herself, rather than to give harm to her mother-in-law. She is willing to die in order to confront the unjust social system. In the play Snow in Midsummer, death functions as a way to achieve justice, life is the most precious aspect for a human being, but why is the character Dou Yi willing to sacrifice her own life to accomplish this task?

William Shakespeare starts with a seemingly unresolvable conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The main characters are lovers who are either unrequited in their love or hassled by the love of another. These lovers are inevitably paired. How does Shakespeare make this happen? He creates many subplots that, before long, are all snarled up into a chaotic knot. So, what actions does Shakespeare take to resolve these new quandaries? He ends up trusting a single key entity with his comedy. It’s only then that he introduces a special character into his world: a mischievous fairy whom is known by the name of Puck. Puck is the catalyst for all these subplots and, indeed, for the entirety of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Try to take Puck

Shakespeare’s famous literary work, The Taming of the Shrew, written in the late 1500s (clearly written before the twentieth century) is a great example of a piece of literature that when read by a contemporary reader from the twenty-first century might view as sexist. Due to the fact that this piece of literature was

The most prominent woman figure in this play is Linda, but the male characters in this play also give us insight into women’s roles and help feed the feminist analyses

The Renaissance comedy, ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, written by Shakespeare in 1600 during the Elizabethan era, addresses male inconstancy and female persecution; how women are controlled by the prevailing patriarchal system. Hero, the conventional heroine, is a ‘shrinking violet’, who suffers character assassination through male actions. ‘The Rover’, written in 1677 for the Restoration society of Charles II where men were hedonistic, uncommitted and brimming with bravado, also explores gender conflicts. However playwright, Aphra Behn, in this Restoration comedy, critically comments on male attitudes, and - through female rebellion

Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is one play that really shows the difference between genders, through the personalities of each of the characters. Throughout all the deaths and conversations had by all the different characters, the definition of manliness comes to life quite precisely, through the characters of Banquo, Macduff and even Macbeth. It also becomes quite clear to see that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switch their gender roles when Macbeth is about to kill King Duncan. Overall this play is filled with the ‘manly’ gender role and it is seen in many of the characters. The ‘manly’ stereotype of gender, refers to the qualities, such as courage and strength, that are mainly associated

Throughout many pays and novels, women have had important roles of helping form the main characters, in the way they think, move or change the story. Women have always been subordinate to men all through history, but in plays, novels, short stories, etc, they have been given large enforcing roles, showing the power within women. William Shakespeare and Sophocles use guilt, pride, and influence to demonstrate the importance of the women’s role to support the main characters in both the plays of Macbeth and Antigone.

In the Middle Age literature, women are often presented or meant to come off as an unimportant character; which can also reflect on how the author wants the women character represent. Women are usually shunned, have no say or control in what they do; due to what men desire; like Ophelia and Gertrude did in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But these female characters that I will discuss are women with power, control, and a voice. Majority of the female character’s appearances are made to represent wickedness, evil, or a seducer who challenges a man belief; and does not symbolize perfect women.

In traditional Chinese theater, females, and particularly young girls, are perceived as property. Their role in society is to get married to a male from another family of equal or higher social status. In fact, the role of a woman is so set and stone that no matter how they were brought up, whether or not they are noble or educated, does not seem to contribute to their destined fate. The traditional Chinese society is so specific and consistent in determining the fate of females based on social hierarchy that females seem to have no choice in the matter. Often, the decision is made by their parents and the females are forced to simply comply. In three classic Chinese operas, The Story of the Western Wing, The Peony Pavilion, and The Peach Blossom Fan, the main female characters strive to move against societal norms by choosing their own destinies, hence choosing their male partners. The classics make this freedom so valuable to the point that it is almost unachievable. By creating female leads who fight against their own destinies, authors of each play use irony to criticize traditional Chinese social structure. To show this irony, three heroines whom are all upper class, educated, and very sheltered by their families and societal role of a woman are struck by grief when deciding to choose their own fate. Although the freedom and approval of love should be considered a premium lifestyle for its time, the impossible nature of the opportunity leads to unconceivable

Through her dramas, Maria Irene Fornes investigates issues that concern female struggle in the male dominated society. In her play, Fornes discuss the female suffering to achieve identity completion. In fact, Fornes focuses on “strong female characters who are able to speak of their longing for enlightment of their passions, or who mare political or philosophical observation” (Fornes, Creative danger 15). She is interested in portray female characters that fight to create their identity and challenge the domination of men over their destinies. Mala Renganathan argues that Fornes’ metaphor in her plays is “women’s psyche seen as a dual component of victim / tyrant or the oppressed / oppressor as within herself” (40).

Shakespearean tragedy is a story of one, or at most two persons. As a rule, they are male protagonists. But to say that Shakespeare’s female characters are shallow, undeveloped and used just as a decoration on the stage is very wrong. Women in Shakespeare’s tragedies have no leading role and they are, to paraphrase Northrop Frye,[1] not tragic heroines, but heroines in a tragedy.

Shakespeare and the members of the Elizabethan era would be appalled at the freedoms women experience today.  The docility of Elizabethan women is almost a forgotten way of life. What we see throughout Shakespeare’s plays is an insight into the female character as perceived by Elizabethan culture.  Shakespeare’s female characters reflect the Elizabethan era’s image of women; they were to be virtuous and obedient and those that were not were portrayed as undesirable and even evil.