Analysis Of ' Tartuffe ' And ' Punishment ' By Rabindranath Tagore

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.

This essay is an exploration of the play Much Ado About Nothing, and the gender roles involved in the deceit and trickery that transpire and develop throughout the story. As gender is one of the main themes in the plot, identifying the expected gender roles of the characters, and how the contrast between characters highlights these expected roles. In Shakespeare 's time, known as the Elizabethan Era, men and women’s roles and expectations were starkly different. Elizabethan women, no matter what social class, were inferior to men. A female’s role in the family was to get married so they could increase their family 's wealth and power and to produce heirs. Men, on the other hand, had all of the power within a household. Males were expected

Shakespeare uses language to explore the controversial gender roles. His use of two distinctively opposing female

Punishment, by Rabindranath Tagore, is a short story involving Indian culture and a dilemma for two brothers. Dukhiram and Chidam slaved in the fields all day, as their wives would fight and scream at each other at the house. One day the brothers came home to their wives with no food awaiting them. Dukhiram, furious and enraged, asked his wife where the food was. Radha, his wife, said sarcastically," Where is the food? You didn't give me anything to cook. Must I earn the money myself to buy it?" (Punishment, pg.1451) After a hard days work, Dukhiram couldn't handle the sarcasim. So he stabbed Radha in the head with his knife. In the mean while, Ramlochan, the pillar of

Macbeth by William Shakespeare brings about one of the most controversial topic of the gender portrayal in a play. During Shakespearean times, women were considered as the weaker sex, physically and emotionally. On the other hand, men were seen as the dominant sex that is expected to be the head of their households and a strong figure. Unlike this stereotypical representation of men and women, Shakespeare introduces the reversal of gender roles in his play. Shakespeare’s portrayal of the relationship and characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth diverged from the stereotypical representation of both men and women. The author, William Shakespeare’s use of reverse gender roles which contradicted with the traditional gender roles, is what

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

In spit of the fact that Mariane wishes to marry with Valere; but she wants to please her father as well. Dorine, Mariane's maid, questions Orgon by saying,

As the perception of women changes constantly, society is the only factor in creating their ideal image. These societal views are the basis of their treatment, with the expectation that it is beneficial for them. However, societal expectations of women in the Elizabethan and Victorian eras severely limit their freedoms and rights. William Shakespeare’s Othello and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein portray most women in their typical roles. Both authors depict the level of injustice in society’s treatment of women through the passivity of women causing their deaths, the silencing of vulnerable women and the portrayal of women as more humane than men.

Shakespeare 's complex play Othello holds numerous pressing issues within its intricate layers that seem to leap out to modern society. One such issue seen by many is the representation of women. Women within the play can be characterized as submissive possessions and temptresses. This ideology, though commonplace in this time period, appears controversial to the modern eye as we deconstruct the characters of this play. This dominate patriarchal society present within the setting merely conditions this belief further as it is prevalent within the characters dialogue.

   Throughout the length of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello there is a steady undercurrent of sexism. It is originating from not one, but rather various male characters in the play, who manifest prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.

   Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello features sexism as regular fare – initially from Brabantio and Iago, and finally from Othello. Let us in this essay explore the occurrences and severity of sexism in the drama.

In the play, Othello, there are many different representations of characters and archetypes. The women of the play are seen as symbolic representations of how the men in Shakespeare’s generation saw women. The women of the play are all individual characters with different personalities. They are seen as objects but stray from the average mold. Shakespeare converts these women into the play with roles that represent the strong stereotypes of women and how they are not what the rumors portray them as.

In “Othello the Moor of Venice” by William Shakespeare, though the play revolves around two leading male characters, Othello and Iago, the women characters are often overlooked and viewed as the pawns, to the plans laid out by Iago in his journey to end Othello. Shakespeare’s play, presented women with an image of being inferior to the men and throughout it we learn how this came to be as the women are all in critical relationships to the point where they are disregarded and mistreated by the men in their lives and as a result they are forced to take ways of fighting back. Men are often viewed dominant, but when faced with the others, especially women, of equal or more stature and significance, they find themselves unable to cope with such a spectacle and are often ignorant of the existence of this power.

To start, it is first important to understand Tagore’s view of women and class to understand the meaning of his short story “Punishment”. One aspect that brought about modernism was the struggle between the sexes (Levenson 1). Men were beginning to be more vulnerable and have qualities other than masculinity (Hanna 45). Modernism is known as the age of anxiety, and one of the causes of this anxiety the sudden awareness of long-ignored issues. In Modernism, this idea of sudden awareness and its effect on literature is explained: “-an ancient problem has at last been recognized, and once forced into consciousness, it has changed and deepened…the New Woman is merely the incarnation of an eternal type” (Levenson 178). As the age of anxiety progressed, women were seen in a much different light, but scholars such as Levenson argue that they are simply being recognized for who they always were. Tagore would agree with this statement, as he had supported the feminist movement and appreciated the identity of women before modernism caused the issue to rise to the forefront. They fought for more control over government (the right to vote) and they were becoming more aware of the inequality within the households.

When one thinks of art and religion, one may think of gender role defiance and non-conformism. While this may be generally true in present times, it was not always this way. Women and men have had distinctly different places in society, these places often being unequal. Generally most well-known works throughout the ages have adhered to and represented what society regarded as the proper gender roles for men and women. This is represented in three works of art which will be discussed: Hamlet by William Shakespeare, The Courtier: Book 3 by Baldassare Castiglione, and Luncheon on the Grass by Eduoard Manet. While these three forms of art come from different times and are of different mediums, they are connected in that they follow and represent the gender roles of their time.