Female Direction of Shakespeare's As You Like It Essay

The movie brings together two issues that is the homo-social alliance between men and the insecurity of a woman in permanent disguise, about her gender and sexuality. Horatio being unaware of Hamlet’s natural gender (woman) upholds fraternal values. Hamlet on the other hand has to follow gender norms and hide her love for Horatio while trying to avenge the death of her father, implying that the character of Hamlet is trapped in a mesh of hetero-normative behaviour. While Hamlet is a woman in love with Horatio, her identity makes her careful as to not be branded as a homosexual. It is interesting to notice the use of the cross-dressing motive in the movie as it is not the actor but the character that cross-dresses.

In the 17th century, the issue with the gender roles being switched would be presumed as something different. I use ‘different’ because it could go both ways, it could be perceived as something good or bad to the audience. We see Prospero as a male because his controlling and obsessive nature leads you to male qualities. We do see these qualities in women, but not as much as you would in a male. Males tend to show those qualities more so, than vice versa. Also, if the main character Prospero was Shakespeare, then it would not have been able to be played by Shakespeare himself and it would not relate as much to his life, like the speculation seems to be.

Throughout Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, there is an overlaying presence of the typical roles that men and women were supposed to play. During Elizabethan times there was a major difference between the way men and women were supposed to act. Men typically were supposed to be masculine and powerful, and defend the honor. Women, on the other hand, were supposed to be subservient to their men in their lives and do as ever they wished. In Romeo and Juliet the typical gender roles that men and women were supposed to play had an influence on the fate of their lives.

                 Miranda's schooling in The Tempest shows the audience the conflicting arrangement white women in the Shakespearean drama as well as Shakespearean times are forced to act within.  Paul Brown points out that "the discourse of sexuality…offers the crucial nexus for the various domains of colonialist discourse" (208) and the conduct in Prospero manipulates his followers' sexuality is the mainstay of his power.  The Miranda-Prospero relationship servers to represent a sort of patriarchy, which is unarguably the system many Renaissance women and women of Shakespeare's time found themselves in.  It is thus unsurprising that Prospero controls Miranda and her sexuality as well.  The

The role of motherhood in the movie is powerful than the play, which we can see in Act 4, Scene 1 when Prospero approves the love Miranda and Ferdinand declares, however points out a harsh warning to Ferdinand. In the movie, because of the female character, it is easier to make the connection of mother and daughter. By switching the gender in this movie, it lead women characters have a sexual power and empowerment, which was none in the play caused by the pressure made in the Elizabethan Era. Taymor, director of “The Tempest” adds; “I didn't really have a male actor that excited me in mind, and yet there had been a couple of phenomenal females—Helen Mirren being one of them—who [made me think]: 'My God, does this play change? What happens if you make that role into a female role?” (Roger) By casting Prospera, instead of Prospero changed the main themes such as power and sexual empowerment, also the voice of Shakespeare in Prospero, whom he is sometimes occurred as.

Women in Shakespearian plays have always had important roles. Whether they create the main conflicts and base of the plays, or bring up interesting proper and cultural questions, they have always been put in challenging situations. Some women are stronger than others, and their effect on the play is different for each one. One woman who plays a very important role in Shakespeare's plays is Cleopatra, in Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra is the dominant force in the play. Cleopatra takes on masculine qualities such as being bold, `alternative masculinity' and manhood of stronger determination. She is also viewed as a perfectionist. During the play many critics notice that Cleopatra and Antony switch roles, by Cleopatra acting more masculine, and Antony acting more feminine. Antony becomes jealous of Cleopatra because sometimes she acts more masculine than he does. Cleopatra is not dependant on anyone. Some critics say that Shakespeare discriminated against women because of his actions. He did not allow women to have a role in his play, nor let them have any say in his writings. He had boys or men play the parts of women until later on in his playwriting. Shakespeare favored men during his time period and was also very sexist.

Others have asserted that the roles of women in his plays were prominent for the time and culture that he lived in,his intent in creating characters to inspire much controversy. Two works, Taming of the Shrew, and Twelfth Night, stand out particularly well in regards to Shakespeare's use of female characters. If you could examine these two plays, you would see that Shakespeare, though conforming to contemporary attitudes of women, circumvented them by creating resolute female characters with a strong sense of self.

William Shakespeare, in his play, The Tempest, tells the story of a fictional exiled Duke of Milan. In the original play, Shakespeare casts the duke as a man, Prospero. In a modern movie version of the play, writer and director Julie Taymor casts the duke as a woman, Prospera powerfully portrayed by the very convincing performance of Helen Mirren. The play, surprisingly, requires only a few very minor line changes to substitute a woman lead for the original male role. While the actual dialogue changes are minor, the impact to the play is substantial as it totally transforms the duke and an audience’s prospective of the character. With very few exceptions, having a woman as the Duke of Milan in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, makes the duke more

In Macbeth, one of the most tragic and well known plays, William Shakespeare changes women’s part in society. During this time period, women are known to be both mentally and physically weaker than men. Women are called to be only housewives. Shakespeare reflected the image of women in society by giving the men bigger leads in his plays. Only in a few of Shakespeare's plays did he give women strong leading roles. Macbeth is one of the few plays where women play a more powerful role than the men. In Macbeth, he gives the women unusual traits like manipulation and betrayal. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, women like Lady Macbeth , the trio witches, and Lady Macduff portray non-feminine traits.

In the book “Gender Trouble” (1990), feminist theorist Judith Butler explains “gender is not only a social construct, but also a kind of performance such as a show we put on, a costume or disguise we wear” (Butler). In other words, gender is a performance, an act, and costumes, not the main aspect of essential identity. By understanding this theory of gender as an act, performance, we can see how gender has greatly impacted the outcome of the play in William Shakespeare’s Othello. From a careful analysis of the story, tragedy in Othello is result of violating expected gender roles, gender performance by Desdemona and Othello, and the result of Iago’s inability to tolerate these violations.

     Throughout history, men and women have been assigned specific roles to which society prescribes standards and qualifications. There are certain tasks that have been traditionally completed only by men, and others that have been assigned to women; most of which are separated by the realm of the domestic sphere. During the period of the Renaissance, men and women were assigned very different roles within society. The value, social expectations, legal status, and rights of citizenship differed greatly between the sexes as well as among the classes. Many of these gender roles can be identified through careful readings of the literature produced throughout the Renaissance.

There are only three female characters in William Shakespeare's play Othello, Desdemona, Othello’s wife, Emilia, Iago’s wife and Desdemona’s lady-in-waiting, and Bianca, a courtesan. When first introduced to this limited number of representatives of the female gender, it is quickly assumed that they will not be very present or have an important role in story. In addition, the male characters of the play see women as submissive and promiscuous possessions that should be controlled by either their fathers or spouses. However Shakespeare’s female characters are shown to question male authority and to have the ability to speak for themselves, which could be seen as feminist statement during the Elizabethan time that Shakespeare lived in.

Julie Taymor 's 2010 film adaptation of Shakespeare 's The Tempest is a truthful recreation of the classic romantic tragicomedy in all aspects except that the role of the magician, Prospero, is played by Helen Mirren, turning him from Prospero to Prospera. Through this simple change in the gender of one of the main characters, we see the play 's themes called into question and viewed differently to how they would have been if the role of Prospero was played by a male. These themes include the usurpation of royalty and family. This review will discuss how Taymor 's decision to change Prospero 's gender is a critique of modern gender discourse.

Female characters, whether they are mothers, sisters, daughters, or lovers, are used as essential roles in every play written by William Shakespeare. In the beginning of both plays, Twelfth Night and Othello, we see strong-willed ladies. Shakespeare enjoys giving women powerful minds and hearts in his works. I think that the female character development between these two plays is that women have the ability to be dominant in a man’s world, but can also lose themselves by becoming submissive to men. While Shakespeare wrote the later play with concepts about consequences of jealousy and not trusting a loved one, he used Twelfth Night to be an example to men to have more compassion for women.

    When one considers Shakespeare’s female characters, one has to remember that the plays were written in a time when women were considered weak-minded creatures who were apt to make bad choices if given the freedom.  Shakespeare, for the most