Olivia Daly 12HG
T.S Eliot Prize Essay
14 October 2017
How do William Shakespeare and Carol Ann Duffy subvert traditional roles of gender and sexuality in “From Mrs Tiresias” and “Sonnet 20”?
Both Carol Ann Duffy in “From Mrs Tiresias” and William Shakespeare in “Sonnet 20” subvert male gender roles by presenting the male protagonists with physical female traits. Both poets differ in their presentation of traditional gender roles and sexuality.
In “From Mrs Tiresias”, Carol Ann Duffy subverts the gender role of men as strong masculine men, playing on the modern stereotype that men are unable to cope with the monthly trials and tribulations of being a woman. She tells us that he had to have “One week in bed. Two doctors in. Three
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Shakespeare has a highly misogynistic view of women, saying that their hearts are “acquainted With shifting change”, their eyes are “false in rolling” and he also talks about women being “false” implying deceit and an artificial façade. At the culmination of the rhyming couplet, Shakespeare comically tops his damning excoriation of women by telling us that “thy love’s use their treasure”, insinuating that women just want ‘one little thing’ rather than a soul to love endlessly. This is not subverting the traditional Elizabethan stereotype of women. By contrast, Duffy subverts these gender roles of women by highlighting that men can also act up to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan stereotype, just like Mr Tiresias is seen doing in “From Mrs Tiresias”. He is metaphorically prostituting himself; he is seen “entering glitzy restaurants on the arms of [multiple] powerful men” and while we are “sure” this is not for sexual advances, Duffy highlights the superficial nature of Mr Tiresias’ quest for notoriety. We have a complete juxtaposition between each poet and the reinforcement of gender stereotypes of the gender opposite their own; Shakespeare is renouncing women and thus highlighting the loyalty and dependability of men by using the pitfalls of women to celebrate the qualities of the Fair Youth - i.e the man he is revering- by contrast, whereas Duffy is repudiating men and accentuating the patience, kindness and supportiveness of women (Mrs Tiresias is “holding his new soft
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.
In Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare examines the fragility of the male ego and its domination over women in an effort to critique the patriarchy during the Elizabethan Era. In the play, chaos is created and authority in exercised by the male characters with no regard for reason or evidence. This highlights their baseless need to protect themselves at all costs, no matter the effect it may have on the opposite sex.
Shakespeare uses language to explore the controversial gender roles. His use of two distinctively opposing female
William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play The play Twelfth Night was written in the Elizabethan days, near the end of the ruling of Queen Elizabeth I. It was also during The Renaissance, which is also the rebirth of learning, which this play was born. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet defies the “stereotypical gender normality’s” that were present in 1595. Throughout the play, the two main characters, Romeo and Juliet, continuously oppose to the gender-based normality’s that are expected of them. They defy the gender-based stereotypes surrounding love and relationships, the gender roles around marriage. Even the character's way in which they end their lives are more “suited” towards the opposite gender.
The theme for honour and fidelity apply for both men and women in Shakespeare’s play ‘much ado about nothing’. Honour and fidelity is represented very differently for men and women as it would have been for the people in Elizabethan times. In this first section of the essay, I will be exploring double standards and Shakespeare’s awareness of the double standards between sexes and his feminist approach, the differences of honour and fidelity for men and women and upper class and lower class comparisons.
Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s more popular plays, a comedy loved by many, and produced still to this day. However, behind all the wordplay, misconception, and pranks Shakespeare successfully exposes the dark, ugly truth about gender roles and inequality within the Elizabethan society. The inequality of genders is prevalent in Beatrice’s language, how the male characters view women within the play, and the concept of honor.
Female gender roles have greatly changed from now and the sixteen hundreds when Shakespeare wrote the popular play Much Ado About Nothing. Women were raised to believe they were inferior to men. Women were taught that men should be the one who brings in money and women should stay home to clean and bare children. Also women were given no choice in who they were to marry or when. Over hundreds of years women realized that they were just as good as men and that they should be treated equally. This essay will cover the analysis of the women’s gender roles in the play Much Ado About Nothing, showing the analysis of Beatrice not following any stereotypes, Hero following all of the stereotypes, and Margaret not getting the same stereotypes as other women because she is a servant.
Midterm: Much Ado About Nothing Classic, best-beloved, most popular, most entertaining, frequently preformed, funny- those are the descriptions used when recounting Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. Written between 1598 and 1599, on the surface Much Ado About Nothing is simply a comedy that portrays various instances of love. However, it is much more than that; Much Ado brings to light the harsh cultural morals of the era in which it was written. Underneath the comedic nature of the play, Shakespeare examines the sociality gendered double standards, and how they affected his female characters. I plan to explore how others view the comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, specifically in relation to how they perceived the female characters,
By examining Shakespeare’s treatment of familial ties in his plays The Life and Death of King John and The Winter’s Tale, we can see how his attitudes and opinions towards family relationships evolved. In King John (written between 1594 and 1596), Shakespeare adopts what was then a fairly conventional attitude towards family relationships: his characters never question the highly patriarchal family hierarchy. They also assume that the majority of wives will be unfaithful, simply because they are female—however, they take the charge of adultery rather lightly. By contrast, in The Winter’s Tale (written between 1610 and 1611), he adopts a much more progressive, feminist view of family
When observing gender in our society, women and men are stereotyped with specific roles. Men have always been seen as the family’s main source of income whereas the women take care of their home and children. However, Shakespeare challenges these gender roles in his play with the three female characters Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia. While all three are independent, powerful women and even lead their armies into battle, the men seem to be foolish and weak such as King Lear and Albany. Furthermore, Mira cel Batran makes a point in her essay, “Feminist Reading of William Shakespeare’s King Lear”, that although women are regarded as dependent on men, Shakespeare explains that it can be the exact opposite. The men seem to depend on the women such as King Lear depending on Cordelia and Albany depending on Goneril. Shakespeare, in his play, King Lear, portrays women who are strong and intelligent and men who are weak or overpowered by female characters, challenging the societal belief that women are inherently less than or dependent on men.
Gender identity and its roles in 17th and 19th century England were regarded as rigid fact — definite and unyielding. The adherence to these social protocols was of utmost importance. Masculinity was viewed as being dominant, assertive, and bold, whereas femininity involved beauty, obedience, and chastity. The theatre became a method of challenging this rigid social concept. Both William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest explore these public values through their characters. Wilde and Shakespeare’s use of gender reversals satirize the traditions of social order, marriage, and gender responsibilities at the time, thereby revealing that gender is not absolute.
In Twelfth Night Shakespeare uses gender roles and cross dressing to create disguise. This creates a sense of gender ambiguity and this is what makes the audience laugh - but although it creates a sense of fun and liveliness it also examines
“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman,” Virginia Woolf once boldly stated. Though she was from a privileged background and was well educated, Woolf still felt she was faced with the oppression that women have been treated with for as far as history goes back. Her education allowed her to explore the works of the most celebrated authors, but one who she had a long and complicated relationship with was the Bard of Avon himself, William Shakespeare. As one of the most highly regarded and well studied authors of all time, Shakespeare has been elevated from mere playwright to a pillar of the British Empire, instrumental to the institutions that boasted British superiority. It is evident throughout Woolf’s writing that Shakespeare’s works were highly influential. Her novels frequently allude to his plays, most notably Orlando, Mrs. Dalloway, and also in her famous essay, A Room of One’s Own. Though Woolf admires Shakespeare’s androgyny (specifically in A Room of One’s Own), she also makes the case that his treatment of female characters does not allow for the women to be three-dimensional, therefore leaving them flat and lacking in depth. Even though for the most part Woolf’s assertion is correct, there are several examples in Shakespeare’s plays that suggest otherwise, namely in the play Othello. Additionally, in a similar vain, one could explore Shakespeare’s treatment of other minority groups in his works, such as Jews and anyone who is not English. Though it is easy to
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.