Roles Of Women In Twelfth Night By William Shakespeare

Throughout Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” women are used as method for men to get what they want. The men in Hamlet, either directly or indirectly continuously use women to acquire something from other men. The only two women in the entire play are Gertrude and Ophelia, who are consistently used by the current king, Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet. Ophelia is exploited by Polonius and the King (mainly together), and is also used by Hamlet. Gertrude is used by the King, as well as Polonius. In “Hamlet,” the women throughout the play are used as pawns for men to get what they want, mainly from the other men.

In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare, the author, creates female characters that occupy very different roles than in his other plays. In this play, Hamlet plays opposite two women who are used by the men around them in order to further their own interests. One woman is named Ophelia. In many of Shakespeare’s other plays, he creates women that are very strong and play a very real role in the life of the protagonist. In Hamlet, however, Ophelia occupies a very different role-she exemplifies a pawn of the men around her. She is used not only by her father and his associate the King, but also by her supposed lover, Hamlet. This is a very different role for a woman in a Shakespearian play. Also, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude,

In the play ‘Othello’ written by William Shakespeare, we see not only the main male character leads. But we also see the female characters, Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca. These three women were portrayed in ways that showed them being inferior to the other male roles as well as society during the Elizabethan Era. But Shakespeare made each of these individual ladies characteristics quite unique to one another having the traits of a feminist. Even though in the play we read how the male characters did somewhat control them and made them look weak compared to them, there were moments where Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca stood up for themselves.

The Role of Women in Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Play Gertrude and Ophelia, the only two women in Hamlet, reflect the general status of women in Elizabethan Times. Women were suppressed by the males in their lives (brothers, fathers, and partners) and were always inferior. Ophelia and Gertrude have little or no power due to restricted legal, social and economic rights that were found in Elizabethan society. The male characters in Hamlet reflect this sexist view point, represented by Hamlet’s judgement that “frailty, thy name is woman”. This view was not uncommon in Shakespeare’s time and heavily influenced Shakespeare to present women the way he does in Hamlet.

All throughout Illyria, there is romance, passion, royalty, and an immense amount of gender stereotypes. William Shakespeare imagines the kingdom of Illyria to have very traditional norms for both women and men in his play Twelfth Night. In Scene 2 of Act 1, Viola, recently rescued from a shipwreck, hears about a duke named Orsino and instantly comes up with a plan to get closer to him. Her plan is to disguise herself as a boy who she will name Cesario and become one of Orsino's’ attendants. Right off the bat, we begin to see gender stereotypes. Why must Viola become a man in order to work for the duke? Elizabethan society “molded women into the form of the dutiful wife and mother” (Elizabethan Women). Viola could not have served duke Orsino as a woman because as a woman she was expected to work at home and be either a “dutiful wife [or a] mother”. Scene two prepares the audience for the idea of gender throughout the rest of the play. Shakespeare's Twelfth Night is very traditional play due to its ideas of gender stereotypes in Elizabethan society.

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.

Gender roles play a major part in interpreting plays and poems. From the Early Modern English period to the 18th century and Enlightenment to present day gender roles and how they are viewed have changed. In the first piece woman were viewed as less than men and had to maneuver around to please men. As time progresses, the second piece shows how gender roles become more equal in life. This changes through time and is shown when you read Twelfth Night by Shakespeare and "A Nocturnal Reverie" by Anne Finch.

In Twelfth Night, the protagonist of the story, Viola, is displayed as a rational, sacrificial, sincere, strong, witty woman, who disguises herself as a man, to become a faithful attendant of Orsino. Viola is one with sacrificial and patient love, willingly loving Orsino, and attending to his every need. Orsino, on the other hand, is shown as an emotional man, who has superficial and transient love for Olivia. This love is very abruptly shifted to Viola at the end of the play, when Viola reveals her true identity. Through this contrast of these two individuals, we can see that Shakespeare makes a distinct different between genders, and allows to draw a contrast between characters to think deeper into their characters and purpose in the story, beyond their surface appearances.

	Today women have many rights. We can vote, work, and even voice our own opinions. In the past women were seen as mothers and housekeepers, always taught to respect, listen, and serve there husbands or the man of the house. In those days this was considered normal, therefore women had no choice but to obey and do as they were told. In Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays a similar relationship between women and men. He allows men to hold the higher position in the causing, them to treat women as lesser people and believed that women should listen to them and do as they were told.

In Shakespeare’s Othello women are depicted as possessions, ’whores’, and generally just submissive beings with only a few situational exceptions. They are simply sexual objects in the view of the men that dominate this play, but at times they break free of that label and show that women can be much more than that. In today’s society women are praised, they have value, and are worth much more than how they are depicted by Shakespeare. Each of the three women in the play have their differences. They are each from a different social class and all stand for something different as people. Desdemona is of the highest social class and represents unwavering loyalty, innocence, and kindness. Emilia is in the middle class and is different from Desdemona because she believes in individuality and some women’s rights. She shows her bold tendencies throughout the play, even though she is somewhat of a loyal and submissive wife. Finally there is Bianca of the lowest social class who plays a small role of a weak and clearly emotionally damaged woman. Her main focus in life is to be loved but this clouds her mind and limits what she allows herself to become, ultimately she is nothing more than Cassio’s jealous misstress.

=In William Shakespeare’s tragic drama “Othello”, Shakespeare puts emphasis on the role of the female characters and their influence on the male protagonists. Othello’s love and jealousy regarding his wife made this play a tragedy. There are only three women in the play Othello; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way in which these women behave and present themselves strongly reflects the ideological expectations of women within Shakespeare’s imagined Venetian society as well as the Elizabethan society in which he lived. This patriarchal Venetian society presented in the play depicts women as possessions of men who should remain submissive and meek at all times. They lived in a society in which a woman was either a whore, or a good, angelic wife. The women are expected to unselfishly and unreservedly devote their lives to serving their fathers and or their husbands’. The wife of the protagonist, Desdemona, is the main female character. These three female characters all vary in their personalities and roles, yet they all share one common trait, in that they are all women living in a patriarchal society and thus by suffering together, their female bonds become stronger.

Author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said, “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”. When one thinks of comic books, it is very likely that the subjects that come to mind are Marvel’s Spiderman or DC’s Batman. Although comic books are stereotypically thought to be mainly about super heroes, there are a wide variety of subject matter they could be written about, such as romance. In the 1950s – 1960s, it was common for these romance comics to exploit the social norms of that time and emphasized the subject of gender roles. While the men in comic books were usually illustrated in a brave heroic manner, the women would be portrayed to be what would now be considered a stereotypical “trophy wife”. As a young child reading these comics and taking in these images, they are slowly molding their ideals to believe that what they are reading and seeing is what is accepted and normal in their society. By coding gender norms into the texts, authors are helping mold the ideology of its readers to believe that it is acceptable for both genders to follow specific rules that accommodate to the believed social norms of the time.

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For those who have no background knowledge of Hamlet, here is a brief summary of the tragedy written by, William Shakespeare. The play was written during the time of grieving for Shakespeare’s only son, Hamnet. Shakespeare then named the main character Prince Hamlet after his deceased son. But ironically the main character, Hamlet has lost a loved one as well. Which happens to be his father, king of Denmark. Which during the time Hamlet had been summoned home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend the arrangement of his father’s funeral. He is then surprised to find his mother to be remarried, which she has wed with Hamlet’s father’s brother Claudius. Claudius has now crowned himself King of Denmark, even though Hamlet was his father’s heir to the throne. Hamlet is now suspicious to his uncle’s doings.

In Shakespeare’s plays it portrayed characters playing different gender roles; especially one notable character wears a literal disguise to accomplish a goal, while others use figurative disguises. These ideas are best exemplified on Twelfth Night. In this comedy, Viola the main female protagonist, dresses as a man in order to search the country of Illyria for her brother, Sabastian, who was lost at sea during a storm. In order to fulfill her goal of finding her brother, as a result, causes confusion among Illyria’s aristocracy. Furthermore, one level of identity confusion is mistaken identity that allowed her the opportunity to seek employment so that she could be independent, and able to take care of herself. In Shakespeare’s time, all female roles