Shakespeare’s Strong Women Essay

Life for the women in the Elizabethan times was very hard. Women were expected to find some rich and successful guy to end up marrying and then expected to have babies and spend their life caring for the children, their husband, and their home. Women were not able to have paying jobs or schooling. All they did was clean and obey the men around

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.

Shakespeare created his own archetypal structure when he wrote tragedies and comedies. In tragedies everyone dies. In comedies everyone gets married. Across each tragedy and comedy similarities with other tragedies and comedies can be found. That’s because, once again, it’s archetypal literature. The characters especially as far as women go consist of “the weak one”- (Ophelia, Juliet, (although not really because she loved her parents enemies), Hero and many others. Shakespeare created a new type of literature with women that were stronger and rebellious and perhaps had power like Rosalind and Beatrice in “As you like it,” and “Much Ado about

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.

Overall the Shakespeare brings to light many issues that females dealt with during the 17 century. He talks about women's voices and opinions being suppressed, men being able to hold females as property, the double standard of males and females. With this many readers and viewers of the play, understand the concept that Shakespeare is trying to present to this audience during the time. Although Shakespeare was not a modern day feminist, he still was a feminist in the light of a man during this time period. Bringing characters such as Emilia, who are shown to not take no for an answer, Becca, someone who can stand on her own to feet, and lastly Desdemona, someone who has shown that her loyalty lies with someone who she loves and she has not

In the Elizabethan era, there was a standard women and men had to follow. The Elizabethan society was patriarchal, meaning men were considered leaders, and the women were inferior to men. The men in Elizabethan life was to be of power, authority, and head of the their families, and above all to be obeyed. In this time wealthy men were to become courtiers, diplomen, clergymen, and lawyers. The men made the decisions and whatever decision they make women have to obey them. They were also responsible for taking care of the family while working different jobs..And they were expected to improve the positions of all members of the family through influence and patronage from wealthier people and families than their own. As for the women in this time frame they were raised to believe that they were inferior to men. Their roles in Elizabethan society was very limited, and their job was to be housewives and mothers. Women at the time were to be watched for and if she was married it would be her husband but if she was single then her father or brother. Gender conventions in Elizabethan Era is key to understand my argument about how women in Shakespeare’s plays break their gender conventions. I will be using parts from Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Twelfth Night, to show how women in this time period broke gender conventions.

In Elizabethan times, gender roles were dominant in society. Women were regarded as the weaker sex and were taught from birth to cook, clean, and do similar tasks so they could marry and their husbands would be proud (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Women were expected to bear children and take great pride in being mothers (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). They had few rights; they could not vote, choose a profession, receive an actual education, join the army or navy, or generally provide for themselves (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Men, on the other hand, were to provide for the women in their families, make all decisions, and have ownership of the family’s land and home (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").. The men could vote and all actors on stage were men. In general, men had every advantage in that time period (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").

The play is thought to have been written between 1598 and 1599 as Shakespeare was approaching the mid of his career. It was the time when renaissance touched England. Though the period witnessed tremendous growth in science and learning but it was a male dominated society. Women had very little rights. Despite the fact that England was ruled by a female monarch Queen Elizabeth I for over four decades, most women had little or no power over their own lives. Women were denied formal education, the right to speak and the opportunity to hold office. Women were considered as weak and inferior to men and in need of always being protected. Women were expected to get married, bear children and look after the household. They were expected to obey the male members without question. They were expected to learn how to govern a household and become a skilled housewife. Single women were looked upon with suspicion. It was a solely patriarchal society with institutions such as marriage solely vested in elderly male authority. During that time the father chose whom his

William Shakespeare constantly filled his plays with cultural and mythological references that engulfed viewers in the story. He was well educated and progressive for his time; however he still had a few downfalls. His main one was that he often portrayed women as objects. Take Othello, for example; Desdemona is rarely seen as a person and often referred to as an object. Thus Shakespeare portrays women as mere possessions and deprives them of their humanity.

Shakespeare creates strong women as it was a defying act as women had very clear stereotypes of weakness and were

It is true that the majority of women in the 17th century were housewives (Lambert). However, in Shakespeare’s eyes, this did not translate to inferiority of women. Instead, he believed that society’s flawed thinking was both unjust and dangerous. He saw women for what they were worth: humans capable of performing and becoming something everyone else could. Regardless of their genders, woman could be just as assiduous, shrewd, and vindictive as their male

Shakespeare and Webster represent the female characters in ‘Hamlet’ and ‘The duchess of Malfi’ by using general themes such as the patriarchy and the social control, the female identity and its independence, this institution of marriage, the expressions of sexuality and finally women shown to be either conformist or transgressive. Men were firmly in control in the Elizabethan and Jacobean era, and the expectations for women were to stay home, cook, clean and raise a family. Women’s status and roles were subject to the Tyranny of patriarchy, they were given strict disciplinary rules to follow whether by law or unspoken norms to prevent from rebellion. Women’s rights were restricted, legally, socially and economically, unlike today were women are more powerful and independent. Today women and men are seen to be equal and women can do pretty much everything a man can do (voting, working, becoming president) although there are many people still today who disagree with women having these rights.

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.

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.