The Importance Of Romantic Love In William Shakespeare's As You Like It

In a patriarchal society, women are expected to conform to social restrictions by demonstrating reverence and obedience to the males in their lives. Shakespeare's tragic play, Romeo and Juliet, explores the effects of patriarchal authority exerted over women and how the patriarchal structure left no escape from it, save death. Through Juliet, Lady Capulet, and the Nurse, Shakespeare establishes a common understanding of this type of society, but illuminates three different reactions to the social oppression by portraying the responses of a passionate lover, an idyllic housewife, and an attendant.

This moral, pointed out to us in the last paragraph of Renaissance writing, says nothing about the matters of interaction between men and women, only the interaction between brothers.  The women in the plot are deemphasized.  In As You Like It, Shakespeare breaks all convention and a female character delivers the epilog and speaks directly to the women calling them to action.  The playwright goes so far as to have Rosalind address the women audience members first.  Shakespeare clearly alters his plot to place primary emphasis on the women's roles in his play, how they effect change and how they move and affect a world dominated by men.

William Shakespeare’s, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ provides an insight of the experience of women in an Elizabethan society. The play was written in the late 1600’s, and is about two feuding families whose children fall in love. Their love leads to marriage, however, Juliet’s decision to marry Romeo was against her father’s will, this made life even harder for her, as in the 1600’s a women did not have the privilege to choose her husband. This decision was made by her father only. Moreover, she was not allowed to refuse to get married as this meant being disowned by her family. This shows us the unjustness that occurred in the Elizabethan period. Therefore, this

What is love? Is it an object? Is it a feeling? Is it even attainable? Love is everything, it is an object, it is an emotion, and it cannot be bought, stolen, given. Love can only be found. Love is discovered in the most unthinkable places during the most unimaginable times. It can never be predicted who you fall in love with or when you do but all you do know is that you are in love and you would give anything for that person, and for your love to always stay resilient through all other obstacles and distractions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Montague’s and Capulet’s are know and expected to hate each other until the miracle of love presented its self. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. They both fell in love when

In Western society, women are part of a very prosperous age, where they are seen as equals to men; however, this is not the case in Shakespeare’s time. The issues and gender roles forced upon women during England’s Elizabethan era are highlighted by Shakespeare in many of his plays. In Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, the women in the play are powerless, which can be seen through their lack of control over their sexuality, their lack of voice and their lack of independence.

Furthermore, the play also teaches us that without compromise love and attraction may not be enough to make a relationship successful. Today, much like Shakespeare’s time, unless a man and woman are willing to compromise and come to do agreement on their specific roles within gender, the relationship won’t be just as successful. The key message of gender expectations and gender bias is highly emphasised in Act 2 scene 3. The common belief during Shakespeare’s time and even today in some culture, was that the man was a dominant person in the relationship and the female is to be submissive to his desires.

Orlando, the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys, second important figure in the play. Who ill treated by his oldest brother, he is gentle, with feelings of emotion to his love for Rosalind. Which he is capable is evident in his concern for his faithful old servant Adam, as well as in his fidelity to his lover. He escapes from his older brother after he knows that he is planning to kill

However, the comedic merit of Shakespeare's entertaining plays can still be appreciated, but possibly only as satire. Shakespeare's masterfully used devices such a role-playing, role reversal and colorful characters ascertain the lasting quality in his works. However the historic reference that men should marry for money (the dowry) and women should marry to avoid being “an old maid” is nearly unfounded today (Shakepeare). Therefore, well-to-do women and even some not-so-well-to-do, still expect men to at least bring equal to the table in order to be considered as marriage material and if they can not, the men only gets what he has brought and not a penny more when they part company. Most women today pride themselves in being strong and able to take care of themselves and do as they please. Unlike Shakespeare's era, the stigmatization of single women being “old maids” does not exist. If anything, the so-called tables have inched towards being completely turned. The Kate's of today are no longer shrews; they are shrewd. They no longer wait to be rescued for they are not in danger of being an “old maid.” Women no longer have to be chosen, and oftentimes they choose.

William Shakespeare regularly called the English national writer, is generally viewed as the best playwright ever .William Shakespeare was immersed on April 26, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. From around 1594 forward he was a critical individual from the Lord Chamberlain's Men organization of showy players. Love in Shakespeare is an intermittent topic. The treatment of affection in Shakespeare's plays and poems is exceptional for the time: the Bard blends cultured adoration, solitary adoration, compassionate love and sexual affection with expertise and heart. Shakespeare does not return to the two-dimensional representations of affection run of the mill of the time, but instead investigates love as a non-consummate a portion of the

Another point to make on this matter would be that the character of Rosalind would have been played by a male and the audience would know this. This could mean that the reason Shakespeare included Rosalind’s enjoyment of manly sports was because Rosalind is actually a man in the attire of a woman. There is a large confusion of the gender of Rosalind throughout the play. By confusing the gender, Shakespeare is focusing more on the personality of Rosalind than her appearance. The question of gender is continued at the very end of the play. In many of his plays, Shakespeare ends with an epilogue read by a male character. In As You Like it, the epilogue is performed by Rosalind. The epilogue seems to be outside the play as if the actor was talking but Rosalind is still in character. She says herself;

Perhaps the theme that is most recurrent in William Shakespeare's plays is that of filial relationships, specifically the relationship between daughter and father. This particular dynamic has allowed Shakespeare to create complex female characters that come into conflict with their fathers over issues ranging from marriage to independence. At the same time, the dramatist exposes his audience to the struggles women face when attempting to assert themselves in a misogynistic world. Through the daughter-father dyads portrayed in The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare highlights the effects that gender constraints have on female characters while simultaneously drawing attention to the sharp contrast between both relationships.

William Shakespeare was a poet, playwright, and actor, and is often regarded as one of the best writers to have ever lived. He is considered to be the English national poet. He wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets during the late 16th and early 17th century. During this time period, England had an absolute patriarchal society, where males dominated all aspects of life. Women had very few rights and were treated very poorly. However, Shakespeare liked to write plays that challenged traditional thinking and norms. In this paper, I will explore the gender norms/expectations for women during Shakespeare’s time and how he conformed or didn’t conform to these norms in two different plays, Romeo and Juliet and the Merchant of Venice.

William Shakespeare authored his plays, The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, at least four centuries prior to Judith Butler’s twenty-first century gender theories. However, two of his characters, Portia and Rosalind, temporarily “alter” their genders and assume opposing gender roles in his texts. In effect, these characters and their actions deconstruct the sixteenth-century constructs of gender and gender-appropriate behaviors. They transgress gender boundaries, and they incorporate other genders within themselves, thus illustrating that gender boundaries are permeable. In light of Butler’s gender theories, and in the context of sixteenth-century society, following is an examination of the deconstruction of gender and gendered behaviors in The

The patriarchal and patrilineal society of Shakespeare’s era often made it difficult for women to be on the same level as men in terms of property, money, and rights. What is not often mentioned is the way in which even male-male relationships were glorified as well. In a society which thought males to be the best gender, it is not surprising that male friendships would be put above that of even the marriage of a man and wife. William Shakespeare and Mario DiGangi explore this concept in Shakespeare’s play, The Winter’s Tale and ensuing critical essays, respectively. Shakespeare sets up this concept through the glorification of the friendship (or, possibly more than a friendship) between Polixenes and Leontes as well as inferiorizing all feminized characters in the play. Through these marital fissures, Shakespeare’s play—along with DiGangi’s secondary essays—shows that conjugal happiness is nearly impossible in his society for Hermione and Leontes, furthering the divide between men and women.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays are complex and subtly nuanced. Through subtleties, Shakespeare encourages readers to care for and relate to the characters in the story. The plays are not merely for entertainment purposes, but are used as a way to connect to the audience. The plays range from the enjoyment of surface plots to sophisticated engagements with the text and then to the underlying messages. This is well illustrated in the play, As You Like It, as it presents obstacles within family, relationships, jealousy, power and patriarchy, which lead to the marginalization of several characters. The play suggests that the female characters are the “outsiders,” because they do not serve as a valuable member in a male dominated society. Women