The Oppression of Women in A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf

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.

Woolf speaks of the “religious importance” (p. 51) of chastity in women’s lives in the excerpt from A Room of One’s Own. She cites the work of Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and George Eliot as evidence that women themselves have accepted the convention of anonymity for women and sought to “veil themselves” (p. 52) when writing, and that the act of writing produces “inner strife” (p. 52). This is also in the character of ophelia when Polonius, too, speaks of how the rules of chastity are different for men than for women: “For Lord Hamlet, / Believe so much in him that he is young, / And with a larger tether may he walk / Than may be given you” (Act 1.3, lines 132–135), in other words, Hamlet by his birth as a prince and a man has a longer “tether” (line 134) or rope to roam in the world of love; whereas Ophelia’s rope of societal norms is short; she cannot move beyond the rules of chastity for women. This further shows the similarities between woolf’s text and the character of ophelia and how the relationship between the two have great central ideas.

Shakespeare uses language to explore the controversial gender roles. His use of two distinctively opposing female

Using the example of Judith, Shakespeare’s imaginary sister, Woolf depicts this character as how society discriminated against women. Judith, a woman, was just as talented as her brother, William Shakespeare, though had to write in secret. A man’s talent was highly recognized in

Feminist critical lens examines certain texts with a primary focus on both gender’s relationship with each other and how such relationships demonstrate effects towards beliefs, behaviors, and values. This critical lens also examines a patriarchal-centered society and how such society define and interact with women with an emphasis on stereotypes of both genders that are present and evident in the text being analyzed. William Shakespeare’s Othello can be scrutinized through the feminist critical lens. A deep analysis focused on feminism of the play Othello paves way for the judgement of different societal status of women in the period when the play took place, the Elizabethan society. Othello is a best fit that demonstrates how men were

Shakespeare's works have persistently influenced humanity for the past four hundred years. Quotations from his plays are used in many other works of literature and some common phrases have even become integrated into the English language. Most high schoolers have been unsuccessful in avoidance of him and college students are rarely afforded the luxury of choice when it comes to studying the bard. Many aspects of Shakespeare's works have been researched but one of the most popular topics since the 1960s has been the portrayal of women in Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, histories and sonnets.

The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,

Gender stereotypes are not a modern notion and as such expectations and limitations have always existed for both men and women. Fortunately women, who have formerly beared great burdens of discrimination, now have very liberated roles in society as a result of slowly shifting attitudes and values. Shakespeare was integral in challenging the subservient role expected of women in the 16th century. Throughout the play, ‘The Merchant of Venice’, women are expressed as powerful characters who behave, speak and live in a way that breaks away from the conformist role of females during the 16th century. Therefore, the submissive stereotype expected of women in Shakespearean time is confronted and defied through

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.

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.

A common theme in Shakespeare’s writings is the exploration of gender and sexuality (Gerlach et al.; McManus). His cleverly crafted and complex characters challenge the audience’s expectations of what it means to be masculine or feminine by displaying traits of each gender in single beings and questioning gender roles and standards (Gerlach et al.). This often playful consideration of gender norms was enhanced by the practice of men playing the female parts; in fact, theatres of Shakespeare’s era used costume and makeup to tease the audience who knew it was boys playing the female roles (McManus). Shakespeare portrayed women in a way that showed them to be more than passive, dainty little things (Gerlach et al.). They are often the characters who tell the truth about what is going on, demonstrating self-awareness, using reason, and controlling the action (Gerlach et al.; O’Brien). Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing is a perfect example of the interplay of feminine and masculine qualities and behaviors. She is opinionated and witty, and stands up for what she believes in, all while falling in love, traits that at the time of Shakespeare would have been quite radical for a woman to display. It is the powerful and complex women in Shakespeare’s works that make his plays the perfect place to explore more modern views on gender still today, especially now that women actually play the parts.

An important piece of literature that covers the topic of feminism is entitled, "Working For Judith Shakespeare: A Study In Feminism,” by Varley and Erdman. They discuss their thoughts on women writers and how women write against a society that did not want women to write. In addition they share Virginia Woolf’s thoughts on how feminism plays into a female writer. She states that oppressed women will write about themselves instead of their characters and that doing this will overshadow the importance of the story by the need to voice their oppression. They define feminism as “the belief in the right of women to have equal status with men as we live and participate in the world together” (Varley and Erdman). Furthermore, Varley and Erdman share

Each sex has its’ specialty, both sexes must be equal; people in general must be equal. By studying Shakespeare and by going deeper through analyzing and getting preoccupied with, we learn how to “brainstorm” the people, the culture and the ethics of that era and create opinions and thoughts about those centuries. In my opinion, Shakespeare is a modern, a contemporary artist and writer of his era who “sends” and passes messages through his plays. Each one of us, the readers and learners of Shakespeare, creates a special, unique opinion about Shakespeare and literature in general. We do not all think in the same way, people are unique. In my opinion Shakespeare is a great writer, revolutionist for his era, not being afraid to write and express his thoughts, maybe because he had the “advantage” of being a man. We do not know what we would learn today if Shakespeare was a woman. Maybe somebody else would be the Shakespeare of that era, or just somebody of that

Various situations of gender inequality appear while reading William Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, with a feminist theory in mind. The women throughout the play contribute to essentially nothing besides proving the anti-feminism Shakespeare portrays. With no viewpoints or relevance given to their feelings, Ophelia and Gertrude bear little significance other than to please the male characters. Written in the early 1600s, Shakespeare’s anti-feminism likely came naturally, living as a male in a patriarchal society. Thus, the inattention of the character’s feelings and roles clearly materializes.

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.