William Shakespeare 's The Winter 's Tale

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.

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

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

Shakespeare 's complex play Othello holds numerous pressing issues within its intricate layers that seem to leap out to modern society. One such issue seen by many is the representation of women. Women within the play can be characterized as submissive possessions and temptresses. This ideology, though commonplace in this time period, appears controversial to the modern eye as we deconstruct the characters of this play. This dominate patriarchal society present within the setting merely conditions this belief further as it is prevalent within the characters dialogue.

Although written long ago, Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth still has themes relevant for contemporary society.  Murderous ambition, political intrigue, crafty social alliances, the disintegration of marriage – these could be headlines from any daily news program.  It comes as no surprise, then, that we also find a significant number of moments in the play where gender seems to be an issue. More specifically, we might say that Shakespeare's dramatic investigation into proper uses of power consists, in part, of a rigorous critique of the disparities between the respective roles assigned to men and women. Shakespeare seems especially interested in the moral and ethical implications of such

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, we see that it defies most traditional gender roles in the play by allowing his characters to surpass the

In Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, and A Winter’s Tale, William Shakespeare shows the shift in which in which perception becomes knowledge. As a thing becomes known, through one sense or another, it is filtered through the mind, and then emerges as knowledge. Shakespeare examines this process, focusing on the ways in which we unconsciously influence the formation of knowledge. Much Ado about Nothing, Othello and A Winter’s Tale each explore different sides of jealousy which all stem from the same problem. All believe their innocent wives to be unfaithful. However, since everybody experiences reality differently, due to our own bias, we can never be certain that we understand anyones perspective. Claudio, Othello, and Leonates attempt to compensate for this uncertainty by assuming the absolute worst about their wives with only the absolute minimum of evidence. Unfortunately, their conviction that such assumptions are correct leads to disaster.

William Shakespeare's “The Tempest” examines patriarchy through gender and class. The patriarchal system enables men to have absolute rule over the women within their lives. In the play, Prospero exercises his rights as a father to control Miranda’s love and enact self-righteous deeds. Moreover, Prospero's patriarchal rule does not halt within his family, but rather encompasses the entire kingdom of the island of which he rules. “The Tempest” forces readers to acknowledge paternal patriarchies. Thus making one examine the ways in which the female gender is discredited by the male characters within the text.

When interpreted from a feministic perspective, it is apparent that the story of King Lear and The Winter’s Tale contains misogynistic implications. While the three sisters in King Lear were fallen victims to the misogynistic societal needs, Hermoine in The Winter’s Tale also suffered from temptress accusations. The ingratitude that the women endured from male authorities who viewed women stereotypically, claims how both plays challenged gender roles and suggested that women were wicked, sexually deviant, and the cause of all issues. Moreover, women who lived during the Shakespearean period like the female protagonist in these plays, lived in misogynistic society’s due to the lack of equality that was implemented during this time period.

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.

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.

Leontes’ first lines of jealousy seem to appear at line 109, “Too hot, too hot!/ To mingle friendship far is mingling bloods.” Leontes says this aside in response to Hermione calling Polixenes a friend. In the footnotes of The Complete Pelican Shakespeare it is said that friend can also mean lover. Leontes goes on to ask Mamillius twice if he is his son. Leontes believes that this friendship could have already gone too far, where the line between friends and lovers is blurred. The mingling of blood is referring to the mixing of Polixenes’ and Hermione’s DNA to produce the baby with which she is currently impregnated. So this affair must have happened many months ago as Hermione is far along in her pregnancy.

In the play The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, exists two different types of characters: dynamic characters, meaning characters who change throughout the play by learning and growing through their experiences, and static characters, meaning characters that stagnate from the beginning to end.

Since “The Winter’s Tale” is a grandiose character play, where Shakespeare himself battles art and nature with characters that put on alter egos and defenses over

Shakespearean tragedy is a story of one, or at most two persons. As a rule, they are male protagonists. But to say that Shakespeare’s female characters are shallow, undeveloped and used just as a decoration on the stage is very wrong. Women in Shakespeare’s tragedies have no leading role and they are, to paraphrase Northrop Frye,[1] not tragic heroines, but heroines in a tragedy.