Women And Patriarchy In The Winter's Tale

The Taming of the Shrew examines the way traditional 16th century notions about gender and its hierarchy are tested and reinforced in tempestuous relationships. While patriarchy rules supreme at the plays end, it’s vital to consider the constant attempts to undermine the sexist assumptions about a women’s place in marriage. In The Taming of the Shrew gender plays a

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.

Her strength of character and willingness to make sacrifices for the betterment of the people she loves makes her character extremely similar to the character Paulina from Shakespeare’s The Winter's Tale. In The Winter's Tale Paulina is faced with the trauma of seeing her best friend Hermione falsely accused of infidelity, put into prison, and eventually die of heartbreak from losing her child. She watches as Leontes, a man she loves as a friend, is overcome with jealousy and is the person who does those treacherous things to Hermione, his wife, that eventually leads to her death.

Throughout ‘Othello’, Shakespeare uses the manipulation of the protagonist, by the antagonist, Iago, to present a play controlled by men. In such a male dominated society, Shakespeare presents the women in the play as tragic victims at the hands of their husbands, in particular Desdemona and Emilia. Throughout this essay I will relate to the Aristotelian and Senecan descriptions of tragedy to come to a conclusion of how in ‘Othello’ Shakespeare presents women as tragic victims of men.

   Throughout the length of Shakespeare’s tragedy Othello there is a steady undercurrent of sexism. It is originating from not one, but rather various male characters in the play, who manifest prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.

Throughout time there has always been the conventional rule that women must be submissive to their husbands and are expected to tend to the domestic responsibilities within the household (Bender 46). However in modern society, women are as outspoken and independent as men and the negative backlash of such behavior has lessened. Women work alongside their male counterparts and are now able to receive the benefits that were once kept from them by a dominating male society. Although gender roles have been challenged and refined over the course of the twentieth century, main characters, Katherina from “Taming of the Shrew”, and Carol in “Oleanna”, nonetheless portray the exceptions or even the extremes, of feminine independence and superiority

   Shakespeare’s tragic drama Othello features sexism as regular fare – initially from Brabantio and Iago, and finally from Othello. Let us in this essay explore the occurrences and severity of sexism in the drama.

Women and men’s role in Elizabethan society is completely different to modern society. The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare shows exactly what the attitudes were like. For example, the scene when Katherina is fighting with her sister because Bianca has a number of suitors waiting for her but she refuses to tell Katherina which one she prefers. Katherina gets angry and aggressive towards Bianca because she doesn’t give her an answer, Katherina starts to attack Bianca. Their father enters into the room and says “For shame, thou hilding of a devilish spirit! Why dost thou wrong her that did ne’er wrong thee? When did she cross thee with a bitter word? Baptista is expressing why Katherina would

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Othello there are numerous instances of obvious sexism aimed at the three women in the drama -- Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca – and aimed at womankind generally. Let us delve into this subject in this paper.

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.

By examining Shakespeare’s treatment of familial ties in his plays The Life and Death of King John and The Winter’s Tale, we can see how his attitudes and opinions towards family relationships evolved. In King John (written between 1594 and 1596), Shakespeare adopts what was then a fairly conventional attitude towards family relationships: his characters never question the highly patriarchal family hierarchy. They also assume that the majority of wives will be unfaithful, simply because they are female—however, they take the charge of adultery rather lightly. By contrast, in The Winter’s Tale (written between 1610 and 1611), he adopts a much more progressive, feminist view of family

When William Shakespeare and Aeschylus create purpose, they create it in a direct manner. Executing it with carefully chosen language, Shakespeare and Aeschylus implement multiple layers to construct meaning and multiple interpretations. Without alienating the audience and regardless of it’s controversial theme’s, both text’s were at a time developed when devoted leaders condemned the idea of Eve and praised the Virgin Mary, Neoclassical scholars welcome the idea of feminism, reversed gender roles, and that women could be the dominant domain. The everyday couple would settle and incorporate pieces of the popular ideas of societies hierarchy of the male position, masculinity over ruled femininity, which was embedded in a tradition constructed society. This essay seeks to create an understanding of the symbolic characters of Katherina in Shakespeare’s ‘The Taming of The Shrew’ and of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s ‘Agamemnon’. By exploring both texts in conjunction, it comes to attention that both female characters play masculine roles to be able to achieve their dominance stance. Both women not only revel the real life female, but also depicts to the audience the double bind due to the patriarchal world they live in. This essay will show how both characters use their actions as well as their words as an opportunity, yet becoming problematic due to the idea of ‘a mans world’.

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

In the Middle Age literature, women are often presented or meant to come off as an unimportant character; which can also reflect on how the author wants the women character represent. Women are usually shunned, have no say or control in what they do; due to what men desire; like Ophelia and Gertrude did in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But these female characters that I will discuss are women with power, control, and a voice. Majority of the female character’s appearances are made to represent wickedness, evil, or a seducer who challenges a man belief; and does not symbolize perfect women.

If we wished to discuss the base treatment of women in Elizabethan literature there would be more productive areas to look than in The Winter's Tale. Rather The Winter's Tale is useful for its brevity of the depiction of how Shakespeare's contemporaries may have believed women should act. This is successfully carried out through presenting the audience with three women who are effectively caricatures, what T.E. (?) referred to as 'Maids, Wives and Widows,' these represented in The Winter's Tale by Perdita, Hermione, and Paulina, respectively. The relationship between Hermione and Leontes would be seen by a Shakespearian audience as one to approve of and, with regards to this play, it is possibly the most important.