Shakespeare begins to mature when he creates Portia in the Merchant of Venice, and he shows a peak of maturity through Helena in his problem play, All’s Well That Ends Well. Despite the few years between these two plays and the development of characters during Shakespeare’s maturation period, he makes two very similar female characters. They understand love more than their lovers, and they see potential in the men they have chosen that no one else seems to notice. They exhibit similar character traits, but they use their qualities in different ways to achieve the same purpose. Both Portia and Helena display intelligence, love, and grace in choosing their husbands.
Portia and Helena draw the right husband into their lives through their intelligence. Portia and Helena take a different route in the way they get their husbands. Portia has three pursuers, while Helena has none and acts as Shakespeare’s only female aggressive pursuer. A casket test decides the outcome of Portia’s future husband, and the three different men choose her on an apparently equal basis, but she makes sure Bassanio comes out as the winner by giving him subtle hints that include rhyming words with the correct casket. Neither Portia nor Helena is in a position where they can choose their husband directly because the stipulation of her father’s will for Portia renders her unable to chose a husband on her own, and the lower social class makes Helena ineligible for a man of a higher social class. Nothing will stop these two though, because both are quite strong-willed and independent. Helena remains steadfast and proves herself eligible for Bertram. Her intelligence outweighs any predetermined social standard. She later uses her wit in a commonly used Shakespearea...
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...gh a humiliation that no wife should ever have to tolerate. In redeeming Bertram she matures him to the point that he comes to the realization that Helena completes him, and he chooses to love her in return when he says that he will “love her dearly, ever, ever dearly" (5.3.316).
Portia and Helena demonstrate cleverness, love, and grace in their purest forms. Despite coming from different social classes and different plays, these two women could be easily seen as sisters on paper with their strong, self-determining attitudes. They know how to get the right husband without being too forward and unfair. Each demonstrates love in the most ideal form, as God would have it. Grace pours from their hearts into the lives of those around them that affect others in a positive and lasting manner making these two the ideal women in Shakespearean characters as well as in life.
Neely, Carol Thomas. “Shakespeare’s Women: Historical Facts and Dramatic Representations.” Shakespeare’s Personality. Ed. Norman N. Holland, Sidney Homan, and Bernard J. Paris. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. 116-134.
In equation with the Elizabethan era, Shakespeare offers us a male dominated society in his renowned tragedy, Othello. Consequently, this definitely persuades a negative attitude and demeanor towards the women of the times. The female characters in the play: Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca; play relevant roles in contributing to one’s understanding of this exhausted Elizabethan view. In contrast to the larger portion of the play, Emilia, spouse to the scandalous Iago, takes an opinionated stand for Desdemona in relation to her wholesome gone sour relationship with the Moor of Venice, Othello. I recognize Emilia’s “Betrayal lecture” as a justified outlook in accordance with today’s period and events surrounding Desdemona’s and Othello’s fatal misunderstanding.
...ligent, and sometimes vicious character, in her society it is not acceptable for her to be a strong, intelligent, vicious woman. Sadly, Portia's public image must remain that of her speech in Act III. Though she will have ultimate control over herself and her husband, she still must call herself "an unlessoned girl," hiding her true authority under a thin mask of submission. Ironically, it is only when Portia dons a disguise that we see her as she truly is - a shrewd, calculating judge, willing to convict and sentence not only the inadequate suitor or the much-abused Jew, but also her own unsuspecting husband.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
According to Elizabethan society, the center of Olivia’s dilemma with her marriage was ensuring her wealth, not marrying a man she loved (Joseph 170). Social class increases division among individuals in society. This play “ is not the story of a Juliet's or an Orlando's love .., but of the very realistic struggles and intrigues over the betrothal of a rich Countess, whose selection of a mate determines the future” (170). Readers looking past these boundaries created by class and gender, can find striking similarities in emotions characters have for each other. The personal struggles the characters face in this play demonstrate the obstacles that individuals faced because of their gender or place in the social hierarchy.
...deceit, due to her beautiful ambiance yet her secret intelligence. William Shakespeare not only reveals a lot regarding the characters in the story, but the readers understand his perspectives regarding gender inequality. It is definitely well known that he does not believe neither gender is better than one another. Additionally, he does not believe that woman lack intelligence or smartness, he believes their brains are equivalent to men's. Furthermore, William Shakespeare incorporates Portia into the story to promote the message that if people want to prove something, it does not have to be to anyone, besides themselves, and that is extremely significant to the story as well as life in general. So overall, The Merchant of Venice promotes the message, using Portia representing deceit, that gender inequality as well as proving oneself is irrelevant and not important.
Helena and Rosalind both are in love with a man that they cannot have until the conflict is resolved. Helena has been rejected by Demetrius, who now says he is in love with Hermia, Helena's best friend. Helena is devastated and asks Hermia to help her regain Demetrius' love and attention by teaching Helena how to be more like Hermia:
Helena is in love with Demetrius, but Hermia’s father wants him to be with his daughter. Helena is someone that will fight for what she wants even if it hurts her friendship. According to the play, “HERMIA: The more I hate, the more he follows me. HELENA: The more I love, the more he hateth me. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act I, scene I 9 HERMIA: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. HELENA: None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!” In this quotation Helena thinks that Hermia is the reason that Demetrius doesn’t want her. Helena is a jealous person. To sum this paragraph up, women in this society, let man interfere their friendship. It's not good because when it comes to a man they think they can take advantage of women's
...ps their characters to function with adjusted roles in culture. In his novel Othello, William Shakespeare reveals Desdemona and Emilia’s courage through situations involving conflict to portray the ability for women to stand up for themselves as he exhibits his idea of feminism through their actions. The courageous attitudes of these women and their passionate voice grew stronger throughout the play as they eventually died staying true to their beliefs. This transformation parallels the rights of women over history, as the female population progressed very slowly towards a more equal position in society. With Shakespeare being an advocate for women’s unheard voices during the Elizabethan period of time, he is able to use Desdemona and Emilia’s characteristics to contrast what the world was like during that era, and how he viewed and wished the world would function.
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.
is unfolded, the reader sees a wife in love with the husband who was wise enough to earn her love (and consequently her fortune!). Beware, gentle reader! Do not fall under the spell of Portia the control freak! The following scenerios must be proof that this woman is not to be trusted!
The two women can also compare through their emotions. Emotion in this play has an important stance. Emotions are what really cause the characters to act the way that they act, and to do the things that they do. For example, Hamlet wanted the other characters to believe that he was mad in order to obtain information about his father’s death. This was a smart move, but the main reason that he did this was due to the drive of his emotions. He was so angry and revenge hungry, that he would do anything to get back at the person who ended his father’s life.
Treatment of women has evolved much since Elizabethan England. As a preface to the dissection of The Tempest – in particular, the character of Miranda, Shakespeare’s role for women as a whole must be addressed. According to Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz’s introduction of Woman’s Part, “patriarchal order takes different forms and is portrayed with varying degrees of emphasis throughout the Shakespearean canon” (5). In the midst of this patriarchy, where do women stand? What social assumptions guided the pen of the great English poet and playwright as he wrote The Tempest? Lenz discusses that “In the comedies women are most often nurturing and powerful; as their values educate the men, mutuality between the sexes may be achieved” (6). However, “in tragedy…their roles are at once more varied, more constricted, and more precarious…they are condemned for acting, accused of being deceitful even when they are not” (6). Why the canyon between the two? How does Shakespeare reconcile women in what The Norton Shakespeare terms a romance play?
In the 16th century, women and men were defined as having specific and contrasting roles within society. Men were defined as being powerful and dominant while women were defined as being submissive and meek. These ideals can be seen across cultures and throughout time. With these definitions of gender roles in place, the text suggests that gender is a social construct therefore qualities of femininity and masculinity are subjective. This is shown when Portia cross dresses as the lawyer Balthazar (IV) and when the truths of the rings are discovered by the two women (V). The strong female characters in the play exemplify that women are not confined to their social construct as they manipulate the male characters. During the 16th century only
“Gender hardly determines the nature of a character, in the plays of Shakespeare. It is for this very reason, that his plays are read, viewed and enjoyed by both the sexes equally, even after five hundred years of their composition” (Singh). Gender is not something that defines what a character is going to be like in Shakespeare’s plays. This quote illuminates that in Shakespeare’s writings females and males were on equal level playing fields when it came to their traits. Females during the time period were considered inferior to men.