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the portrayal of women in shakespeare's plays
feminist literary criticism shakespeare
as you like it shakespeare thesis essay on gender
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Female Direction of As You Like It
In As You Like It, Jaques states that "All the world's a stage,/ And all the men and women in it merely players./ They have they're exits and their entrances,/ And one man in his time plays many parts" (II, vii, 138-141). That very well might be true. But if life is a stage traditionally controlled by a man, what parts does that leave for the women of the world? The female answer to this question is that if you don't like your part, change it, and if you don't like the direction, follow someone else. And that is exactly what all-female Shakespeare does. It explores roles for women, roles that women don't traditionally get to play. All-female productions of Shakespeare, as well as female-directed Shakespeare, differ from tradition productions. Female-centered shows tend to revolve around the idea that gender matters, but it does not matter any more than age, politics, socio-economic concerns, or any other defining characteristics found in any given person. Female directors tend to want to stretch the meaning in Shakespeare's plays, be radical, new, and expansive. Female directors gravitate toward a conception of the show filled with characters that happen to be specific genders, not gendered people who happen to be individuals. This makes the theme of the play revolve more around relationships and not around gender stereotypes and a confirmation of traditional gender constructs. Clearly, gender does matter to female directors. However, gender is only another means of adding dimension to a character. For female directors, the characters' relationships are more important than their gender, and it is through the exploration of gender that these directors seek to push limits and expand bo...
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...st At Theatre 3." Greenwich Village Gazette. Available online: http://www.judithshakespeare.org/main_reviews.htm
Merritt, Erin. Personal Interview. November 6, 2002, via email.
Neely, Carol Thomas. Lovesickness, Gender, and Subjectivity: Twelfth Night and As You Like It. A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare. Blackwell Publishers. 2000.
Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. The Norton Shakespeare. W.W.Norton & Company, Inc. 1997.
Turner, Jeff. As You Like It. On-stage Studies, Vol. 19. University of Colorado. 1996.
Werner, Sarah. Shakespeare and Feminist Performance. Routledge. New York. 2001.
Woman's Will Website. Brochure. Available Online: http://www.womanswill.org/brochure.html
Zell, Allison Eve. "Measure for Measure: Sexual Downplay." TheatreMania.com. Available Online: http://www.malialoke.com/gwen/natalie/index.php?x=article_misc01.php
Ekici, Sara (2009). Feminist Criticism: Female Characters in Shakespeare's Plays Othello and Hamlet. Munich: GRIN Publishing.
meeting with the conch that he and Piggy find on the beach by the platform. He
In Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare, gender identity and alternative sexualities are highlighted through the depiction of different characters and personalities. In the play, Viola disguises herself as a man thereby raising a merry-go-around of relationships that are actually based on a lie rather than actual fact. Viola attracts the attention of Olivia since she thinks that Viola is a man but even more fascinating is the fact that Orsino is attracted to Viola although he thinks that she is a man. In another twist Viola is attracted to Orsino and has fell in love with him although their love cannot exist since Orsino thinks that Viola is a man.
suffered; now, at the distance of - I will not say how many years - I
Pitt, Angela. “Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.” Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint from Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.
Smith, Rebecca. The Woman’s Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Champaign, IL: U of Illinois P, 1983
It is in the scenes directly following Act 3 Scene 2 that we see two
...These characters all show traits of wittiness, determination and strength. The traits Queen Elizabeth expressed as she ruled England, a single woman taking on a man’s job. Shakespeare included these characters in his play because he knew the Queen would enjoy seeing characters that portrayed her; it showed a sign a respect towards her. The Queen supported the theatre and Shakespeare in his work. Shakespeare thanks her by giving her females characters leads in his play with characteristics of her reflected in them. Queen Elizabeth ruled throughout Shakespeare’s life so it would influence him in his writings. She showed him through her rulings that she was a feminist. She did whatever it took to get what she wanted and to rule her country, she showed fierceness and compassion. Shakespeare took these characteristics and portrayed them in his female characters.
... Critical Interpretations, ed. Harold Bloom (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987) 43. For further discussion on renaissance gender performance and identity politics among Shakespeare's cross-dressed heroines, see Michael Shapiro's Gender in Play on the Shakespearean Stage: Boy Heroines and Female Pages (Ann Arbor: The University of MIchigan Press, 1994).
Transcending the Societal Role of Women: The Revolution of Natural Love in William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
“And therefore look you call me Ganymede.” said Rosalind. In William Shakespeare work ‘ As You Like It’ a young woman by the name of Rosalind ends up getting exiled from the dukedom of her uncle who upsured his older brother. Rosalind and her loyal cousin Celia goes into the forest of Arden to look for her exiled father along with the court clown Touchstone. The forest of Arden is a dangerous place for young maidens where thieves and bandits would prefer over gold. Therefore, Rosalind dresses up in a disguise of a man who she names Ganymede to avoid situations like that to occur. Rosalind as a women is an exception to doctrines such as religious texts and laws that pronounces women as weak mentally and has an imbalance amount of wit.William
Novy, Marianne. Love's Argument: Gender Relations in Shakespeare. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984
Gerlach, Jeanne, Rudolph Almasy, and Rebecca Daniel. “Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender.” Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender. The Women in Literature and Life Assembly of The National Council of Teachers of English, 1996. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
During Shakespeare’s time, women lived in a patriarchal society where they were limited in power and dependent on men. Women in this society were expected to be submissive and to let men pave their path to a successful life by being passive. For Rosalind and Celia, the two main women in Shakespeare’s comedic play As You Like It, their identities through their disguises challenge this social construct by elevating their power as women rather than weakening them by allowing them to explore multiple facets of their behaviors that they could not do before. Despite being belittled by the male characters, such as Touchstone or Duke Ferdinand, Rosalind and Celia do not allow the men to suppress or influence their identities. These independent
Gender roles are an integral part of human culture, and have existed as long as the species has. In its simplest form, a gender role can be defined as a set of expected male or female behaviors shaped by the contemporary culture and personal upbringing. William Shakespeare attempts to address this issue, among countless others, in his many works. An author during the English Renaissance period, including the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James, he was aware of gender roles that were very clearly defined. Although he echoes and at times supports the stereotypes of women and men of the time and their various societal roles and responsibilities, he also notably questions and even challenges these exemplifications.