Portrayal of Women in Shakespeare's Hamlet Shakespeare was possibly the first writer to portray women as strong, crafty, and intelligent. However, he has still received criticism from feminists about his representation of women. Some have even accused him of misogyny. There are only two female characters in the play Hamlet - Gertrude, Hamlet's mother and Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. Any debate based upon gender roles must therefore focus upon these two characters.
Term Paper On Lady Macbeth William Shakespeare created a dynamic character called lady Macbeth; she was the total opposite of what women of the Shakespearian era were supposed to be. Despite qualities women were supposed to have in Shakespeare’s time, Lady Macbeth defied the way most women of her time acted. Lady Macbeth defied the ways of women of her time by being manipulative, ambitious, and ruthless. Women’s lifestyles back in Shakespeare’s time period was very different from the modern day women’s lifestyles of today. The characteristics for women of that time was that women should be uneducated, should follow chastity, take care of the home and should not join a profession or get a job.
Shakespeare Studies 25 (1997): 32 - 41 Ekici, Sara (2009). Feminist Criticism: Female Characters in Shakespeare's Plays Othello and Hamlet. Munich: GRIN Publishing. Heilbrun, Carolyn G. (2002). Hamlet's Mother and Other Women.
In order to interpret the significance of the feminine within the relationships in the play, one must first understand precisely the nature of 'feminine.' Though this term is typically associated only with women, Hamlet in many regards breaks down these barriers. While women are almost always feminine in some respect, the male characters in Hamlet are often embodiments of feminine virtues, such as female sexuality, motherhood, or sisterly love. As one author states, "thanks to feminist criticism, gender is not indissolvably fixed in Shakespeare. Male characters can profitably incorporate female characteristics, and women characters can assume masculine ones" (Kolin 5).
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David Kastan. Malden Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Inc., 1999. 85-99. Dash, Irene. Wooing, Wedding, and Power: Women in Shakespeare’s Plays.
San Fransisco. Madhu.. "Riot Grrrl". Online. Available HTTP: http://www.angelfire.com/nj/alienshe/grrrl.html Orviro, Rachel. "I Am a Girl".
Literary Anatomies: Women's Bodies and Health in Literature. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1994. Women's Information Exchange. "Feminism Defined." December 7, 2001. http://electrapages.com/FEMINIST.htm Wood, Ann Douglas.
“Oh, please,... ... middle of paper ... ... stand up for themselves. They were unlike the stereotype in which women were made into and took responsibility for their actions. The play would make people think and discuss these roles of men and women and even question the values of society. Ibsen hoped he would make women realise they deserve a choice as to whether they want to marry and to be equal with men. Bibliography Mills, John Stuart 1860, The Subjection of Women, Prometheus Books, New York “Ibsen- woman’s rights” 2005 http://www.unesco.org/webworld/mdm/2001/fr/ibsen/form.html, 24/04/05 “A Doll House- Ibsen” 2005 http://www.novelguide.com/ADoll'sHouse/themeanalysis.html 24/04/05 “Woman’s right and roles” 2005 http://www.unesco.no/kommunikasjon/hukommelse/ibsen.html.
The Role of Women in Othello If we are to assume, as Richard Levin speculates, that women were in the audiences of many Renaissance plays, it is then highly possible that feminine stage images were affected by their presence(165). Likewise, the issues represented by these images would have been constructed to take these women into account in order to satisfy them as paying customers. Levin offers only a "tentative hypothesis on the incorporation of feminine sentiment into Renaissance drama. Considering that Shakespeare and his contemporaries produced in a period where doctrines such as "An Homily on the State of Matrimony" and Juan Luis Vives' _The Instruction of a Christian Woman_ were used to define the nature of women, the chances of art imitating life was very likely. "An Homily of the State of Matrimony" presents conventional duties of husbands and wives.