William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night as a Feminist Play
The play Twelfth Night was written in the Elizabethan days, near the
end of the ruling of Queen Elizabeth I. It was also during The
Renaissance, which is also the rebirth of learning, which this play
was born. It was a period of change, questioning and vitality. People
no longer believed everything they were told, but tried to find things
out for themselves. As to whether Twelfth Night is a feminist play,
would have several differing points to show against or for it. As it
was the ‘period of change’, this play could have been written to
change people’s ideas of females and males in general.
Since the olden days, women have always been viewed as emotional,
irrational, petty people, and when compared to the men, not as able
and capable. In the play Twelfth Night, there are many different
characters, both male and female, and even a female in the disguise of
male. Indeed, the play in itself is complex, and has many different
hidden themes and meanings within. Shakespeare, having also lived in
this time of change, could be trying to satisfy the people who are
trying to find things out for themselves. He could be trying to
display to the people, and let the people question themselves, and
wonder, whether females are who they were said to be, and men,
likewise.
As to whether Twelfth Night is a feminist play, there are arguments
both ways. Evidently, in the play, there are many different inferences
we can draw, to survey deeper into the play, and determine whether
Twelfth Night, is or is not a feminist play.
Feminism, in itself, means the belief in the social, political, and
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...period of change, Shakespeare may indeed be
subverting the traditional ideas of gender, and questioning the
reality of the difference between the males and females, and posing
this feminist question to all, and causing all who read or watch this
play to think about this controversial issue. As to whether Twelfth
Night is a feminist play, depends on the point of view and
perspective. In my opinion, Twelfth Night is a feminist play, due to
how Shakespeare portrays the women not as the traditional ideas
suggests, but the utter opposite, and how the women are not in any
way, inferior the male, although Viola has to disguise herself as a
male to get what she is, career-wise. This may well be a way to
re-emphasize on the importance of equality between the two genders.
In conclusion, I view Twelfth Night as a feminist play.
The characters in the comedy are not realistic, and those that could have been were transformed throughout the course of events depicted. The most trouble with the play, however, seems to come from the representation of the female characters, particularly in comparison with the males. It seems almost that the female characters are written off, rather than merely written out. The male characters of the play are given higher roles, and their characters are followed more faithfully, further proving its chauvinistic composition. The title of the play even suggests a sexist nature in its possible Elizabethan reference to the female genitalia. The play seems to reflect the common thought of its era concerning the social stat...
...ce Viola is believed to be a male for most of the play, it may be more convincing to the audience if she is being played by a male. If I wished for my stage adaptation of the play to be less realistic and more entertaining, I would cast the play with a mixture of cross-gender characters.
names - ""and I'll no longer be a Capulet" - to be together. Giving up
Similar to other works by Shakespeare, such as The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream embellishes the pressures that arise between genders dealing with complicated family and romantic situations. The plot includes a duke who is going to marry a woman he conquered in battle, the king and queen of the fairies embroiled in a fight so fierce that it unbalances the natural world, and a daughter fighting with her father for her right to marry the man she chooses. The girl’s father selects Demetrius to marry his daughter, but she is in love with another man, Lysander, who loves her in return, and her friend Helena is in love Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Considering the fact that males were dominant during that era, whereas, men chased women, and women remained submissive, Shakespeare dallies with those traditional roles and there are several possible reasons why. Perhaps he made women a stronger force in his plays because he wanted to give his audience a break fr...
During the Elizabethan era women had a status of subordination towards men. They had a role to marry and oblige to their husband’s wishes. Shakespearean literature, especially illustrates how a woman is psychologically and physically lesser to their male counterpart. The play, Othello, uses that aspect in many different ways. From a Feminist lens others are able to vividly examine how women were subjected to blatant inferiority. Being displayed as tools for men to abuse, women were characterized as possessions and submissive; only during the last portion of the play did the power of women take heed.
One way that feminism is shown is through how the characters think that the men in the book act like women. Since the beginning of the book the author subtlety hint that the way Hamlet acts loses his respect because of the way he acts. Such as when the king states” ‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, to give these mourning duties to your father.... but to persever in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness. 'Tis unmanly grief. It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, a heart unfortified, a mind impatient, an understanding simple and unschooled” (1.2.90-92; 96-101). For this reason just because he shows his emotions he gets called a girl. Meanwhile hamlet soon starts making horrible comments about how he acts.
...ir beloved monarch who was one of the few highly competent English rulers in spite of her gender and the sexism of the time in which she lived. Regardless of his reasoning for scripting women the way he did, Shakespeare was most certainly an advocate for feminism when he wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream. From the feminist perspective, liberal thinking and open-mindedness like William Shakespeare's are welcome to invade our modern literature and lives for the next four hundred years.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the role of hierarchy is supported but also challenged. The writing in his play reflects the stereotypes of the roles of both men and women, especially because the play is written by a man. Shakespeare brings into action the undermining roles men play towards women, while giving nothing but judgement to the women characters. The play is written in a culture dominated by men, allowing the lack of women representation to be even more apparent. The dialogue and actions of the play, too, are written through the point of view of a male and not that of a female. Through the feminist theory, Shakespeare brings into question the way men treat women in dramatic English playwriting.The feminist theory, according to theorist Helene
This paper will look at the different conceptions highlighted by Bulman in his article through the use of different methods used by the actors in the play. Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare captures the different conceptions of gender identity and different sexualities within the Elizabethan period.
otherwise they are punks, imagined to be subverting the patriarchal order even as they are the
The Shakespearean play of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is easily criticized from a feministic perspective due to its pronounced gender roles and its pervasively patriarchal biases throughout every scene. The feminist criticism focuses on the relationships between genders and the malicious dominance men have over women both physically and psychologically. It examines the patterns of behavior, power, values, and thought between the sexes. The damage that male dominance has on the females in Hamlet is prominent when considering feminist criticism. It forces these women’s given situations to go from bad to worse. The societal viewpoint held hinders or prevents the female characters from attaining a true sense of identity. Without their own cultural
The feminism of Shakespeare’s time is still largely unrecognized. Drama from the 1590’s to the mid-1600’s is feminist in sympathy. The author
Shakespeare was a feminist. No, not in the way in which he would advocate “Free the Nipple”, or women not shaving because hair is natural, which he might have. He was a feminist in the way he pushed gender norms of the Renaissance woman, blurring the lines between masculinity and femininity. In Revisiting Shakespeare and Gender, written by Jean Gerlach, Rudolph Almasy, and Rebecca Daniel from the Women in Literature and Life Assembly
Shakespeare during this time was claimed to be a feminist. Shapiro claims that Shakespeare was 'the noblest feminist of them all'. Shakespeare as a guru of human behavior, necessarily in the virtue of woman in their specific classes. Women of the Elizabethan era were portrayed as being loyal to their husbands, doing the chores, and taking care of the mens daily life and desires.
Shapiro, for example, goes so far as to claim that Shakespeare was 'the noblest feminist of them all.' Though Shakespeare pays more attention to the roles that men play in society and many of the female characters are constricted in their experiences. They do not have the same ability to be as fully human as the men. They do not learn by their experiences, except Paulina who is eventually chastised and pa... ... middle of paper ... ...