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Femininity In Hamlet, Taming Of The Shrew And

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Introduction: This essay will examine the question, “To what extent can Shakespeare be considered misogynic / How does Shakespeare represent femininity in Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew and Macbeth? ?” Through analysis of the female characters of the above plays, this essay will It SHOULD be used to explain why the issue / personality / event: (a) was important at the time (b) still has important lessons for today. These two points should ideally be covered in two separate paragraphs. The intro is more about why the research question is important and how you are going to answer the question, pretty much... 210 words Body: Renaissance literally meaning ‘rebirth’ in French, refers to a period after the Middle ages, thus traditionally it …show more content…

In many respects Shakespeare is also credited with bringing the Renaissance to the stage. However, despite the slow transgression towards our current modern times that the Renaissance provided the foundation, the matter of female rights was much more complicated during the Renaissance. The women question (Querelle des Femmes) emerged during the Renaissance, which was a debate over the proper role of women. Renaissance women and young girls of the upper classes enjoyed an increased access to education, however this education was not to provide them with future employment, but to learn how to act as ‘ladies of the court’ and ‘patronesses of the arts’. There was also a sexual double standard at the time that dictated that women had to be pure until married but men were not required to do so. This point will be mentioned later in regards to Hamlet. Overall, women had a limited number of ‘freedoms’ during this period. In regard to life and marital status, women had to either become married, have children and act as dutiful wives or become nuns and devote themselves to

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Women’s Rights In Romeo and Juliet Juliet being forced into marriage, showed how little input women had during the Renaissance period. Renaissance is a period in which the ancient writing of Greece and Rome, “Rebirthed”, or came back into practice. During the Renaissance period, women had limited, to no rights. They were required to follow orders made by their husband’s or superior male figure. This is presented in the play Romeo and Juliet made by William Shakespeare.

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In Hamlet, what does Shakespeare suggest is the 'proper' role of women? It is often argued that the women characters in Hamlet are drawn in fainter lines than their male partner. Gertrude the mother of Hamlet been criticized by his son for her nasty remarriage to his own Uncle Claudius right after the death of King Hamlet, which drove Hamlet mad and started his hate towards his mother, Hamlet uses very powerful words towards her mother by cursing her for marrying Claudius after a short period of time, “O, God, a beast, that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer!” (I.II.151-158).

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It’s no surprise, that Shakespeare’s Macbeth was clearly constructed as a rebellion against femininity roles of the time. During the Elizabethan era, women were raised to believe they were inferior to men since men obtained desired masculine qualities such as strength, and loyalty, whereas women were viewed as figures of hospitality (1; 6; 28-31). Obviously, not being tempted by the luxury of subservient women, William Shakespeare rebuked this twisted belief, applying that women deserve more respect than their kitchen tables.

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During the Renaissance period the women were controlled and could not do much on their on. While Shakespeare knows the the norm, instead

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Nowadays, women can receive formal education and go to exclusive schools, marrying is not the only career option for them as they can now work professional jobs and do much of what they weren’t allowed to do in the past. One can argue how much time has changed the world, both for the better and worse. The Elizabethan Period and the present vary in a great deal of aspects like the government, the social classes or hierarchy and the role of women. Though the changes are evident, one cannot deny that there are still similarities and aspects that remains unchanged from the past to this

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