Gender Differences In Shakespeare's Plays

550 Words3 Pages

Shakespeare and his works of literature have been around for almost 500 years. In that time, significant differences have been made in acting and performing. A few notable ones are that woman had very few rights. The second is that all actor's parts in a play, male or female, were played by men only. Last, technology has greatly changed acting. There are some similarities, though. During Queen Elizabeth's time, women were regarded as property and not as actual human beings. This can be seen in the article, "Elizabeth's England" by the Utah Shakespeare Company. Marriage rarely had any regard for love, and was almost always used to gain power and relations between two groups and families. Present day marriages in our country are almost always an act of love, and men and women have a choice in who they marry. Women also have way more rights and are becoming more equal with men. In just a few hundred years, marriage and women"s rights have changed quite a bit. Another major difference between our time and the time of Shakespeare is that all actors were male. It didn't matter …show more content…

Back in Shakespeare's day, if it rained in the world, it rained on the actors. If someone messed up their part, they couldn't just re-do their scene that they were doing. Acting was live, and preparation was usually done quickly. Actors would have to memorize their lines in only a matter of days, and the plays that they did only were shown in the theater for a few days. Actors were rarely all professional in a play. All of these things have changed. First, movies are filmed months before they are released to the public. Second, actors have much more time to learn their lines. There is also a lot more editing and special effects that go into movies. Once movies are completed, they are shown in theatres for usually a few weeks instead of a few days. So as you can see, technology has greatly influenced acting and