Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice And Mary Wollstonecraft

753 Words4 Pages

Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Much Ado About Nothing, the theme female independence is predominantly shown throughout the text. Shakespeare explores how women in their time bend the gender norms and the obstacles woman face while pursing it - the characters of Beatrice and Margaret have a strong sense of wit and like to challenge the social norms or their time, but an example of more recent times would be Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech and Mary Wollstonecraft, who was a women’s rights activist in the late 1700’s. Female independence has become more prominent in our society and throughout my essay I will talk about how Much Ado About Nothing correlates with today’s messages of Female independence
One of the things that confidence affects …show more content…

In the months leading up to her speech, Gillard faced criticism for her appearance, gender, personal life, and choice not to have children. Our character Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing relates to Julia’s situation. Beatrice didn’t like the idea of marriage, and everyone judged her for that, and Julia didn’t want children and she was judged for that too. Julia had the confidence to speak up in the male-dominated industry about what had been said about her, addressing the false claims of being sexist. Julia quotes, “I will not be lectured about sexism and misogyny by this man”, she is explaining how she refuses to receive criticism from a man about sexism and misogyny, knowing that men are the primary source of sexism and misogyny. Julia Gillard's experience as Australia's first female Prime Minister shows how patriarchy operates in society through the sexist and misogynistic attacks she faced. It highlights the need for more women in positions of power to challenge patriarchal structures and achieve true gender equality. Due to her use of confidence in parliament, she had the ability to stand up for