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Gender roles in romeo and juliet
Romeo and juliet treatment of women
Gender roles in romeo and juliet
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Throughout Act 2, Scenes 1 and 2 of Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the dynamic female character, Juliet, defies patriarchy. While Juliet was talking to Romeo, she asked him, “Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say “Ay” And I will take thy word. Yet, if thou swear’st, Thou mayst prove false” (Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 90-93).
You will notice that throughout the play women’s rights played a huge role in the story, mainly in Juliet’s decision making. In the play Romeo and Juliet, the submissive characteristics of Juliet, show the control men had over women at the time. Juliet allowed Lord Capulet
Lady Capulet is respectful towards Capulet showing a power imbalance in their relationship. Capulet refers to Lady Capulet as “wife.” These two terms being used instead of each other's names show a lack of comfort with each other. Conflict between social obligation and free will repeatedly occurs in Romeo and Juliet as the female characters opinions are undermined and considered
different female types, attempting to assimilate a few categories women fall under. The men ,however, all seemed to share common traits. For example, Romeo and Macbeth, Romeo was a very young boy who did not really know what love was, he just seemed to be guided by whatever caught his eye. He was very delicate as he would cry on several occasions,when things did not go his way. Juliet seemed to be the dominant figure in the relationship.
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.
Do only as you’re told. Marry not who you want to, but who others want you to. Make sure to always have a man escort you down the street because you don’t want others to think of you as juvenile or disgraceful and never argue against what you’re given. These were just a few of the societal expectations for women back in the 15th century, where the play Romeo and Juliet took place. In that time, women were treated more like objects than actual people, although in the play there were quite a few female characters who rebelled against these unjust expectations and showed much more progressive mindsets for that time.
The play Romeo and Juliet is about two star-crossed lovers that would die for each other. It might seem romantic, but it is an example of an unhealthy relationship because it shows sex discrimination, violence, and codependency. Sexism shows up multiple times in the play Romeo and Juliet. The stereotype of women being weaker than men is portrayed throughout the play.
In Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’, women are portrayed as either pure angelic beings and jewels, or as whores who are impure. They are objectified and shown as something to be used. The only women in this play are Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca compared to the main 6 male characters, not to mention the minor characters, who are also all male. Their depicted purpose is to belong to a man; Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca’s lives revolve around being wives to Othello, Iago and Cassio. This fits into the idea of a perfect Elizabethan woman, who’s lives are subject to their husband’s rule across all aspects, to be disposed of as men wish.
It can be hypothesised that Shakespeare was testing the waters to break gender norms and perceiving women as independent, dominant and powerful beings through his
Their tough archetypes were always present in many plays and reinforced the idea of male superiority. This fact held true, especially for a certain tragic classic by William Shakespeare. There was a misogynistic mentality towards women in Romeo and Juliet, evident through the way women were shown as objects, portrayed as weak, and made to seem unable to dictate their own lives. Men in Romeo and Juliet could be seen acting like owners towards women. Women were seen as nothing more than possessions, as illustrated when Romeo first described Juliet as, “My lady…/my love” (II.ii.10).
In today’s world, gender expectations and roles of men and women are a highly debated topic. However, the reconsidering of these expectations is not a new phenomenon. Set in Verona, Italy, the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare explores the reversal and fluidity of characteristics usually assigned to a specific gender. In this play, two young people fall in love and end up tragically taking their lives as a result of their forbidden love. Shakespeare suggests that men are not necessarily masculine, women are not necessarily feminine, and that when people are forced by society to act the way their gender is “supposed” to, problems will arise.
For Shakespeare’s plays to contain enduring ideas, it must illustrate concepts that still remain relevant today, in modern society. Shakespeare utilises his tragic play Othello, to make an important social commentary on the common gender stereotypes. During early modern England, Shakespeare had to comply to the strict social expectations where women were viewed as tools, platonic and mellow, and where men were displayed as masculine, powerful, tempered, violent and manipulative. As distinct as this context is to the 21st century, the play exposes how women were victimised by the men who hold primary power in the community in which they compelled women to conform to the ideal world of a perfect wife or confront an appalling destiny for challenging the system. Moreover, Shakespeare utilises the main antagonist, Iago, to portray how men are desperate to achieve what they want and to indirectly fulfil the stereotype of masculinity and power through manipulation.
The thematic idea that my group and I were assigned for Romeo and Juliet is gender role in society. This is norms created by society for different genders. Gender role in society is very relevant in the world today, with many people experiencing it in their daily lives. An example of gender role in society is believing that males have to be strong and aggressive, and females have to be petite and do all of the housework. In Romeo and Juliet, gender role in society is evident throughout with arranged marriages, such as Capulet wanting Juliet to marry Paris, and forced household rules, like Juliet not being able to leave her home freely.
A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions
While Desdemona is a remarkably strong character, Emilia also displays independence unmatched by any other female in Othello, and there are multiple details of Shakespeare and his time that may have prompted such a portrayal. In Elizabethan England, many women worked behind the scenes of productions, like Shakespeare’s, as uncredited authors and editors (Crowley). Due to their anonymity, nobody can be sure that women were involved in Shakespeare’s plays nor Othello in particular, but there is a genuine possibility that female writers did have leverage. This may have had to do with how Emilia was portrayed as resilient from the time of Desdemona’s death all the way until her own, standing up for herself regardless of the ridicule it caused her (Iyasere). In fact, it even killed her in the end.