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Throughout all time that humans have been

around, the males have always been dominant. It is

only in the past fifty years that females have

become almost as important and equal in society.

In plays by Shakespeare, most of the main speaking

parts are the characters of meant. Women do not

have a large significance and influence upon the

actions of the men. The males often try to insult

each other in a play such as ?Macbeth? by

insinuating that the other was not a full man, and

maybe slightly feminine. There is a lot known

about society four hundred years ago, in the

lifetime of William Shakespeare and the reader of

his work can tell how sexist some people were then

from the speech and actions of characters. Could

it be the society that he lived in that influenced

his writing, or was it just him personally who was

like that? We know that at the time the women

characters in all plays were acted by young males

who possessed high voices for men. So Shakespeare

might have been influenced by other people and it

was just the normal way of life at the time to

treat women in an inferior way to men.

Some of the famous women characters such as

Juliet form ?Romeo and Juliet? and Lady Macbeth

from ?Macbeth? had large roles in their plays, but

there is usually only one main woman, and compared

to several leading men. This is prejudiced. Also,

a good point for women in the play; they were

protected by men such as their husband, father/

family and friend. Little harm cam to them and if

they died, it was by suicide, not murder.

In ?Julius Caesar?, there are two women
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