To what extent is the comedy in Much Ado About Nothing at the expense of the female characters? Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ combines “Villainy and scheming with humour and sparkling wordplay” to subtly fashion a satirising gender critique of the conventional female in the Elizabethan patriarchal society. David Lucking precisely argues that the play revolves “around a drama of groundless jealousy” while Ross Stewart describes Much Ado as a “problem play of obscure intent”, much like ‘The Tempest’. I believe ‘Much Ado’ creates humour by using the dominant role of male characters to gently ridicule the expected position of female characters in society; most notably through the portrayal of Hero and Beatrice; the latter having striking similarities to Katherine from ‘The Taming Of The Shrew’ due to her repugnance towards marriage. Humour at the expense of women is also prominent in ‘Much Ado’ through the use of ‘vulgar’ pre-marriage language, favoured by Margret – another arguably unconventional woman of the Elizabethan society, who participates in sex outside of wedlock purely for pleasure, creating controversy and humour.
While Iago manipulates Desdemona’s reputation to cause the downfall of almost every primary character in Shakespeare’s Othello, Desdemona still exhibits power that defies her role as a female in a patriarchal society. Her reputation is subject both to Iago’s shrewd attacks and to her society’s structure; which unknowingly puts the men at risk while they think they are securing their own safety by confining these women. Desdemona is treated as a product exchanged by men and is smothered by Othello in his efforts to protect other men and keep her sexuality contained. Iago objectifies Desdemona as he manipulates Othello’s perspective of her until Othello literally deconstructs his wife, despite her innocence. Though she seems the stereotypical female, Desdemona breaks free of gender constraints as she defies her father and exhibits complete control over Othello at the beginning of the play.
Also in today’s unclear world with the ever increasing amount of divorce and conflict within marriages a screwball comedy would have a hard time getting wide appeal and a success. Today’s culture is so used to explicit sex that innuendo and true romance couldn’t generate enough revenue to work in today’s market. The Lady Eve adheres to the Hollywood style in regards to character type for this genre of film. As I had mentioned earlier in the essay the characters clearly are set in their roles shown not only socially but sexually. Jean the key representative of the lower class shows through her sexual antagonism of Hopsie, that she like the lower class wields the real power when it comes to real world situations.
The use of the word ‘inspecting’ shows the idea of power from the male gaze as the Marquis is praising himself for what he has ‘achieved’ for his wife. The lack of punctuation could show that she feels under pressure and intimidated by the Marquis, as though she is being judged and is nervous she isn’t good enough for her new husband which again shows that he possess and has the ability to control her not only physically but also mentally as she is seeing herself as a piece of ‘horseflesh.’ Another feminist issue in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is the force of a sexual relationship with the Marquis in the story. Usually sexual relations are built around a women’s objectification, however in one section of the story the Marquis instigates the relation and forms the idea based on his own desires “I stammered foolishly: we’ve not taken luncheon yet; and, besides, it is broad day light… ‘All the better to see you’” The breakup of the sentence could represent a break down in her mental state and
However, this attitude to love and women changes from positive to negative when he realises Lesbia’s infidelity, seen in Poems 5 and 10. Catullus also holds a negative attitude to other women in the poems who he sees as objects of affection and lust and not as women to love. Secondly, Catullus has an unfavourable attitude to women as he see’s women as deceitful. This attitude is seen in Poems 10 and 11 where he is deceived by Lesbia and a woman he names as a ‘tartlet’ and this leads to Catullus’s final attitude to women where he see’s women as being insatiable, this also links to the first attitude where Catullus uses women as objects to calm his desire for lust and is seen in Poems, 11, 32 and 110. The focus of the commentary is to form an argument around the statement that Catullus’s overall attitude to women is negative and derogatory.
He appears to be solely interested in women’s sexuality, shamelessly objectifying them. For instance, when Claudio asks whether the world could ‘buy such a jewel’ as Hero, Benedick replies ‘yea, and a case to put it into’. The objectification of Hero as something valuable and desirable (but with no human emotion) is taken further by Benedick; his play upon Claudio’s romantic metaphor is witty but deeply sexist, as he is calling Hero worthless. Whilst a modern audience might see this as derogatory, an Elizabethan audience would have potentially been indifferent; in that age, men were superior; they could be an eligible bachelor, but if they married they would look for a chaste and wealthy wife- talk of ‘buying’ Hero is in a sense quite literal as Claudio would be ‘buying’ into her wealth. On the other hand, Shakespeare hints that this is a façade.
A time when the banner of patriarchy flew over the bonnets of subjugated females. A time when you could choose either to conform, or face social rejection. Some women preferred to rebel in their own graceful ways, but most exacerbated their oppression with frivolous attitudes and behaviors. Beginning with the witty opening phrase, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen, 3), the author perpetuates a note on the status of the one track mind held by the female gender of this time. As exemplified in Pride and Prejudice with characters like Mrs. Bennet and her child, Lydia, many ladies put money above love when it came to the subject of marriage.
Blanche is driven by sexual desire but is condemned by it for being a whore. She is promiscuous but isn’t supposed to be. Since she doesn’t fit the stereotype, she lies to herself that she is still a Southern Belle. When we first meet Blanche she appears to be a respectable lady. We can see this in Williams’ choice of costume colour,
For example, social interaction in Victorian England was very formal and serious. However, Wilde viewed social interaction as amusing and at times ridiculous due to its emphasis on insignificant or untrue factors. Similarly, the tone of the passage appears to be serious due to the severity of Jack and Algernon’s elaborate lies, but this seriousness is actually being mocked by the author through Cecily and Gwendolyn’s reactions. In the first half of the passage, Gwendolyn and Cecily’s fears of being engaged to the same person are easily allayed by Jack and Algernon’s simple inquiry as to how such an idea entered their “pretty little head”. As previously stated, a very serious matter which Cecily and Gwendolyn had been fighting over is
When the Knight finally does find out what it is that women want, he is told that it’s power over the husbands, that’s a pretty feminist statement for a time when women were still considered property. But as feminist as that may seem, is the Wife of Bath really a depiction of early feminism, or a crazy lady? While some might see the Wife as a feminist, she really is just an over-controlling woman, in her 6 times being married, reprimanding her husband