William Shakespeare’s famous play, Hamlet, offers detailed and often callous insights into the role of women, and men, in the Renaissance period in which the playwright lived in. Throughout this time, traditional women were often constantly criticised and treated as inferior to male counterparts. As such, Shakespeare has constructed his female characters to fulfil these traditional roles; however by taking a feminist approach these female characters appear marginalised and degraded. Ultimately, through the playwright’s representation of women, they can be see as worthless, sexual objects , both weak and inconsiderate in nature. Through a modern perception on the playwright’s female characters, women can be seen as worthless, sexually corrupt indiviudals.
He documents a complex woman’s struggle to cope, as she is suffocated by the male dominated society that she has been forced to subject herself to. The following essay will in particular discuss the relationships between the women of Hedda Gabler. Ibsen uses the themes explored in the play to examine and challenge the role of women in society. This is evident through the relationships that Hedda has not only with the male characters in the play but from those that she has with the two other prominent female characters in the play; Thea Elvsted, the delicate love interest of Ejlert Lövborg and Aunt Julie the benevolent aunt of Hedda’s new husband Jörgen Tessman. Both women are contrasting representations of Hedda.
During Shakespeare’s time, a woman especially did not speak to a man like that because of the gender hierarchies of the time period. In the same act, mere lines away from her disrespect toward Grumio, Kate’s tone changes. When speaking to Petruccio, Kate says, “Thank you, sir” (4.3.47). Using the title of sir is showing recognition of the hierarchy between men and women, and it is a term of respect. The language switch and change in demeanor from Kate is indicative of her performativity when Petruccio is in her company.
How do Friel and Frayn present the role of women? In the novel 'Spies' and the play 'Making History' the authors Michael Frayn and Brian Friel portray the roles of women in different ways throughout each of the texts. They do this because they are trying to present both of these women in the stereotypical role of women but then also showing that they’re different. In the novel 'Spies' the women are presented as women who are dependent on men but they can also do a lot for themselves and they do have a bit of independence. Whereas in 'Making History' the women are a lot more dependent, although they do have to marry a man while they are quite young to fill the stereotypical purpose which was to be a housewife, so they would just cook, clean and have children.
Life Without Love or Independence? In Jane Eyre and Hard Times, women are portrayed in a negative light throughout their respected novels; females are represented as being second class citizens to their male counterparts, and are unable to have a thought of their own. The traditional views of Victorian era gender roles are both enforced through the outside portrayal of the women that do not fit the mold of the ideal Victorian women yet is also subverted by the feelings the women feel when they left their bonds, or the consequences of living in the suffering of the gender misogamy they endure over their lifestyle. By expressing the men through traditional Victorian masculine characteristics such as being powerful and dominant to their meek and loyal female counterparts, the novels establish early on the barrier that the protagonists struggle with merely being female. In the novels, women are treated like second class citizens when compared to men and are expected to be content with this Victorian idea of patriarchal domination.
This comes as no surprise, because if you aren't going to write your own ideas, what is the significance of writing at all? Shakespeare- for whatever reasons- thinks of women as how they are portrayed in his plays. He considers them weak, frail, un-able to function for themselves without the help of a man, and less deserving of the prosperities that it means to be human. This is obviously shown when Hamlet shows his own disdain for woman kind by saying, "fragility thy name is woman (p.29)!" in those five words, hamlet basically sums it up.
The Invisible Cage Pride and Prejudice In the nineteenth century society, the options of choosing husbands for unmarried women are limited due to the reason that the society has prescribed a set of values for them. The English society associated the entrance of a woman into the public with a reprehensible loss of femininity. Jane Austen, the author of the novel Pride and Prejudice herself suffers in this era by not allowed to be acknowledged as the author for her books. In Jane Austen's book Pride and Prejudice, she depicts how young men and women behave in the society and how they set up their life and social position for their own desires. With this background, Jane tries to deliver the message that the people were restrained and they suffered by the rules set by the society such as family reputation, women’s position, and class division.
Even more restricting than economic rights were the social and political rights of women. They were expected to be silent observers, submissive to their husbands. Women who attempted to claim their views were seen as a threat to social order. This is significant in that the conservation of social order was a very important aspect of the Elizabethan society. Gender roles during the Elizabethan era were clearly defined, with men reigning superior over women.
Ironically, nowadays some of the most interesting work on gender is happening in the Early Modern specialties. How would you characterize the ways in which the figure of Ophelia now works as a cultural trope? How do you think your play has added to the discursive resonances around Ophelia? Ophelia is the stereotypical female victim. If you look closely at Shakespeare's play she is a girl neglected by all who should hold some responsibility for her: her father, her brother, her boyfriend and the court.
A “That’s right. Can you tell about your baby’s father? (I hope I am not pushing too hard, but I need to determine who is abusing her.) C “I am not supposed to talk about it. (I promised I would not tell anyone.