Shakespeare’s most popular play, A Midsummer Night’s dream, is a romantic comedy that features young lovers that fall deeply in and out of love in a brief period of time. This play is unique because it demonstrates tragedy and comedy at the same time. The comedy not only provides amusement and laughter but also helps ease tension between characters. In the play, A “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, William Shakespeare produces a comedy through foolish characters and mistaken identities.…
Shakespeare wrote in the Elizabethan age, so naturally he based most of his plays on the morals and social standards of the time. During the Elizabethan period noble women were expected to be married off to rich, socially acceptable men. Fathers choose the men they considered “suitable” for their daughters, aiming to marry them off to higher social circles to levitate their own. Men were considered the bread winners of the family and women inferior to them. It was thought unconventional for women to make important decisions for themselves, they were incapable and therefore men where to make their decisions for them, not just regarding their marriage.…
In Romeo and Juliet, women have minor roles in the society in the time this play was wrote within the 16th century. They are expected to be obedient and to follow the word of their husbands, but still each women plays a important role which contributes to the outcome of the play "Romeo and Juliet".…
These include different motifs, types of symbolism, classes, and gender roles. While they all play their own significant parts in the play, probably the most intriguing element is the utilization and distortion of gender roles and their impact on the final outcome of Macbeth. The influence of gender roles in Shakespeare’s life and writing could be attributed to the political conflict occurring in England during that time. A few different female monarchs of this time, most importantly Queen Elizabeth I, either had claims to or did ascend to the English throne. Females at the time were doubted as capable of being sole rulers, as their natures would cause them to be weak and vulnerable to failure. Despite this long-standing view Queen Elizabeth successfully reigned due to the idea of “the king’s two bodies” that disregards gender in the case of being a monarch. (Greenblatt 359-361, 392-393) Like many aspects of court life for play writers, the queen probably influenced the substance of Shakespeare’s writing to some degree. This play in particular contains some intriguing looks at gender roles and even more fascinating female…
Shakespeare's Twelfth Night examines patterns of love and courtship through a twisting of gender roles. The play centers on the lead female role and protagonist, Viola, who disguises herself as a made-up young man, Cesario. In Trevor Nunn’s film version of Twelfth Night, Viola is portrayed by a female actress. On the other hand, in the Globe Theatre’s more modern production of Twelfth Night, the entire cast is played by male actors. As you can see there isn’t a black and white, wrong or right, approach to the portrayal of this renowned production. One must consider the vast differences on the societal views of sexuality and gender roles of today’s culture versus the 1600’s when this play was written. As James C. Bulman notes, “By 1999, the idea that gender is performative rather than innate had circulated widely” (75). In Shakespearean days it wasn’t uncommon for men or young boys to play all roles required in a play, even those which involved love affairs. However, today the majority of people would be uncomfortable and almost unsettled to see young men kiss on stage or vice versa. When reading the play I automatically created my own mental movie, as most readers and audience members do, which involved all female roles being played by female actresses and all male roles being played by men. Although I have not seen the Globe’s production of Twelfth Night, I believe that I would personally favor Nunn’s…
Since the Renaissance, when Shakespeare born and wrote his works, many of the plays and literature styles have gained wide popularity among the readers and influenced many of the readers and the critics. Furthermore, people often say, it is widely believed at this time that role of males stand completely opposite to that of females; however, through the play of Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays a complex representation of human beings including femininity in its protagonist and title character, prince Hamlet. The Women in Literature and Life Assembly states in one of their articles, “Defining masculine and feminine characteristics allowed writers like Shakespeare to draw males with certain ‘feminine’ characteristics and females with certain ‘masculine’…
The play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, explores an abundant of encounters to the rigid gender representation demonstrated in the play. The play revolves around the questioning of femininity and masculinity, allowing us to explore how certain characters equivocate the definition of gender to please their favour and how each gender identities are created for persuasion of the natural order that corresponds to the traditional order - Lady Macbeth and Macbeth exploit and redefine gender ideology, an unbalance is created when Lady Macbeth is displayed as the dominant character of the relationship, during the Jacobean era it is believed that it is proper to remain in your respected gender role and not to over rule your husband otherwise there would be consequences.…
Masculinity and manhood is a running theme Macbeth. Throughout the play, Shakespeare challenges the traditional gender roles during that time period by having the female counterparts act superior among the men. Generally, men had the power and control over the women; however Macbeth reverses the traditional power division through Lady Macbeth and the witches although it maintains distinction by solidifying the powers men possess. Women during this time were submissive, uneducated, and had no say in society. However, Lady Macbeth’s actions are far from how women typically acted.…
Both texts use characters to signify the role of women in society and the struggles of overcoming patriarchy and strict moral code in a sustained society. Each composer’s purpose was to bring forward a response to the role of women to be submissive, silent and subordinate. This is revealed in the opening scenes of Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The opening of the play depicts a harsh, patriarchal society that contributes to the shaping of the role of women as well as the surrounding society’s identity. This is clearly explored throughout the juxtaposition of both the mortal and fairy world where Shakespeare makes it evident that the patriarchal hierarchy is a key element that dominates the freedom over women. A strong representation of this is in Act 1, Scene 1, where a resonant voice from the Duke, Theseus empowers…
In Shakespeare's, Macbeth, (1606), and as in many of his tragic plays, gender roles have an important impact upon the courses of events. Besides the obvious difference of gender, these roles convey a unique and important processes throughout a short, tragic, and bloody play. Weather it's the ambition of a man, and the greed of a woman, their biggest fear of them all, would be fate and their chosen destiny.…
There are common issues explored in The Bacchae by Euripides and As You Like It by Shakespeare. These issues include gender roles within certain places. In both plays women and men are assigned roles for which they are expected to respect and live by. Men are highly respected and viewed as the dominant beings. They are the ruling voice of society. Women are depicted as weak and inferior. They are categorized by gender; men are masculine while women are feminine. However, within these plays every gender stepped out of their role. In The Bacchae the men used cross dressing to portray woman. On the contrary Shakespeare used the women to represent men in As You Like It. Gender defines your social status which keeps order within a place.…
The couple who shows the thematic idea and human condition of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Hermia and Lysander because they’re unbreakable. An example of this is when hermia father tells her she has to marry demetrius’, she says, “I would my father looked but with my eyes”(1.1.56) Hermia is wanting her father to see the two boys as she see them. She wants to marry Lysander but she doesn’t have the choice of marrying Lysander. Her father wants her to marry Demetrius’ if she didn’t she had the choices of getting killed or being a nun besides marrying Demetrius’. Another example is when hermia realize what her choices were, she says, “If thou lovest me then, steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night” (1.1.163-164). They planned to…
As Lysander says, "The course of true love never did run smooth." Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream is portrayed as complicated and difficult, yet Shakespeare does it in a way that is humorous and lighthearted. In this play love often brings out the worst in people, yet in the end it's what brings everyone back together. Love has the ability to spellbind people as Shakespeare represents symbolically through Puck's actions, and we see how intensely complicated it can be when it nearly tears apart Hermia's family and causes argument between the four main human characters. The four types of love, forced love, parental love, romantic love and complicated love permeate all aspects of life in this play and we see the awesome power it has over human emotion, psychology, and behavior.…
According the traditional perception of gender roles, men tend to be the aggressive one while the woman are usually the passive ones. Women tend to wait on their husbands that are working in order to provide for their family. Women do not tend to get aggressive and fight for their wish. However, in the play, the woman tends to be aggressive as they are fighting for their love. They are not willing to give up and confine themselves to the traditional roles that society believed should be followed. For example, Hermia fights for Lysander and goes against the wishes of her father. Her love for Lysander gave her the strength to fight her own father. How much power does love have? Do you think that Hermia will ever regret her choice after fighting…
Claudio as opposed to Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very gullible; he believes anything and everything that is said to him, unlike Demetrius who continues to fight for Hermia’s love until he falls in love with Helena. In act two scene 1 Demetrius is followed my Helena into the woods and notes, “I love thee not; therefore pursue me not./ Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? / The one I’ll stay; the other stayeth me. / Though told’st me they were stol’n unto this wood, / because I cannot meet my Hermia. / Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more” ( II,i, 188-194). “The role of men in the Renaissance culture was under some revision and challenged by the masculine woman that were being brought up in new culture. The make roles outside of the home and in the public sector changed the roles of men in the culture of Shakespeare’s time which allowed audiences to help understand and accept the changing gender roles of the time (Leann Pettit, “A look at male gender roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance” page…