Women In Romeo And Juliet

From Lady Macbeth to Juliet , Shakespeare had created many female characters who were not afraid to go against their society’s expectations. The intelligent and Brave Rosalind from As You Like It for example, dresses as a man in order to travel safely and expresses many ideas with her new found freedom. The societies in which these women were part of reflected some of the ideals of the Elizabethan era, a period of time where women were thought as lower than and property to men. Many historians agree that Shakespeare’s writing , prior to his famous play Romeo and Juliet, did not necessarily address these societal expectations from the female point view. However, during and after this play, the Bard’s writing demonstrated the lack of social liberty for women of his time. Using his female characters, he was able to suggest a message to his viewers that women were similar to men in the sense that they were able to commit wrongdoing, have intelligence and carry great ambition. One demonstration of this was
From the beginning of Act II, Scene I we can understand, Titania as the queen of fairy-land has many fairies and elves who serve and listen to her commands. In fact,her authoritative nature, equaling that of Oberon’s is one of the main contributing factors to the “weather war” which takes place between the spouses. Even after Oberon had put the love- in-idleness potion into Titania’s eyes, her assertive qualities stay. In the context of the Elizabethan society, the gender roles are switched in the relationship between Titania and Bottom. Rather than Titania being submissive as deemed ideal by the Athenian law, Bottom is the one who does so. In fact, the actions of Bottom in the relationship proves that he does not have the same amount of authority as Titania and completely accepts his current state. This can be seen in Act III, Scene I, ll. 78 when Titania