... reveals the underlying problem of masculinity. In an era strictly dominated and enforced by men, there was a lot to live up to for those born male. Masculinity is the dangerous conceit and underlying root of all complications in Shakespeare's "Othello." Masculinity could mean any number of things in this context. ... protect her both physically and emotionally; because after all women are just property who can't think for themselves and don't know what's best, right? It's only masculine to choose the husband for your daughter and arrange a marriage that will leave her well off financially...

• Word Count: 775
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... . Men playing women who fall in love with men and these "women" acting within an act to be men. Men wooing women played by and then wooing the men portrayed by these acting women. By carefully going through the text of As You Like It (Greenblatt, ed., PP1591-1657) one can try to "dig in" to the characters portrayed and discover any challenge to our views of ... gender identity. During this essay I will point out some of the texts and criticisms that I would suggest lead to the Shakespearean gender identity and this will show how it has altered ... the multi-gender eroticism in this play...

• Word Count: 1317
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... ;(Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 5 Line 40). Lady Macbeth goes so far as to tell Macbeth that he "look so green and pale"(Shakespeare, Act 1 Scene 7 Line 37) which would mean that he looks like he has anemia which was thought back then to mean that you were a virgin girl if you ... got the green sickness. Lady Macbeth is so bold and dominant in the relationship to say that he looks like ... very rude names all in the interest of him being King. One of the less obvious examples of gender reversal/breaking would be the witches. Shakespeare created them with this story to "perverse variants of fe...

• Word Count: 1258
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . This is evident during a conversation between Ophelia and her father, "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, have you so slander any moment leisure, as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. Look to 't, I charge you. Come your ways" (1.3.130). Polonius orders Ophelia to stay clear of Hamlet regardless of the love she has for him. Due ... her weedy trophies and herself fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, and, mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds, as one incapable of her own distress or like a creature nat...

• Word Count: 1097
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... as a sex, infinitely superior to men." Elizabeth Stanton (prominent woman suffragist) - (excerpted from One Woman, One Vote by Wheeler, pg. 58) "Frailty, thy name is woman." William Shakespeare - (excerpted from Hamlet, Act I, scene 2) This quote made by Stanton in 1890 shows many of the feministic beliefs held by the women of today. And the quote made by Shakespeare holds many of the same thoughts shared by ... men. The battle of the sexes is prevalent everywhere and is applicable to anything. From athletics to the military, men and women struggle to beat the other, but I find it to ......

• Word Count: 724
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of William Shakespeare's works, it is evident that Shakespeare is alluding the lack of intelligence and weakness of women. "Frailty, thy name is woman" (1.2.146), quoted by Shakespeare in Hamlet is an example of this. In Hamlet, Shakespeare depicts characters like Ophelia and Gertrude as demonstrating weakness and being tools of manipulation by the males in their lives. Their actions and fates are greatly influenced by the ... men's decisions and are led by the men in their lives, which gives them a weak image. ... from the love which is to his advantage because it can mean that Ophelia...

• Word Count: 837
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... all three of the witches female illustrates the patriarchal nature of the culture in which the play was written. As women, the witches represent Shakespeare" s attempt to display the "other," the darker side of humanity. Both Lady MacBeth and the witches are portrayed as evil women who influence MacBeth to do evil; the thoughts they suggest to him infect his mind and he ... . After MacBeth kills Banquo, he returns to the witches to seek their advice. MacBeth commands them to "answer me, / To what I ask you" (4.1.63-64). The witches willingly agree to tell him anything he wants to know. S...

• Word Count: 840
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... , that was not as common. The play also depicts the typical males in Tranio, Lucentio, and Baptista, among others. Petruchio and Katherine offer the contrast to the typical roles usually played by people of their gender. It is the changing of the roles that makes the play unique and keeps the audience interested in the play. In the first act of the play ... father's wishes were all signs of a uncontrolled and social phobic individual (McDonald, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare, 156). The critics have a good basis for their beliefs when Katherine speaks like this to Hortensio, "To com...

• Word Count: 2530
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... an extremely bold statement for a women in this time period. Her assertiveness draws the attention of many feminists today, and they view her as a strong woman. Shakespeare allows Beatrice to be so outspoken to show how few women were like her. Many Shakespearian women are quiet and go along with whatever their husbands want, but not Beatrice. She is aware that marriage brings ... many risks with it, and doesn't want to be bossed around by a man for the rest of her life: "Would it not grieve a woman to be ... him. Hero, as opposed to Beatrice is very passive. She is obedient to her fat...

• Word Count: 1243
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... all blacks from entering the city. She spoke of them as "Negars and Moors which are crept into the realm, of which kind of people there are already here too many". It seems that Shakespeare is almost mocking the Queen by characterising Othello as a black man who has a high ranking position in the ... with Othello without her father's permission, which during that time would have been socially unacceptable. This is revealed to us through Brabantio's reaction as Shakespeare uses Brabantio as a vehicle for the representation of higher society's views on matters. Another value revealed in the...

• Word Count: 2352
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... . He wants to feel depressed, he even wants to cry, but he is quickly told to turn these 'unmanly' feelings into anger and a hunger for revenge by his male peers: Malcolm: Dispute it like a man. Macduff: I shall do so, but I must also feel it as a man .... Malcolm: Be this the whetstone of your sword, let grief convert to anger: blunt not the heart but enrage ... , avoid discussing politics and should remain focused on household duties. She is prepared to kill the lawful king in a sheer presentation of opportunistic ambition - a very male characteristic during Shakespeare's life. It prese...

• Word Count: 1432
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... and obey their husbands and never make the rules. Men on the other hand, were expected to be the head of their households, strong, and wise. Shakespeare broke new ground in the late 1500s by playing with the unheard idea of the reversal of gender roles. The relationship between the Macbeth's is interesting because they both do not represent the stereotypical men ... tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem To have thee crowned withal"(I, V, 16-20) so eventually he will take action like she believes fate and the witches want him to. Wh...

• Word Count: 1246
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... Women in Othello In Shakespeare's Othello, the role of women is greatly emphasized. The important characters of the play, Othello, Iago, and Cassio, each have a women that stands behind him. These women each have an obligation to remain loyal and respect their husband's wishes, especially Desdemona and Emilia. We see Desdemona as a young beautiful white ... But here is my husband. And so much duty as my mother showed to you, preferring you before her father...(act1,sc3L210). In other words, she is grateful to her father for what he has given to her but will stand by the side of her husb...

• Word Count: 1051
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... women like Venus and Serena Williams as sports stars, one can see why this image exists. Because of their muscular physique, they are given masculine stereotypes. Similarly, as Woolf indicates in A Room of One's Own, female characters in most classic literature written by both men and women seem to adhere to the classic stereotypes. Women's roles in literature, both in "starring" in it, and creating it ... support that men do. Woolf points out that female writers have never garnered the praise nor the popularity of male authors such as William Shakespeare. This is because they have neve...

• Word Count: 1286
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the latter. Wilson, from the story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," is the essence of masculinity that Ernest Hemingway idolized. Hemingway was man's man; like Wilson he hunted big game, he drank heavily and he was a womanizer of sorts. He also fought in both world wars including the liberation of Paris and ... because the "Worst one can do is kill you." (pg. 150). His mentality about death is that of a true man, a battle-hardened warrior that has no more fear of dying as going to sleep at night. Wilson even quotes a line of Shakespeare about not fearing death. "By my troth, ...

• Word Count: 639
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... one of theaters most dramatic and well-known plays, "Macbeth," William Shakespeare uses reversed gender roles as a significant part of the drama's explicitly violent content. Throughout the play, the roles of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are confused as to who is masculine and who is feminine. The confused gender ... Lady Macbeth starts to show her ambition for the title of queen and shows her masculine side. In a soliloquy, Lady Macbeth says, "Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/And fill me, from the crown to the toe, topfull/Of direst cruelty!"" (1.5.35-8). ...

• Word Count: 940
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... activity of women & fiction. In A Room Of One's Own, Virginia Woolf, is a woman who makes fiction and creates a fictional woman: " Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Charmichael or by any other name you please-it is not a matter of ant importance.""(Woolf, 5) who tells how she came to have a view about women & fiction. Women & fiction, Woolf contends, is a subject that is influenced ... landmarks toward a settled place, or in this case, a settled opinion. And following her through the journey - noting her stops and the different ways that her experience can be interpreted. For as one ...

• Word Count: 1699
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School