... are introduced to several characters throughout the course of the play, three of which are female. These characters are Desdemona, wife to Othello, Emilia, wife to Iago and Bianca, lover of Cassio. Shakespeare has chosen to present the reader with only three female characters for strategic reasons. The significance of Emilia and Bianca is to heighten our awareness of Desdemona's innocence and loyalty to her husband. Emilia ... , and be disloyal to her husband. While Emilia has no understanding of Desdemona's blind faithfulness, loyalty, and innocence she is able to defend it before Othel...

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• Grade Level: High School

... have become almost as important and equal in society. In Shakespeare's plays, most of the main characters or main speaking parts are played by characters that are male. The basis of Shakespeare's plays seem to focus mainly around the male main character and his conflict, which tends to deal with a woman. Othello presents this with Othello himself and the conflict deals with his own wife. Women ... also seem not to be favored in Shakespeare's plays, yet more of the ... problem. In Othello, Shakespeare writes his male character's to view women ... ...

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• Grade Level: High School

William Shakespeare's "Othello" can be read from a feminist perspective. Othello serves as an example of the patriarchal social status, the practice of privileges in marriages, and also the suppression and restriction of the Elizabethan woman. The women in that era were raised only to marry and bear children. As this being their only occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of keeping the household ... women are equally human in their desires. I believe that the character Emilia was a true depiction of many women during that time. Many women were fighting for equality and Shakespear...

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• Grade Level: High School

... must understand the Elizabethan concept of honour in order to understand the behaviour of the characters. Othello, being a tragedy, involves real human feelings such as love and jealousy, and thus transcends these conventions. This may be why it is easier for us to understand the characters and their actions in Othello. In conclusion, it is difficult to evaluate whether Shakespeare's characters have acted honourably or ... must understand the Elizabethan concept of honour in order to understand the behaviour of the characters. Othello, being a tragedy, involves real human feelings such ...

• Word Count: 4511
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• Grade Level: High School

Role of 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 ... her father for what he has given to her but will stand by the side of her husband, as any women should. Even while Othello is accusing her of having an affair with Cassio, and insulting her calling her a whore, her responsibility of standing by her man and trying to understand him still remains....

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• Grade Level: High School

... states they are weak, lazy, and stupid and only desire sex for- shadowing how he will use them as his pawns.Desdemona, Othello's wife, is a young woman of the upper class in Venice. She is very honest, upright and moral; Shakespeare puts her up on this standard and makes her out to be pure and perfect and she foils Iago's character, which plays ... good is what Iago plays on in his evil plans to deceive Othello. Emilia is Iago's wife, which says something about her submissive character already. She is also Desdemona's handmaiden; this is a vital part in her role in the play. She is the ...

• Word Count: 674
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• Grade Level: High School

... states they are weak, lazy, and stupid and only desire sex for- shadowing how he will use them as his pawns. Desdemona, Othello's wife, is a young woman of the upper class in Venice. She is very honest, upright and moral; Shakespeare puts her up on this standard and makes her out to be pure and perfect and she foils Iago's character, which plays ... good is what Iago plays on in his evil plans to deceive Othello. Emilia is Iago's wife, which says something about her submissive character already. She is also Desdemona's handmaiden; this is a vital part in her role in the play. She is the...

• Word Count: 666
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• Grade Level: High School

... a patriarchal ideology. They were naturally subservient, domestic creatures, seen as objects of desire or a medium of exchange. Shakespeare accepts these medieval ideals of a hierarchy of nature in which woman is second to man. In his comedies, however, he is allowed to write with a more detached view of society and a lighter tone (Swisher 39). The role of women in Shakespeare's own life was also a great influence in his writings. His ... relationship with his wife and even his mother prejudiced his opinion of women, and we can see this in his comedies. Katharina in The Taming ... of t...

• Word Count: 2533
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... times, that women are to be entirely submissive to their husbands. To this end, Shakespeare once again reinforces a strictly patriarchal hegemony. The film 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The majority of the characters are the same. In addition to Kat (Katherine) and Bianca, the film includes Patrick Verona as Petruchio, Cameron as Lucentio, Michael as ... basic storyline remains the same: Bianca's suitors come, the father sets down the rules, the sisters fight, one of Bianca's suitors finds a suitor for her sister, etc. The st...

• Word Count: 1575
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... times, that women are to be entirely submissive to their husbands. To this end, Shakespeare once again reinforces a strictly patriarchal hegemony. The film 10 Things I Hate About You is a modern adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The majority of the characters are the same. In addition to Kat (Katherine) and Bianca, the film includes Patrick Verona as Petruchio, Cameron as Lucentio, Michael as ... basic storyline remains the same: Bianca's suitors come, the father sets down the rules, the sisters fight, one of Bianca's suitors finds a suitor for her sister, etc. The st...

• Word Count: 1517
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• Grade Level: High School

... Like the Sun, Shakespeare compares his woman to the fairy-tale like woman with the rosy cheeks, and beautiful voice. This poem by Shakespeare is different. In this poem Shakespeare chooses to personify his mistress as a women of minimal beauty, if any at all. For reasons unknown to me, Shakespeare chooses to restate the ... title in the first line of the poem. From the statement "my mistress" eyes ... detail about his mistress" lips, the negative way he describes her eyes leads me to believe her lips are nothing special. He continues his description of his mistress by referring to her b...

• Word Count: 584
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• Grade Level: High School

... up to your woman beside you after a long night's rest. She turns over and says right in your face, good morning. The conventions of Shakespeare's time required that men describe that breath in their face as perfume. However, Shakespeare defies convention. He calls it as it is. The diction that he uses to describe his mistress' breath is quite interesting; he says that ... the sun, nor does anyone's breath smelled perfumed unless they use mouthwash, so by acknowledging facts like these, the mood in Shakespeare's poem makes his poem more relatable through its realism. Shakespeare also cle...

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• Grade Level: High School

The induction to "The Taming of the Shrew" brings an immediate sense of comedy to the play. It is the only known Shakespeare play to have an induction and this is suggested to be because Shakespeare used the "Spanish Tragedy" to help him. The beginning of the induction starts with the argument between the hostess and the drunken character of Sly. "I"ll pheeze you, in faith." There ... is dramatic irony when the audience knows that some of the characters such as the "Lord" are deceiving the character of "Sly". The audience may see the ... the trick that is being played on him, and how far the...

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... . One reason for this common misconception is the flowery diction which often makes little distinction between amorous love and platonic friendship of people of the same gender. Careful reading and separation of current societal values will show that it is beyond those concepts. Shakespeare begins sonnet 116 with the very idea that true love cannot be blocked. He does not say true love, though ... for the poem's subject is as fixed as the North Star in the sky above. It is oblivious to other's opinions and is "never shaken." Shakespeare directly addresses the concept of sexual love verse...

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... Shrew, and Twelfth Night, stand out particularly well in regards to Shakespeare's use of female characters. After examining these two plays, one will see that Shakespeare, though conforming to contemporary attitudes of women, circumvented them by creating resolute female characters with a strong sense of self. The Taming of the Shrew is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, and has weathered well into our modern era with adaptations ... into popular television series such as Moonlighting. For all the praises it has garnered throughout the centuries, it is curious to note that many hav...

• Word Count: 1095
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• Has Bibliography
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... always been an important play for those who study gender and its depiction early literature. Its heroine, Katherine, is such a strong willed and overpowering character in the beginning of the play, and when Shakespeare wrote, 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 ... a prize in Katherine. Then some believe "Kate's long, final speech about the need for wives to submit to their husbands is nothing more than a ventriloquization of male superiority'- (McDonald, The Be...

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... sheriff's wife. Glaspell in her story: "she didn't seem like a sheriff's wife. She was small and thin and didn't have a strong voice"[CITATION Sus p 39 l 5130 ]. In this extract from "A Jury of Her Peers", it can be seen how women are being evaluated or judged according to her husband's position. For a patriarchal society, women are unimportant and the ... , who was particularly genial with the law-abiding, as if to make it plain that he knew the difference between criminals and non-criminals. [CITATION Sus p 39 l 5130 ]. The woman was being minimized in terms of image and personality wh...

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... was not limited to females and there were many men who were accused of witchcraft. The fact that Shakespeare made 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 ... to note that MacDuff has not been tainted be the feminine other, as he was not born of a woman; thus, it is appropriate that he is the instrument of MacBeth's desctructin. In contrast to MacDu...

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In many 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 memory be green, and that it us befitted/ To bear our hearts in grief..." (1.2.1-4). This proves how the Queen wanted to marry Claudius quickly instead of mour...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... from top to toe..." (Bloom 29). This quote illustrates the connection between Lady Macbeth and the witches, showing us that they both participated in Macbeth's moral decline. Shakespeare, it seems, utilizes the symbol of the witches to portray the basic evil inherent in Lady Macbeth. One could not have worked without the other. If it were only the witches' prophecies, then Macbeth ... demonstrates a profound moral disorder." (Boyce 391). The fact that Macbeth persisted shows that he knew that what he was doing was wrong. Yet, he continued to murder. Shakespeare opened his play with the ...

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... fantasies. He enchants them with his outrageous stories of lions and elephants walking down the streets of the cities. "...when I'm lying on my bed at night I put my hand out the window and idly play with the Nile waters till sleep overtakes me".(39) Is this an image of colonization in reverse? Is the childlike sense of awe and mystery which draws the European women ... to Mustafa Sa'eed the same type of fascination felt by the colonizing men who overtook the African continent? Sa'eed describes his conquests ... of women using the terminology of hunting and also of colonizing. "Mr Must...

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... the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries offered few ways out of an unhappy marriage. Therefore, the resolution of marital disputes became an important topic in the popular literature of the era. Shakespeare highlights the theme of marriage, in particular the role of the woman in the marriage, in The Taming of the Shrew. It is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays and has weathered well into our modern ... era. Like his other romantic comedies, The Taming of the Shrew focuses on courtship and marriage and the ... view her marriage as a chance to find harmony within a prescri...

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... lives, or by the world in general. Cora Lee continues to have children because she wants the dependency of infants; once they become toddlers, neglect them. She begins to see the importance of all her children after she attends the neighborhood show of a black version of one of Shakespeare's plays. Miss Sophie is an unhappy woman that spreads gossip about her the lesbians living in the ... Place together rip down the wall stained with Lorraine's blood. After the Rape of Lorraine and death of Ben the women of Brewster place realize that they have been fighting the Wrong enemy. The only w...

• Word Count: 1933
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• Grade Level: High School

... acting has Hamlet is not incredibly new. In 1899 Sarah Bernhardt took on the role of Hamlet. Bernhardt was later deemed "tres grande dame." Today there is an organization known as the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company (LAWSC) with casts plays (not necessarily Shakespearean plays) with all female casts. ... In 1995 the LAWSC cast Hamlet in an all women ensemble. It has been brought up that a woman playing the role of Hamlet will create a tension between representations of masculinity and femininity. ... and Angela Winkler. I have seen a female read Hamlet's part in a class. It beca...

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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... a woman whose mental stability is affected by childbirth and the setting she is forced to live in. The author informs the reader of the historical setting as well as the physical setting in the story, which adds much depth to the short story. Setting can set things into motion, and Gilman takes advantage of the effect setting has on short stories, and other literature as well. The ... many things, ranging from a specific character's personality, to a town's characteristics as a whole. In The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilbert, setting is used to illuminate the historical asp...

• Word Count: 996
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• Grade Level: High School