One of the main topics of interest in the field of Shakespearian studies is that which considers the various roles that women play in the Shakespeare's comedies and tragedies. Literary and historical scholars agree that women did not enjoy political, economic, or social parity with men during Shakespeare's time, and this historical reality is important to keep in mind when analyzing the variety of female characters in the plays of Shakespeare. In this Shakespearean society, it was men who held exclusively the official posts of authority and power, and men who kept the agency and influence to direct the outcome of events.
Nevertheless, the careful reader notices a curious trend in many of Shakespeare's plays: many of Shakespeare's female characters exercise a rather great deal of delicate forms of power and influence, and often do so in unusual and even subversive ways that challenge traditional gender roles. Although the male characters generally fail to notice or refuse to acknowledge women's authority and influence openly, they are affected by it. The contemporary reader can't help but be aware of them and in many cases, to view many of the characters present in several plays by Shakespeare as some of the main motivators of action as well as some of the most complex characters overall.
Some of the most interesting female characters in Shakespeare's writing are Hermia in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark and Hamlet's mother, in Hamlet. Although each of these women finds herself in a social position and challenging situation that differs from the other, and though each employs a unique strategy for coping with her problems and contesting gender roles by exerting authority and influence delicately, these four women are similar in that they all insist upon their right to direct their own destinies and, at times, the destinies of others as well.
