Cross Dressing In Shakespeare Essay

Queen Elizabeth I. She was the lone ruler of England and yet she was a woman. Shakespeare has an gender imbalance in his play, Macbeth, and he switches it around for most of the play. He uses genders to help develop characters throughout the play. Gender roles is a prominent theme in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, as it gives the audience a misrepresentation of what men and women should be, and the gender inequity of Shakespearean time.

A fully developed professional theatre that emerged in England in the 1580s had a “profound effect on the ways the gendered body was staged” (Michael Billing, 16). Early modern constructions of the gendered body were “viewed as along a continuum” moving in one direction or the other (Will Fisher, 6). This idea can suggest the performativity of gender rather than its ontological core on the early modern stage. Shakespeare’s comedies may suggest that masculinity on the stage is like “a suit of clothes” that could be put on or taken off at will (Bruce R. Smith, 3). While dramatists of this period question the validity of female stereotypes .

In Romeo and Juliet, the play creates a lot of different perspectives towards it. There are a handful of people who believe Romeo and Juliet contains a plot that is senseless. Alyssa Rosenberg is one of those individuals. She shares her theory towards the play by creating the article, “Romeo and Juliet, Is a Terrible Play, and David Leveaux Can’t Change That”. She questions the play’s plot by saying,“Why are the families fighting?

To start this essay about the connection between Gertrude and Ophelia with William Shakespeare, we must say that is a little hard to understand how he related these women with all the play, since they are the two only women with important roles in this play. That point is easy to understand, knowing that in the time when Shakespeare wrote one of his most famous plays, women were not very considered to have a principal role. Men had to interpret the role of women; the roles of these two women are very complex, we can see different points of view about them, depending on how we could interpret the behavior of the women at that time. What we know about Gertrude according to the play is that she married Claudius after not much time that her husband died. Her husband was Claudius’ brother, so that act was seemed very weird at that time by the people; they believed that was an act of incest.

Gender is a common thread that is woven through most major Shakespearean plays. An argument that follows the story lines of works such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and a more dominant role in Othello. Written in 1603, Othello examines the contrast between female and male characters, and where their place is in society. As this was written in a time where women were seen as the lesser sex compared to their male counterparts. Males take on more power hungry roles, drowning out the roles of females by minimizing their thoughts and actions.

Taming of the Shrew There’s been a lot of questions and discussions about if Shakespeare was being a little bit too cruel or bias in the way he represented women in the play, Taming of the Shrew. There’s a lot of different opinions and in my personal one I think he is non-misogynistic. It was a just a comedy not an insult to woman. People are just being too sensitive about it, and just looking more to it than there actually is.

A Modern View of Feminist Criticism William Shakespeare 's "Othello” can be analyzed from a feminist perspective. This criticism focuses on relationships between genders, like the patterns of thoughts, behavior, values, enfranchisement, and power in relations between and within sexes. A feminist examination of the play enables us to judge the distinctive social esteems and status of women and proposes that the male-female power connections that become an integral factor in scenes of Othello impact its comprehension. I believe that the critical lens that provides modern society with the most compelling view of literature is Feminist Criticism because it analyzes distrust and disloyalty among relationships, women being treated as possessions

An Athenian Toy Story: Objects that Come to Life Objectification obscures the inner thoughts and places a mask over one’s true self. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, the Athenian women are governed by very fixed stereotypes: they must fight to remove the masks and assert their independence [3]. This play confronts the issue of gender equality which arises in complicated family decisions and romantic relationships. While in the Athens society, it is common that men are dominant over women, in contrast, women dominate over men in the Amazonian system of gender. As time progresses in this play, one can see the shift from strict patriarchal rule to a balanced perspective.

The 1600s is a period of great distinctions amongst gender, class, and intelligence. William Shakespeare wrote in a time where his language is baffling to much of the current culture. To ease the pain of struggling to comprehend his works, translations of his works are available, as well as movies portraying his plays in this era. Matters regarding gender are both depicted in Shakespeare’s creations and are now relevant in society. From homosexual’s acceptance to women’s roles, Shakespeare’s works still apply to the present day.

Throughout most of the play, she is portrayed as powerful and confident, and more daring than Macbeth himself, though this image changes when she shows signs of weakness, resulting in her death.   In Lady Macbeth’s first appearance in the play, Act 1, Scene 7, she behaves in contentious ways that might lead the audience to question her morals. After reading the letter in which Macbeth shares the news, the first words in her soliloquy show her determination and ambition: “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor - and shalt be what thou art promised!” The fact that she states that he shall be what is promised and become king, shows that she is aware of her own strengths and influence over Macbeth.

Social concerns undergo metamorphosis in their portrayal, according to the composers various contextual influences. ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ was a play written by Shakespeare in the Elizabethan era where men were considered to be superior to women. This patriarchal society heavily influenced Shakespeare’s play, as it reflected the traditional values of the Elizabethan era. In contrast, the 20th century had drastically changed, with the first and second waves of feminism, which helped to remove inequalities and gender expectations. However Junger, the director of ‘10 Thing I Hate About You’ has kept the basis of the film based on Shakespeare’s play.

Obviously it does not work out. Firstly the script is being changed by the aging diva Helen Sinclair, who wants her role to have more influence, character and screentime and slowly manipulates Shane by seduction. Eventually the script is majorly changed by the Olive 's bodyguard, Cheech, who claims that the play is rubbish. He turns out to be quite apt at playwriting and the final script is something else than what it started. There is no final director, because the script underwent so many changes that the original notes almost do not exist, and the major changes that Cheech introduced become almost a new script.

A common theme seen throughout many of William Shakespeare’s writing are the apparent lack of and search for identity. Shakespeare has a tendency to thrust an audience in the middle of a character’s search for whom they really are. It is the basis for many of his play’s plots and the source for most of the conflict in each of them. But, in both The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, Shakespeare adds a deeper layer upon the characters’ search for individuality through the use of twins. Characters in both Twelfth Night and The Comedy of Errors have an issue with their appearances that does not allow them to be their true self.

Laden with innuendos, ironies, and intricate wordplay, Shakespeare’s plays are rarely what they initially appear to be. Rather, it takes several readings to be able to barely scratch the surface of all the possible interpretations. Moreover, not everything is black or white, but possible variations of gray. This topsy-turvy approach is encapsulated in the overall outline of Shakespearean comedy, which are typically set during a period of festivities, such as the festivals A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night are appropriately named after. An average festival is usually comprised of chaos through the reversal of the traditional order and rejection of social norm.