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Women In Shakespeare's Plays

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Shakespeare’s women characters as a mirror of society Ankita Gupta Research Scholar Bilaspur University . Dr.S.K.Tiwari Assistant Professor, Head of department of English D.P.Vipra College , Bilaspur . Email id: ankitaits1503@gmail.com Abstract Shakespeare is undoubtedly the world’s most influential poet and dramatist. His works have been studied by many people and his plays have been made into movies and even live performances. In each of his play we find the grim reality of human conscience. Shakespeare’s presentation of women in his plays demonstrates his feelings about women and their role in the society. In his plays women do not constitute main character, yet they play an important …show more content…

He is an author who has inspired many writers of our time. His life was full of knowledge, devotion and determination. He taught us the real meaning of literature. According to the research carried out, it has been observed that Shakespeare’s portrayal of women in his plays reflect the conception of women in his era. What we see throughout Shakespeare’s play is an insight into the female characters as perceived by Elizabethan culture. They were to be virtuous and obedient. Shakespeare presents two types of women one those who were submissive, obedient and moral and second those who were independent, dominating and evil …show more content…

Shakespeare’s dramas have been bound to rules and convections of the patriarchal Elizabethan era. For all that, Shakespeare supports the English renaissance stereotypes of genders, their role and responsibility in society. There are several different female characters in Shakespeare plays, who assert themselves in very different ways. Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Viola, Rosalind, Desdemona, Ophelia, Gertrude etc. according to Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare is the writer who made his writings transparent and free of any personal vices for delineating the women characters in his tragedies. Shakespeare with his extraordinary genius for portraying human behavior depicts the condition of women in a patriarchal society and his women characters who in their richness, transcend the limitations of time and Shakespearean theme becomes

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