The saying that love is blind, is one that is very wrong. Love is not blind, it is merely a faint line that many individuals chose not to see. During Shakespeare’s time, the societal norms that cultivated women were very precise. Women were held to high standards to both look and act in specific ways, but did society ever take it too far? Many poets during Shakespeare’s time wrote traditional blazon sonnets, ones that compared women to the most wondrous things life has to offer; gems, jewels, plants, and stars.
In the 1500-1600s women were not treated the same as men. Shakespeare portrays women a certain way to break the mold of what women were supposed to be. Women are seen standing up for themselves and being bold which was not supposed to happen. Even though Shakespeare was a bit of a revolutionary with the idea of women, the other characters in his plays still view women much like real people in his time. Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and Othello are similar in how women are viewed by other characters.
Despite that a single woman ruled England at the time of William Shakespeare, the Elizabethan society was still much patriarchal. Hence, it leads to the society being “Unfeminine Pursuits”. Based upon the historical context where Shakespeare had written Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth, as female characters are portrayed as subservient and unimportant as a whole while confronting the societal constraints. Since, Renaissance society did not traditionally value the freedom of women, although the ruling of this society was running by the “independent” women. As this society always portrayed the ideal woman who is beautiful and obedient while retaining her strength and independence.
They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth had a great influence on her husband, Macbeth. Her role was so large, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support Macbeth, and fails miserably
During Shakespeare’s time, the societal norms that cultivated women were very precise. Women were held to high standards both look and act in a specific way, but did society ever take it too far? Many poets during Shakespeare’s time wrote traditional blazon sonnets, ones that compared women to the most wondrous things life has to offer; gems, jewels, plants, and stars. Such beautiful comparisons were made, but the women were made out to be so unrealistic. Women had become a collection of objects rather than human, but Shakespeare shed some light on the matter at hand and presented a new way of thinking.
Unfortunately, this is only in recent decades, as most classic literature places female characters in a box, hardly ever letting them out. In Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, the character of Lady Macbeth at first appears as if she breaks the mold of what a woman should be, and how she should act. She is driven and takes control of the conflict at hand. Her characterization appears new and fresh. Unfortunately, Shakespeare takes this revolutionary depiction of a woman and falls short.
Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are the eras in which Shakespeare’s plays were developed and the characters of his plays were influenced by the social context. The way women were treated, their social status, the roles that they were supposed to accomplish and the expectations set for them in those times are reflecteIn the England of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, as well as in the rest of Europe, women were considered to be inferior to men and their roles were very well defined: “daughters and wives, sisters and mothers.” (Kemp Theresa D., 29). These roles, the women’s social standing and their marital status had a crucial part in defining the women. Also, it has no importance if she was a mother, a wife or a widow, her personality
Charlotte and Emily Bronte are the most successful authors of their time; writing stories that contain truths that have stood the test of time. However, their success did not come easy. Bronte used a pen name to conceal her identity and shield herself from ridicule for the first few months after Jane Eyre was published. Even though Charlotte was not the most beautiful woman, she found abundant success in her talents in spite of the Victorian era’s belief that women’s value is found solely in how much beauty and money she possessed. In Charlotte Bronte’s coming of age novel, Jane Eyre, outward beauty deceives as it ironically represents a true evil in oneself.
Feminine roles in William Shakespeare’s Othello have been discussed to depict the traditional female figures who follow the expectations of the Elizabethan patriarchal society; however, the figures of Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca, also present some characteristics which endorse the modern gender norms of women behaviour. To start with, at the beginning of the play Desdemona is depicted by her father as passive, innocent and obedient. Like Sinfield states in Cultural Materialism, Othello, and the Politics of Plausibility “a woman should obey the male head of her family, who should be first her father (…) then her husband”, hence, when Desdemona marries Othello without her father’s consent she is, at the same time, disobeying the Venetian society; she does not enter the institution of marriage directly from her paternal domination, she displeases him. However, her active personality disappears once she marries Othello. After she becomes Othello’s wife, Desdemona is no longer a dissenting character as “she does not question the woman’s obligation to obey” (Greenblatt 1980: 239), she becomes a passive and obedient woman towards her husband.
Anahi Banuelos Ms. Gongora - 1 English 12 03 March 2018 Othello Essay Throughout the story of Othello by Shakespeare, many critical lenses can be seen and applied.Feminist criticism is one that stands out the most. There were various male characters in the play, who show prejudicial, discriminatory attitudes toward women.There are only three women in Othello, Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way that these three women are shown and represented is certainly linked to the ideological expectations of Shakespeare’s society and to the patriarchal society that he creates.Women All through the play are displayed as possessions,submissive and temptresses. An example of women being shown as possessions, is when the Duke hears out Othello and Brabantio, and finally decides to grant permission for Desdemona to go with Othello to Cyprus. Not ”To his conveyance I assign my wife Desdemona, as Othello’s wife, is treated as his possession” (Scene3 Page11).