Women in Shakespeare's Plays

Women in ShakespeareÒ's Plays

1. Appearance and Behavior

- women are adorable creatures of sweetness and grace, phantoms of delight

- they are angels of purity and they are "good"

- they are the most enchanting women in literature and they are beautiful, but Shakespeare could not describe them in detail

- their voices are charming, beautiful and well-placed

- they seem to exist only in their attachment to others

2. Roles in the plays

- in more than half of ShakespeareÒ's plays, women have the most important role

- often, they are cleverer and braver than men and they take the initiative in order to save someone elseÒ's life, whereas men remain passive (Portia)

- Shakespeare had no heroes, only heroines -most of these are faultless, steadfast in

grave hope and errorless purpose

- the wittiest and most playful of these heroines is Beatrice: she forsakes her pride and her contempt after she realizes that she has fought against her inclinations long enough and that she is attracted to Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)

-> especially these energetic, intelligent and ready-witted women were uncommon in the Elizabethan age, but they delighted the spectators most

3. Love between women and men and their relationship

- women throw themselves at the necks of the men they have decided to love without much understatement but with utter abandon

- ShakespeareÒ's heroines are taught by the force of feeling and they are ruled by love

- Shakespeare seems to take it for granted that if a girl is really in love, she will marry the man who has won her heart - no matter what stands in the way

- often, love turns to hate and disgust and men start to regard all women as prostitutes (Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing)

-> women are often innocent victims of masculine jealousy and paranoia (Desdemona in Othello / Hero in Much Ado About Nothing)

- different relationships between wife and husband

1. male supremacy, women are in an inferior position

-> women accept the male supremacy and are willing to tolerate male infidelity

2. wife is an equal partner or even in a dominant position