Shakespeare’s Women’s March
(The treatment of women according to Shakespeare.)
Many writers have different ideas of character treatment. Some people are biased based on physical characteristics, different personal choices, and even gender. Especially back towards the 1400 and 1500’s, women were not treated as equals, they were much considered as lessers. Some men had great thoughts about women and treating them as goddesses, and women were often the focal point of their writing. However, Shakespeare had some differing views concerning the treatment of women. Not that all of his plays ended in the death of women, but most of his tragedies had pretty unfortunate treatment of women. Take King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth for example, all of these have relatively awful treatment of women considering how women are treated today. To begin, Hamlet, deals with women very differently considering how they are treated today, and even how they were treated by other people then. During Hamlet’s mission, he has to come into contact with his mother, and his lover, Gertrude and Ophelia. He shows them utmost spite and even says, “Frailty, thy name is women.” (Act I, Scene II) Hamlet and other characters see women as pawns to …show more content…
King Lear tells his daughters that whoever can show she loves him most gets the bulk of his land. This doesn’t make it difficult for his two not so loving daughters to falsify words and get a lot of land; however, his one true daughter can’t put her love into words and gets sent away. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless!” (Act I, Scene IV) He is so upset with his daughter, he doesn’t think twice about sending her off. “...directs us toward a more nuanced understanding of the nature of place within King Lear and the early modern period more broadly.” (Bozio) King Lear shows that the concept of misunderstanding can prove to be very
(The treatment of women according to Shakespeare.)
Many writers have different ideas of character treatment. Some people are biased based on physical characteristics, different personal choices, and even gender. Especially back towards the 1400 and 1500’s, women were not treated as equals, they were much considered as lessers. Some men had great thoughts about women and treating them as goddesses, and women were often the focal point of their writing. However, Shakespeare had some differing views concerning the treatment of women. Not that all of his plays ended in the death of women, but most of his tragedies had pretty unfortunate treatment of women. Take King Lear, Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth for example, all of these have relatively awful treatment of women considering how women are treated today. To begin, Hamlet, deals with women very differently considering how they are treated today, and even how they were treated by other people then. During Hamlet’s mission, he has to come into contact with his mother, and his lover, Gertrude and Ophelia. He shows them utmost spite and even says, “Frailty, thy name is women.” (Act I, Scene II) Hamlet and other characters see women as pawns to …show more content…
King Lear tells his daughters that whoever can show she loves him most gets the bulk of his land. This doesn’t make it difficult for his two not so loving daughters to falsify words and get a lot of land; however, his one true daughter can’t put her love into words and gets sent away. “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless!” (Act I, Scene IV) He is so upset with his daughter, he doesn’t think twice about sending her off. “...directs us toward a more nuanced understanding of the nature of place within King Lear and the early modern period more broadly.” (Bozio) King Lear shows that the concept of misunderstanding can prove to be very