Student Name Mrs. Powell
Course Name 12 December 2013
Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Plays
For hundreds of years, society has questioned a woman’s ability to contribute anything substantial to society, other than a functional uterus and the ability to hit soprano notes. Women
have faced gender bias in business spheres, social settings, legal offices and cultural venues for centuries, liberating themselves only partially in the past sixty years. Throughout history, the male dominated Western world subjected women to an inferior status through any means
possible, including through artistic expression. Most writers featured weak-willed and powerless women throughout their works, making consistent references to female weaknesses and the
sensitivity of women. William Shakespeare, one of the most influential writers of all time, is no exception. Shakespeare’s works, most notably his four hour play Hamlet, include impotent and incapable female characters, contributing to the gender bias of sixteenth century Elizabethan
England.
One of the best examples of weak female characters in Shakespeare’s works is Prince
Hamlet’s love interest, Ophelia. Daughter of the high ranking courtier Polonius, Ophelia is used as a pawn throughout the first three acts of the play. Both her brother and her father interrogate her regarding her relationship with Prince Hamlet in 1.3, and Polonius intimidates her into
complying and aiding with the political schemings among the court. King Claudius conspires with her father to test the prince’s sanity by using her as a pawn in 3.1, and Hamlet later
suppressed at every turn and accepts the criticism willingly and subserviently. But not only do the characters in the play treat her as inferior, Shakespeare also portrays her as an
inconsequential and dependent character. In 2.1, she enters Polonius’s chamber distraught after a disheveled Hamlet appeared to her in her bedroom; she later gives Polonius her private love letters from Hamlet himself. The only authentic characterization of Ophelia the audience sees is
her descent into madness following Polonius’s death. Shakespeare reveals no defining qualities about Ophelia, in contrast to the classical comparisons with other major characters, such as
Claudius and Hamlet. Most of her dialogue is showing submission such as “I shall obey, my lord (1.3.141),” or “... but as you did command / I did repel his letters and denied / His access to me (2.1.118-20). Most of her lines include nonsensical ditties sung to herself in madness in 4.5.
Shakespeare portrays Ophelia as an ideal woman of the time period: pretty, quiet, complacent, and powerless without a man. She is defined by her ability to be manipulated and controlled by
those around her, never by her own thoughts or actions. Her naive presentation and simple disposition contribute to Shakespeare’s theme of weak-willed women, such as Desdemona and Miranda, a motif apparent throughout his works.
The second female character apparent in Hamlet is Queen Gertrude, former wife of the late King Hamlet and current wife of his brother King Claudius. Hamlet focuses on their
“incestuous” relationship in many of his monologues throughout the play, notably in 1.2.159 and 3.3.94, describing Gertrude as wicked in 3.4.13. Claudius marries his sister-in-law only two months after his brother’s death to solidify his transition into power; she neglects the grief of her
son in favor of retaining her pleasures as Queen. She commits accidental suicide by drinking out of a poisoned cup, an act which contributes nothing to the plot. Shakespeare killed her to
woman left to rule a nation alone. Her death was of convenience rather than to contribute to a theme in the play. Gertrude is a figure determined by her sexuality, the only real value a woman
had in Elizabethan England. She provided an heir for King Hamlet and ensured a peaceful transition to the throne for King Claudius. She is valued for her position rather than her ability to lead or rule a nation, a drastic contrast to Queen Elizabeth I who ruled England at the time.
Gertrude continues the line of political pawn queens, such as Hippolyta and Cleopatra, apparent throughout Shakespeare’s works, who marry for the power of men rather than their own desires.
Another notable Shakespearean character is that of Katherina Minola in The Taming of the Shrew. She undergoes a dramatic change throughout the play, as her husband, Petruchio, attempts and succeeds to “tame” her. At the beginning of the play, Katherina maintains some
measure of power over herself, much to the dismay of the men trying to win her sister Bianca’s hand. As the plot unfolds however, Katherina is married off to a domineering man, who demeans
and conditions her incessantly, until in the final scene she professes, “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper / Thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee (5.2.155-56),” at the end of the play. This shift in Katherina provides comedy to the play, exemplifying the contrast between
the former “shrew” and the now diminished mouse of a woman. The entire play is about men taking away the only power an Elizabethan woman possessed: the right to govern her own mind.
Katherina is stripped of her pride, her mind and her ability to choose, transforming her into the model of a Shakespearean woman.
Some literary critics state that some of Shakespeare’s works do include women of merit,
such as Lady Macbeth from Macbeth and Portia from The Merchant of Venice. Both women hold influence over characters in their respective plays. However, for all her command and leverage
grief. The title character in contrast, continues to fight on, even when he is aware of his prophesied doom. Lady Macbeth was not able to live with her actions, as a man would have,
depreciating the value of the character. She was comparatively weaker than her husband, again allowing the male characters to overshadow the women. Other commanding women, such as Portia, who delivers an entire monologue in a courtroom, were only used in comedies. The role
of women contributed to the humor by mocking the very idea that a woman could be intelligent and purposeful. This immediate dismissal of legitimate female characters further contributes to
Shakespeare’s support of gender bias throughout his works.
The fact that a woman ruled England at the time of Shakespeare makes this bias all the more ironic. Queen Elizabeth I of England is heralded as one of the best monarchs of all time,
encouraging her nation to establish itself in the New World and building up the British Navy. Many historians argue that without Elizabeth I, the British Empire never would have arisen and
shaped the world as it did. She never married, never had children and never conformed to the world’s expectations of her, setting herself apart from the other queens of the time period. Shakespeare’s works, however, do not reflect this monumental change in the attitude towards
women. Despite the dynamic and powerful Queen of England, Shakespeare continued to write plays that portrayed women as flat and feeble.
In 1985, comic journalist Alison Bechdel designed a comic based around the role of women in pop culture. The process has now become known as the Bechdel test and contains three criteria:
1. The work must have two named female characters. 2. The women must speak to each other.
Surprisingly, many famous movies do not pass this test, including Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and the Star Wars franchise. Great works of
literature such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and The Odyssey also fail the test. Shakespeare is no exception. Of the Bard’s thirty-seven plays, only two of them, Richard II and Henry V, feature a scene in which two female characters have a conversation on
something other than a man (Froehlich). While this test has only been applied in the last thirty years, it provides a remarkable point regarding gender bias in literature and media. Very few
classic works have women interacting at all, let alone having conversations about topics other than men. While some Shakespearean women may be characterized as bold, confident or intelligent, they rarely display these traits in the company of other women. Rather, these
powerful women are placed next to more powerful men to show further inferiority, instead of equality. And when two women do appear together, they rarely discuss anything other than men,
whether a lover, father, son or antagonist. The Bechdel test, while not qualifying a work’s merit, provides a refreshing view on gender bias in classical and contemporary literature.
In most of Shakespeare’s tragedies, the female characters die, often without cause other
than plot advancement. Their deaths rarely offer deeper meanings, or contribute to their
characters at all. In most of his comedies and histories, the female characters are either displayed
as intelligent, as a joke, of course, or as a fool to display male superiority. The idea of educating women, or having a woman in any position of power, was largely dismissed throughout Western history, and the sixteenth century was no exception. Women were expected to be quiet and to be
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Print.
Shakespeare, William, and Thomas Goddard Bergin. The Taming of the Shrew. New Haven: Yale UP, 1954. Print.
