Analysis of The Role of Women in Shakespeare's Plays

Introduction

William Shakespeare is a famous drama genius in the Renaissance of England. His works are magnificent and profound in meaning, and artistically represent colorful scenes of human life. In his works, the fate of the characters is closely linked with their thoughts and personalities, which become the decisive factors for the conflicts and final outcomes between people. Shakespeare has made remarkable contributions to the development of European realistic literature to a higher level. His works are beyond the times. Even today in the electronic age, they are still eternal masterpieces that the vast number of literary lovers have been reading tirelessly. In Shakespeare's plays, the theme of gender relations occupies a prominent position. The focus on women's fate and gender theme has become an important focus for him to think about human nature and express his humanistic ideal. Shakespeare's many female characters in his four romantic comedies and four tragedies have always attracted readers of different times with their own charm. The female characters in Shakespeare's comedies are either elegant and refined, innocent and lively, or natural and unrestrained and vigorous. All of them have superhuman temperament and bright and beautiful colors, which are typical of the new women in the Renaissance. On the other hand, the women in the tragedy are endowed with deeper connotation: Shakespeare used his usual writing method of revealing the character by comparing characters, so that the heroine's tragedy reflects the hero's life tragedy, and then sublimates to the contemplation and consideration of the whole human survival tragedy. The female characters in Shakespeare's tragedy have rich levels and different personalities. They all have their own human weaknesses, but at the same time they truly reflect the living conditions of women in a male-dominated society. Feminist Shakespeare criticism has achieved impressive results in the past 40 years and has become an important part of mainstream Shakespeare criticism. Besides analyzing the female characters in Shakespeare's plays, they try to interpret the hidden secrets behind the works, such as Shakespeare himself. They changed their attitude and tirelessly discussed Shakespeare's own view of women, but their conclusions were quite different. Some feminist Shakespearean researchers believe that Shakespeare's works depict 'perfect' female images, and the forerunner in their consciousness is exactly the reflection of Shakespeare's feminist consciousness. However, Shakespeare's feminist complex is further confirmed by his concern for vulnerable female groups, so he can be called 'the original feminist.' The other part, though not concluding that Shakespeare is a feminist, admitted that he has a feminist tendency. Mary CowdenClarke, the first female editor of Shakespeare's works, praised Shakespeare in this way: 'He has well defended the rights and interests of women.' On the contrary, other critics totally disagree with the above view. In their view, Shakespeare's plays are for men, and all the roles are played by men, so his plays are inevitably filled with male chauvinism. His plays are full of respect for men and affirmation of heterosexuality, and are full of misogynistic atmosphere, which harms many female readers and homosexual readers. The diversity of feminist Shakespeare criticism has its positive aspects, but it makes us confused.

Women in Shakespearean plays

In Shakespearean plays, women have always played important roles. Whether their purpose was to create the base of the play, main conflicts, or generate moral and cultural questions, women are always put in arduous situations. Often, the role of women surpasses the role of male heroes in Shakespeare's writings, it is almost unfathomable and almost provocative, considering societals’ moral compass in that period. In Romeo and Juliet, the Nurse plays one of the main women characters. Her role is to care for Juliet like a present-day nanny. Juliet views her as a second mother. Contrasting due to her being in a different class then Juliet’s actual mother, Lady Capulet - the lower class. The nurse also adds humor to the play; in Act 2 Scene 4 she states “What saucy merchant was this that full of ropery?”. This lightents the tragic ora of the play and only her and Mercutio do this.

Since 1601 Shakespeare has entered his tragic creation stage, which is another extremely important stage in his creation period. At this stage, the turbulent social background and his personal tragic experience have greatly changed his mentality. His works are less than the bright blue sky and the green and vigorous sunshine. Dark clouds are always hanging over the city. Murder, promiscuity, conspiracy, betrayal and all kinds of crimes are all too common. In his tragic world, there was only one world from beginning to end: the realistic patriarchal society. In this society, we can no longer find women as outstanding as Portia. They all disappeared like goddesses in romantic comedies and were replaced by the image of 'Eve' who fell into the world: they were either weak and weak (such as filia), or reckless and naive (such as Desdemona), or stubborn and lofty (such as Cordelia), or foolish and vicious (such as Lady Macbeth, Cornell and Reagan). Everyone, with their inherent weaknesses, was undoubtedly a female figure in the tragedy that led to destruction step by step. Although their personalities and circumstances are different, we can classify them into two types: one is completely compliant, such as O 'filia and Desdemona after marriage. The other is extremely evil. They are all extremely enthusiastic about power and try to overthrow the original patriarchal politics, such as Lady Macbeth, Gonzales and Reagan. Kochelia cannot be classified into these two categories. She has neither fully complied with the patriarchal politics represented by Lear nor tried to subvert him. However, her story is not a typical women's story. Her outstanding qualities such as filial piety and kindness are not only belonging to women, but are common to some outstanding human beings. Therefore, if Cordelia were replaced by a man, the story would be equally wonderful. Gertrude (Hamlet's mother) is also out of this category. In Hamlet, she is an awkward figure who has been rejected and disliked by Hamlet from beginning to end. It was not until death that she was 'purified in Shakespeare's four tragedies. All female characters are the foil of male characters, and their tragedies are just to set off a bigger tragedy. O 'filia and Gertrude only serve Hamlet. When necessary, they must 'die' to serve the plot. The tragedy of Desdemona is to set off the tragedy of Othello and even Iago. Lady Macbeth's role in the play is similar to that of three witches. Her existence and disappearance depend on Macbeth's needs. Cordelia's role in King Lear is not insignificant, but as mentioned earlier, her story is not a typical female story. The character and fate of the characters are not discussed. The four tragedies are full of misogynistic atmosphere. The protagonists in 'Hamlet' and 'King Lear' are both misogynistic. The protagonists in both plays have abused the female group with dirty words. Iago in Othello also has a serious misogynistic complex. Macbeth is different from the above because he seems to rely more on women than on his male colleagues. However, he was eventually killed by macdolph, who was not“ woman born of a woman. 'this is a very symbolic scene, symbolizing the revival of patriarchal politics that Macbeth once subverted with the power of women (the power of his wife and witch). Therefore, it can be said that the four tragedies are full of misogynistic atmosphere. If Shakespeare's four tragedies are simply interpreted and only interpreted from their superficial meaning, readers may arbitrarily draw the conclusion that Shakespeare is a misogynist.

Let's leave aside the point of view of how the characters in the play are confused with the author himself. This argument is also untenable only from the perspective of interpreting the theme of literary works. Literary works usually have several layers of themes: different readers will have different or even opposite interpretations of the theme. This is why there are 100 different hamlets in 100 people's hearts. In recent years, as critics pay more attention to women in Shakespeare's works, more and more relevant comments appear. Most of these comments give humane care to the women who are vulnerable groups in the works, including Lady Macbeth, who used to live in the hearts of the people as a devil. Deconstructionist literary criticism provides a corresponding theoretical basis for feminist literary criticism. With this theory, critics suddenly discovered that Shakespeare's 'battle of gender' has entered a new stage in the new era: the images of these battered and vulnerable women can be interpreted as a true reflection of women's living conditions in a patriarchal society and a silent indictment of this state. And this silent accusation seems to be Shakespeare's accusation against that society, so, how can Shakespeare be said to be 'misogynist'?

Conclusion

Since the study of Shakespeare's great comedies cannot conclude that he is an original feminist, and the study of his tragedies cannot conclude that he is an misogynist, what is Shakespeare's view on women? Are we in an unknown situation again? The answer is no. Shakespeare's greatness is once again verified in the new era, because these arguments show that his works are beyond the times, but this does not mean that he is unknown. Let's return to Shakespeare's 'duality' conclusion. Shakespeare is a unity of contradictions: he is composed of Shakespeare as an ordinary Elizabeth and Shakespeare as a great artist. As an ordinary Elizabethan, Shakespeare obviously could not escape the shackles of social ideology at that time, so his patriarchal ideology was often reflected in his works uncontrollably. However, Shakespeare, as a great artist, defeated his instinct as an ordinary Elizabethan again and showed his unparalleled insight and artistic talent in his works. This insight and artistic talent enabled him to break through the ideological shackles of the time and spread his artistic works to the world in a style of 'naturalism'. Lin Yutang commented on Shakespeare like this: 'The strange Shakespeare is not a devout religious person, nor does he care much about religion. I think this is what makes him great. He has a natural attitude towards life. He has little interference and changes in life, just as he has done with dramatic figures. Shakespeare is just like nature. This is the highest praise we can give writers or thinkers. For life, he only experienced and watched all the way away from us. Perhaps this is the reason why his works have such enduring charm.