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Female Figures In Shakespeare's Works

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A figure of woman in Shakespeare's works.

In sixteenth century, in Shakespeare's days. the status of women was not really high. They were discriminated and treated as the weaker sex. What is more, they were the property of men - at first fathers, then husbands. In Elizabethan time men were the breadwinners and woman had to be the housewives and mothers. It could be the reason for Shakespeare to create a number of female figures in his works. Furthermore, women usually play a very important, sometimes even leading role. In addiciton, they also were strong-willed, daring and really intelliigent. In my essay I choose a few female characters to show that Shakespeare in his works stood up against the figure of women of that time and present powerfull …show more content…
First two were mentioned before - Cordelia's sisters, Regan and Goneril, who could say whatever their father required, could lie how much they love him, just to recieve promised money. In a different Shakespearean work "Hamlet" we can find, in my opinion, the weakest female figure - Ophelia, who is torn between her Hamlet and her family - father and brother. Moreover Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl, the epitome of goodness and, unfortunately, she is also childlike and naive. Despite the fact that her love for Hamlet is really strong, she obeyed the fathers rules - not to see Hamlet again. Furthermore, to family she was only a woman whose purpose was to be dutiful wife and mother, to Hamle she was like a sexual object. Namely, she had no rights to be herself, to be independent. She was not brave enough to stand up against the men, maybe because she had no one who could show her better life. In conclusion, I must say that in Shakespeare’s tragedies and his plays, we can see several types of female characters. Mainly there are strong, independent, brave women who do not want to be under men's control, but there are also a few weaker characters - but they often play passive roles in the play. Nevertheless, in the middle of male-dominant society Shakespeare created women with such power and strengths, that were at least equal to those of men. Fortunately in present day society, many women have become more independent to overcome many obstacles and challenges to get to where they need to be

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