Gender and Cross-dressing in the Seventeenth Century: Margaret Cavendish Reads Shakespeare (original) (raw)
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Vidyasagar University, 2019
It is a most significant matter and aspect of Shakespeare's artistic genius in presenting his women character, that I'm now going to deliberate and contemplate through my paper and thereby bring out a social picture of Shakespeare's time: it's patriarchy, women's condition and their social importance. In our way of discussing women character in Shakespeare's plays, we have to cast a view upon social condition of women, Queen Elizabeth's influence, its stage plays and many others. In this very paper I am going to project three different types of woman and try to determine them socially during Queen Elizabeth's reign. Amongst the other huge number of women character, few important characters are categorized and discussed briefly. And mostly Shakespeare's intelligence and skill in fitting them in a right place and in a right manner is also a central theme of my paper. The various characters with their fluency, their obstacles, their dealings with men and above all Shakespeare's managing of them is purposefully presented on my discussion. In a word, Shakespeare's view upon his female characters, weather it is glorious, jovial or timid investigated argumentatively.
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The main argument of this article is focused on three plays by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Hamlet and Merry Wives of Windsor. There are several points in these plays which deal with woman and their rights. This article deals with Shakespeare’s plays in relation to feminism, which pays more attention to the rights of women and their true identity. In all societies women are defined in terms of their relations to men as the center of power to which women have limited or no access. Judith Butler's performativity is significance on understandings of gender identity. Butler believes that gender is produced in society; also it can be changed in society. Feminism should aim to create a society in which, one's sexual anatomy is irrelevant to who one is, and what one does. Shakespeare’s view of a woman is shown through his representation of female characters in his plays specifically in Macbeth, Hamlet and Merry Wives of Windsor.