Page : 1
(Cover Page)
Department Of English
Name of Institution :................................................................................
MA (Final) Year
TERM
PAPER
ON
“Women as depicted in the plays of
William Shakespeare with reference to Othello, King Lear, The Tempest, Measure
for Measure and Julius Caesar”
Submitted to:
Name of Teacher...........................
Lecturer/Assistant/Associate Professor
Department of English
Name of Institution.........................
Prepared by:
Name of the Student...................................
Class Roll :...............
Session :.................................
Department of English
Name of institution........................................
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Department
of English
Govt Edward College, Pabna
Declaration
I hereby declare that the concerned term paper entitled “Women as depicted in the plays of William Shakespeare with reference to
Othello, King Lear, The Tempest, Measure for Measure and Julius Caesar” is
a work of Md. Mehade Hassan Shaon a student of MA [Final]
Year, Department of English, Govt Edward
College, Pabna. He has
completed his term paper under my supervision and submitted for the partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts [MA] under National University,
Gazipur, Bangladesh.
Abstract
This term paper is an appreciation of Shakespeare’s portrayal
of women in his plays. It displays how Shakespeare's written work mirror the
treatment of ladies amid the Elizabethan time. In Shakespeare's plays when all
is said in done, we can run over a few sorts of female characters. Their impact
with different characters and their motivation or part, regularly thought
little of like ladies themselves, will be this term paper's principle subject.
In William Shakespeare's plays, ladies assume a focal part in propelling the
plot. These ladies get to be impetuses for the show that unfurls, particularly
in Shakespeare's tragedies, where the responses of alternate characters rely on
upon the activities of the ladies. Ladies in Shakespearean plays have
dependably had essential parts, in some cases even the main part. Whether they
make the principle clashes and base of the plays, or raise intriguing good and
social inquiries, they have dependably been placed in testing circumstances. A
few ladies are more grounded than others, and their impact on the play is
diverse for every one. They regularly even outperform the male legends.
Especially in his comedies we much of the time see a lady thought on the most
grounded character, while regularly in his tragedies he has a male play the
segregated shocking saint. The development of female characters in
Shakespeare's plays mirrors the Elizabethan picture of lady when all is said in
done. For all that, Shakespeare underpins the English Renaissance
generalizations of sexes, their parts and duties in the public eye; he
additionally puts their representations into question, challenges, furthermore
amends them. Shakespeare, it is asserted by numerous current commentators, was
a women's activist. Shapiro for instance goes so far as to claim that
Shakespeare seemed to be 'the noblest feminist of all them'. Despite the fact
that I am slanted to concur with McLuskie that as Shakespeare 'composed for a
male diversion', it is truly mistaken to see him as a women's activist. I trust
that Shakespeare due to his exceptional virtuoso for depicting human conduct,
fundamentally delineated the state of ladies inside a patriarchal framework and
made ladies characters which in their extravagance, rise above the constraints
of his time.
Table of Contents
Chapter - I
1.1 Women as depicted in the plays of
William Shakespeare.................................................1
Chapter – II
2.1. Shakespeare's
representation of women in Othello............................................................
2.2. Shakespeare's
representation of women in King Lear.........................................................
2.3. Shakespeare's
representation of women in The Tempest...................................................14
2.4. Shakespeare's
representation of women in Measure for Measure......................................
2.5. Shakespeare's
representation of women in Julius Caesar.....................................................24
Bibliography........................................................................................................................28
Appendix...............................................................................................................................29
Chapter
– I
1.1 Women as depicted in the plays of William
Shakespeare:
William Shakespeare's (1564-1616)
representation of women, and the ways in which his female roles are interpreted
and enacted, have become topics of scholarly interest. Shakespeare's heroines
encompass a wide range of characterizations and types, from the uncompromising
frankness of Cordelia, the quick wit of Beatrice and of Kate, and the
intelligence of Portia, to the ruthlessness of Lady Macbeth, the opportunistic
unkindness of Regan and Goneril, and the manipulative power of Volumnia. Within
this gallery of female characters, critics note similarities, especially among
Shakespeare's young women characters, who commonly display great intelligence,
vitality, and a strong sense of personal independence. These qualities have led
some critics to herald Shakespeare as a champion of womankind and an innovator
who departed sharply from flat, stereotyped characterizations of women common
to his contemporaries and earlier dramatists. Contrastingly, other commentators
note that even Shakespeare's most favorably portrayed women possess characters
that are tempered by negative qualities. They suggest that this indicates that
Shakespeare was not free of misogynistic tendencies that were deep-seated in
the culture of his country and era. Within the texts of the plays, charges of
promiscuity are often leveled against young women, for example, and women occupying
positions of power are frequently portrayed as capricious and highly
corruptible.
Female characters play an important role for the dramatic run
of events in Shakespeare’s plays. Just as in reality, women of Shakespeare’s
dramas have been bound to rules and conventions of the patriarchal Elizabethan
era. Therefore, it was very common back in Elizabethan England to compel woman
into marriages in order to receive power, legacy, dowry or land in exchange.
Even though the Queen herself was an unmarried woman, the roles of woman in
society were extremely restricted. Single women have been the property of their
fathers and handed over to their future husbands through marriage.
In Elizabethan time, women were considered as the weaker sex
and dangerous, because their sexuality was supposedly mystic and therefore
feared by men. Women of that era were supposed to represent virtues like
obedience, silence, sexual chastity, piety, humility, constancy, and patience.
All these virtues, of course, have their meaning in relationship to men. The
role allocation in Elizabethan society was strictly regulated; men were the
breadwinners and woman had to be obedient housewives and mothers. However,
within this deprived, tight and organized scope, women have been represented in
most diverse ways in Shakespearean Drama. Further, summing up, feminism reveals
and challenges the cultural shaping of gender roles in all social institutions
like family, work, politics, religion, and, of course, in literature and drama.
Feminist criticism examines how female experience is portrayed in literature
and drama. It tries to expose how, in plays, in novels and other writing, Shakespeare, argued in 1895 that
"of Shakespeare's dramatis personae,
his women are perhaps the most attractive, and also, in a sense, his most
original creations, so different are they, as a patriarchal ideology often
stereotypes, distorts, ignores or represses that experience, misrepresenting
how women feel, think and act.
In early criticism of female characters in Shakespeare's
drama focused on the positive attributes the dramatist bestows on them and
often claimed that Shakespeare realistically captured the "essence"
of femininity. Helen Zimmern, in the preface to the English
translation of Louis Lewes's study The
Women of whole, from the ideals of the feminine type prevalent in the
literature of his day." According to Irene G. Dash, "Strong, attractive,
intelligent, and humane women come to life in Shakespeare's plays. They not
only have a clear sense of themselves as individuals, but they challenge
accepted patterns for women's behavior. Compliance, self-sacrifice for a male,
dependence, nurturance, and emotionalism are the expected norms. Yet
independence, self-control and, frequently, defiance characterize these women.
In Othello and Romeo and Juliet, women, exercising their independence, defy
their fathers as well as the mores of their society. Shakespeare's women
characters testify to his genius. They are drawn with neither anger nor
condescension. In personality they vary. Some are warm, delightful, friendly;
others cold, aloof, and scornful. Some speak with confidence; others with
diffidence. But most have a vitality; they grow and develop during the course
of a drama. Their actions spring from a realistic confrontation with life as
they learn the meaning of self sovereignty for a woman in a patriarchal
society."
Chapter –
II
2.1.
Shakespeare's representation of women in Othello:
Desdemona
is a character in William Shakespeare's play Othello.
Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian
beauty who enrages and disappoints her
father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a man several years her senior. When
her husband is deployed to Cyprus in the service of the Republic of Venice, Desdemona accompanies him.
There, her husband is manipulated by his ensign
Iago into believing
she is an adulteress,
and, in the last act, she is murdered by her estranged spouse.
In the play's first act, Desdemona has eloped with Othello, a Moor in the service of the Venetian Republic. Before the Duke of Venice, his councilmen, and her father, she proclaims her love for Othello and defends her choice. Her father reluctantly accepts the union, but warns Othello that she will some day deceive him. When Othello is sent to Cyprus in the line of duty, Desdemona accompanies him with his ensign's wife, Emilia attending her.
In act 2,
Othello's lieutenant, Cassio is disgraced in a brawl, and falls from
Othello's favour. Iago suggests to Cassio that he importune Desdemona to
intercede for him, which she does. Meanwhile, Iago persuades Othello that
Desdemona has formed an illicit relationship with Cassio. However many critics
argue that the first seed of doubt is not issued from Iago but by Desdemona’s
father "Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see. She hath deceived her
father and may thee." (1.3)
Desdemona
is deeply upset by her husband's attacks but continues to assert her love. In
the final act, Othello tells her that he knows she has been unfaithful, and is
going to kill her. Despite Desdemona's claims of innocence, Othello refuses to
believe her, and when he tells her that Cassio has been killed, Desdemona cries
out. Othello becomes enraged and suffocates Desdemona, ignoring her pleas for
mercy. When her maid Emilia rushes into the room, Desdemona rises weakly to
defend Othello, then dies. Eventually, Othello learns of Desdemona's
faithfulness after Emilia exposes Iago of his true nature before being stabbed
herself to death by Iago, and out of complete remorse, Othello commits suicide,
but only after angrily stabbing Iago (though not fatally) as retribution for
his lies against Desdemona. Desdemona's cousin Lodovico then orders that Iago
be tortured and executed.
In the later tragedy, Othello,
it can also be argued that the tragedy occurs from adherence to patriarchal
rules and stereotypes. Gayle Greene summarizes this position in her claim that
the tragedy of Othello stems from 'men's misunderstandings of women and women's
inability to protect themselves from society's conception of them'. Certainly
Desdemona's very much feminised qualities of passivity, softness and obedience
are no match for Othello's masculine qualities of dominance, aggression and
authority. After Othello in his jealousy has struck Desdemona and spoken
harshly to her, she tells Iago, 'I am a child to chiding'. Protected by a
system which makes women the weaker, dependent sex, Desdemona is unequipped to deal
with such aggression; she is helpless against Othello. As Dreher puts it
'following conventional patterns of behavior for wives and daughters, these
women lose their autonomy and intimacy and do not achieve adulthood'. Desdemona
thus retreats into childlike behavior to escape from reality.
At the close
of the play Othello attempts to vindicate himself from intentional murder by
claiming that he did nothing 'in malice', but is simply a man 'that loved not
wisely but too well'. This speech illustrates the precarious position of love
in a society submerged in stereotypes. Othello's excessive, 'unwise' love for
Desdemona is tied up with his perception of her as representing perfect
womanhood, and his underlying fear of her - endorsed by society - as whore.
Like Hamlet, who tells Ophelia 'get thee to a nunnery' in order to protect her
chastity and remove his fear of woman's infidelity, Othello too wishes to erase
Desdemona's sexuality and potential for infidelity. His decision to kill her,
he claims, is to prevent her from a further transgression - 'Yet she must die,
else she'll betray more men'.
William
Shakespeare's "Othello” can be
read from a feminist perspective. A feminist analysis of the play Othello allows us to judge the different
social values and status of women in the Elizabethan society. Othello serves as an example to
demonstrate the expectations of the Elizabethan patriarchal society, the
practice of privileges in patriarchal marriages, and the suppression and
restriction of femininity. According to Elizabethan or Shakespeare's society
built upon Renaissance beliefs, women were meant only to marry. As their single
occupation, marriage held massive responsibilities of house management and
child rearing. Additionally, women were expected to be silent, chaste, and
obedient to their husbands, fathers, brothers, and all men in general.
Patriarchal rule justified women's subordination as the natural order because
women were thought to be physiologically and psychologically inferior to men.
As we
go through Othello we find that the
women characters are presented according to this expectation of the Elizabethan
society. There are only three women in ‘Othello’:
Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca. The way that these women behave and conduct
themselves is undeniably linked to the ideological expectations of
Shakespeare’s Elizabethan society and to the patriarchal Venetian society that
he creates.
This
is not to say, however, that women in Othello do not exhibit any signs of
wielding power. Othello, when talking of his wife, often seems pre-occupied
with matters of the flesh. Bemoaning the fact that he did not know earlier of
his wife’s supposed infidelity, Othello argues that he would have been happier
‘if the general camp,/Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,/So I had
nothing known’ (III.3.342-4). He appears to be obsessed with Desdemona’s
sexuality. On his way to murder his wife, he states that ‘Thy bed,
lust-stained, shall with lust’s blood be spotted’ (V.1.36). The repetition of
the word ‘lust’, combined with the sexual associations of Desdemona’s bed and
the violent plosives and sibilants of this line, reflects and draws attention
to Othello’s preoccupation with sensual matters.
This preoccupation is
partly driven by the fact that Desdemona wields so much sexual power over him.
Even Cassio refers, jokingly, to Desdemona as ‘our great Captain’s Captain’
(II.1.75), implying that she is the only individual capable of controlling and
taming Othello. Desdemona uses this when attempting to persuade Othello to
reinstate Cassio: she tells the latter that ‘My lord shall never rest’
(III.3.22) until she has changed his mind, an indication of the tenacity of the
woman. Attempting to change his mind, Desdemona is not frightened to use her
position and sexuality:
‘Tell me, Othello. I wonder in my soul
What you would ask me that I should deny,
Or stand so mammering on?’ (III.3.68-70)
Later
in the play, however, Othello ceases to find Desdemona’s sexual power so
entertaining. Speaking to Iago about his planned murder of Desdemona, Othello
is adamant that he will ‘not expostulate with her, lest her body and beauty
unprovide my mind again’ (IV.1.203-5). As far is Othello is concerned, if he is
tempted into conversation and interaction with his wife, then her overpowering
sexuality will deter him from the right and inevitable course of action. Her
considers her to be a sexual hazard, a strumpet intent on using her body to
blind and deceive him. Male society, in addition to constructing women as
second-rate citizens, also constructs their sexual allure as evil.
2.2. Shakespeare's
representation of women in King Lear:
Goneril is a
character in Shakespeare's tragic play King Lear (1605). She is the eldest
of King Lear's three daughters. Along with her sister Regan, Goneril is considered a villain,
obsessed with power and overthrowing her elderly father as ruler of the kingdom of Britain. Her aggressiveness is a rare
trait for a female character in Elizabethan literature. Shakespeare based the
character on Gonorilla, a personage
described by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical
chronicle Historia
regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain", c. 1138)
as the eldest of the British king Lear's
three daughters, alongside Regan and Cordeilla (the source for Cordelia), and the mother of Marganus.
The earliest example of her deceitful tendencies occurs in the first act. Without a male heir, Lear is prepared to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, as long as they express their true love to him. Knowing her response will get her closer to the throne, Goneril professes, "Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter" (1.1. 53). She has no reservations about lying to her father. She finally begins to show her true colors when Lear asks to stay with her and her husband. She tells him to send away his knights and servants because they are too loud and too numerous. Livid that he is being disrespected, Lear curses her and leaves.
Goneril, the wife of the Duke of Albany (an
archaic name for Scotland),
has an intimate relationship with Edmund, one that may have been played up in the
earlier editions of King Lear. She
writes a note encouraging Edmund to kill her husband and marry her, but it is
discovered. In the final act, Goneril discovers that Regan has a sexual desire
for Edmund as well and poisons her sister’s drink. However, once Edmund is
mortally wounded, Goneril goes offstage and kills herself.
King Lear is a play by William Shakespeare. Of course, it was a masterpiece as all of Shakespeare’s work was. This is a text that is commonly assigned for literature and is one that interested me greatly. However, as with all Shakespeare’s writing, I have trouble with the text until I had help. After I managed to understand the plot and figure out the story, I realized that Shakespeare may not have been all that fond of the ladies. King Lear is a prime example of this. I found that King Lear portrays women in a negative light.
The story is
about a King, who is ready to retire, who decides to divide his lands equally
among his three daughters. Before doing this, he tests his daughters. He asks
them how much they love him. Each daughter gives him a different answer, two of
which flatter him no end. However, his favorite daughter, Cordelia, gives him
an answer he does not understand and this makes him angry. She says she has no
words to describe her love for her father. As a result, King Lear gets angry
and disowns Cordelia. However, Lear knows he has made a blunder when his other
two daughters override his authority. By then it is too late.
Women are
portrayed in a negative light through Goneril and Regan, Lear’s two daughters.
For example, once the land is given by Lear to his daughters, Goneril betrays
him. She does not show any remorse over this and is not upset when her father
leaves his homes to wander the heath exposed to the elements. Goneril and
Regan, women, are portrayed as disloyal, evil and is the cause of the whole
problem. Although Regan is not as bad as Goneril, she is a conniving person and
she uses her wiles to get men to do her dirty work. This factor portrays all
women as conniving, evil and selfish. The fact that King Lear himself forms a
personal dislike and distrust of all women in general because of his daughters’
treatment of him also claims this fact.
Although
women are factored as bad in King Lear, in certain parts of the play, men too
are given a negative form. For example, Edmund, the illegitimate son of Gloucester, is very
similar to Goneril. They are both frustrated by their fathers’ legitimate
reasons for various things and this is what drives them to destroy their
fathers. In this part of the play, Shakespeare strives to imply that men too
can be bad, but not as bad as women. This factor is highlighted by the fact
that Edmund is illegitimate and this gives him a bit more sympathy by the
readers or audience.
The absence
of female authority figures, including mothers, is also a chauvinistic approach
to the play. Where did they go? Did they all die? This factor was not clear to
me initially, but while reading the text, it struck me as quite odd. This
caused me to question on what Shakespeare was trying to say. Was he saying that
mothers are necessary to a family or not? Was he trying to say that men are the
supreme rulers of the family and, therefore, female figures are unnecessary? Or
was he trying to say that a family is bound to fall apart without a proper
female figure? Whatever the case may be, Shakespeare made a great impression on
the role of women in King Lear.
The female characters in King Lear are powerful figures who are
often as aggressive as, and at times more ruthless than, their male
counterparts. Cordelia, who is pure, unselfish, and unflinchingly loyal, is a
more standard Shakespearean woman than her strong, assertive, conspiratorial,
violent, and regal sisters, Goneril and Regan. While the older sisters are
clearly very different in personality from the youngest, and while Goneril and
Regan are clearly villains, all three daughters resemble their father. In
Goneril and Regan, the similarity rests in their pride, arrogance, and fierce
temper; in Cordelia, it rests in her aura of royal dignity, courage, and
uncompromising stubbornness.
All three sisters help to propel the
plot, and Goneril and Regan are even effective killers (Regan, most unusual for
a Shakespearean woman, kills with a sword). The presence of these three women
becomes even more interesting when we remember that, as often happens in
Shakespeare, there are no mothers present in the play; Lear’s and Gloucester’s
dead wives are mentioned neither by these men nor by their children. Without
guidance from other females, the sisters actively pursue their desires as they
themselves see fit.
2.3. Shakespeare's representation of women in The
Tempest:
Miranda
is one of the principal characters of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. She is
the only female character to appear on stage during the course of the play and
is one of only three women mentioned. Miranda is the daughter of Prospero, one
of the main characters of William Shakespeare's The Tempest.
She was banished
to the Island along with her father at the age
of three, and in the subsequent twelve years has lived with her father and
their slave, Caliban,
as her only company. She is openly compassionate
and unaware of the evils of the world that surrounds her, learning of her
father's fate only as the play begins.
Miranda
is Prospero's daughter. She was 3 years old when she and her father were
exiled. Now, some 12 years later, she is beginning to blossom into a beautiful
young woman. She is an innocent, having never seen another woman and having no
knowledge of any other human being, except for her father. She is unaware of
her beauty because she does not know what feminine beauty is suppose to look
like.
Miranda's compassion is evident in
the first act, with her concern for the passengers caught up in the storm.
Miranda is also justifiably indignant at her father's story of betrayal. Her
tenderness is also evident when she begs her father not to use magic to control
Ferdinand, whom she loves. Miranda is an obedient daughter, as proved by her
dismay when she forgets herself and reveals her name to Ferdinand, but she is
also a young woman in love, and when her father is occupied, she immediately
looks to release Ferdinand from his labors. Miranda has no experience with
people, and she has no experience with men, other than her father and Caliban.
Because of her isolation, she has developed no artful skills at flirting, and
when Ferdinand tells her that he loves her, Miranda weeps. In all that she
does, Miranda is sweet and pure, honest and loving.
During the
encounter Miranda once again stands up to her father, arguing against his harsh
treatment of Ferdinand and defending his honor when Prospero refers to him as
nothing more than another Caliban. Miranda's next appearance is in the third
act. She and Ferdinand take a few moments together to get acquainted and are
quickly married. She insists on doing the work that her father has assigned
him, and freely admits her naivety to him before swearing her love for him. The scene
ends with their marriage, Miranda swearing she will be his servant if Ferdinand
will not take her as his wife. Her last appearance is in the play's final
scene. After Prospero reveals himself to the assembled crowd he reveals the
happy couple engaged in a game of chess. Miranda is teasing Ferdinand for cheating but admits
that even if he is dishonest, she's more than happy to believe it for the love
she bears for him.
Like
all the works of Shakespeare, The Tempest
has been studied in great detail. There are books and articles on every
imaginable aspect of it and on that of its adaptations. What is remarkable
though is that most of these books and articles focus on Prospero and Caliban.
Of course, in the light of recent events (decolonization and changing views on
racism) and the flourishing field of postcolonial studies it is not strange
that most attention goes to these two characters, but it does mean that some of
the characters get less attention than they deserve. Although there are of
course articles or books on the other characters of The Tempest or characters
that are not even visible in the play, e.g. Stephen Orgel's Prospero's Wife, most scholars seem to
forget Miranda or are of the opinion that she is not relevant, that she is only
an object of exchange in Prospero's schemes to regain his position and get back
to the mainland.
.
.
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably
written in 1610–11, although some researchers have argued for an earlier
dating. Its protagonist is the banished sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of
Milan, who uses his magical powers to punish and forgive his enemies when he
raises a tempest that drives them ashore. The entire play takes place on an
island under his control whose native inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban, aid (or in
the case of Caliban, hinder) his work. While listed as a comedy when it was
initially published in the First Folio of 1623, many modern editors have since
re-labeled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances.
The Tempest has only one female character, Miranda.
Other women, such as Caliban's mother Sycorax, Miranda's mother and Alonso's
daughter Claribel, are only mentioned. Because of the small role women play in
the story in comparison to other Shakespeare plays, The Tempest has not
attracted much feminist criticism. Miranda is typically viewed as being
completely deprived of freedom by her father. Her only duty in his eyes is to
remain chaste. Ann Thompson argues that Miranda, in a manner typical of women
in a colonial atmosphere, has completely internalised the patriarchal order of
things, thinking of herself as subordinate to her father.
The less-prominent women mentioned in the play are
subordinated as well, as they are only described through the men of the play.
Most of what is said about Sycorax, for example, is said by Prospero. Further,
Stephen Orgel notes that Prospero has never met Sycorax—all he learned about
her he learned from Ariel. According to Orgel, Prospero's suspicion of women
makes him an unreliable source of information. Orgel suggests that he is
skeptical of female virtue in general, citing his ambiguous remark about his
wife's fidelity.
2.4.
Shakespeare's representation of women in Measure for Measure:
Isabella,
like the Duke, may be viewed in different ways. She can be seen as a victim,
especially a female victim of male lust and manipulation. But she can also be
seen as cold and lacking in human feeling – to whom the descriptions applied to
Angelo may also be pertinent: ‘a man whose blood is very snow-broth'; ‘scarce confesses that
his blood flows'. Some of the most moving and powerful lines in Shakespeare’s
play “Measure for Measure” are spoken by the chaste and virtuous subject of
this character analysis, Isabella, who is attempting to save the life of her brother
by pleading with Antonio to reverse the
death sentence that has been handed down to him. Isabella is one of the most
compelling and most worthy candidates for a character analysis in “Measure for
Measure” by William Shakespeare because of her depth and ability to communicate
so effectively, thus she is one of the most intriguing of all in “Measure for
Measure” for a character
analysis.
The most
effective speech that Isabella in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” makes
occurs after she has exhausted her pleas with the cruel and rigid Antonio and
after she has staved off his sexual advances as a bargain for her brother’s
release. Isabella meditates on the nature of power and how utterly corrupting
and abusive it can be when it is in the hands of an unreasonable tyrant. The
speech represents not just Isabella’s thoughts about power, however; it also
serves as the key the reader can use to understand who Isabella is, exactly,
and how she is developing as a character. In short, this particular section in
“Measure for Measure” by Shakespeare broadens out her character and allows the
reader to understand her both as an individual and as a character in the larger
scheme of the play.
When the
reader meets Isabella early on in Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure”, she is
already complex simply as a result of her circumstances and decisions and thus
a character analysis of Isabella in “Measure for Measure” by Shakespeare could
almost simply focus on the details of her situation. In terms of
characterization, she is headstrong in her desire to live a quiet life of
contemplation as she is about to enter a cloistered nunnery. Isabella in
“Measure for Measure” by Shakespeare is such a devoted Christian that she
actually articulates a wish that the convent would be even more stringent in
its requirements for an austere contemplative life. When she is approached by
Lucio, who appeals to Isabella’s familial loyalty and begs that she approach
Antonio and intercede on her brother Claudio’s behalf, Isabella demurs,
expressing disbelief that she, a humble servant of God, could make a
difference.
Interestingly,
in line with one of the major themes from “Measure
for Measure” byShakespeare, it is by exercising this subversive
form of power that Isabella exerts her authority. Angelo finds himself
strangely moved by Isabella, not emotionally, but sexually. This realization embroils
him in psychological conflicts, for this is the very “crime” of which he has
accused Claudio. Isabella, through actions and through words, shows how
powerful talking the talk and walking the walk can be. Isabella’s speech
against absolute and corrupting power demonstrates a mature understanding of
what power is and how it can and should be used.
A
religious house where nuns ' women who have devoted themselves to the worship
of God, and have taken vows of poverty, chastity and obedience ' live and pray
(also called a Convent). Disobedience to the known will of God. According to
Christian theology human beings have displayed a pre-disposition to sin since
the Fall of Humankind. In the Bible the promise, or contract, between a man and
a woman committing them to a life together, is also used as an image of the
relationship between God and his people.
By Suzanne
Coxhill "Measure for Measure" is in some ways a modern play in the
issues it deals with. Women's issues are explored throughout the play in many
different ways. Sexuality and the independence of women are seen through both
the eyes of men and women in this play. Women are portrayed with many strengths
and weaknesses in "Measure for Measure". The job roles portrayed in
this play as prostitutes, nuns and housewives make our responses to these women
alter. Women got married very young and often died in childbirth, thus family
life being all they knew. Isabella is seen as a very strong character who is
not afraid to voice her own opinions about things. Mistress overdone brings
much of the humor to the play with her small role that she plays. She runs a
brothel and therefore with Angelo's plans to abolish fornication in Vienna, her career is
under threat. Mariana is seen as a more submissive character.
This almost
makes Angelo sound jealous of Isabella's innocence and we again feel sympathy
towards her as we believe there to be no escaping this evil dilemma she is
stuck in. "Better it were a brother died at once that that a sister, by
redeeming him should die forever", she seems more concerned with her own
salvation than with her brothers life at this point and we lose any sympathy we
once had. To save her chastity, Isabella is sacrificing her brother. She is
clearly unsure, which is the worse crime to God. At this point of the play, we
can see where the attitudes of a 21st century audience and those of a 17th
century audience would oppose each other. Today, an audience would find it hard
to understand giving up a brother in order to save their virginity. As religion
was much more important in everyday life in the 17th century, this audience
could probably understand the decision made by Isabella a lot more.
There are only five female characters
in Measure for Measure, and they seem to be carefully chosen by
Shakespeare to reflect a spectrum of sexual attitudes and behavior:
- At one extreme is the bawd, Mistress Overdone
- At the other is Sister Francisca, the nun
- In what may be called the middle ground, are Juliet and Mariana:
- Juliet has enjoyed physical love outside marriage and is paying the penalty; she also bears a child, and by the end of the play, she is married
- Mariana, like Juliet, knows what it is to suffer for love, and by the end of the play she too experiences both sex and marriage.
It is against
these other women that the audience is asked to weigh Isabella.
2.5.
Shakespeare's representation of women in Julius Caeser:
