Shakespeare Breaks the Way for Feminism Essay -- ophelia, hamlet, gende

Gender hardly determines the nature of a character, in the plays of Shakespeare. It is for this very reason, that his plays are read, viewed and enjoyed by both the sexes equally, even subsequently five hundred years of their composition (Singh). Gender is not something that defines what a character is going to be like in Shakespeares plays. This quote illuminates that in Shakespeares writings females and males were on equal level playing fields when it came to their traits. Females during the time period were considered inferior to men.Over the course of the semester, we have read some beautiful plays from comedies to tragedies Shakespeares later plays exhibited an extensively wide range of female characters from the weak, obedient to the strong, empowering woman. One of the examples of this would be Ophelia in Hamlet exhibits weak and obedient characteristics whereas genus Viola in Twelfth Night is a strong female role that breaks the gender roles by disguising herself as a male and proving women are equivalent to men. change surface Shakespeares weakest female characters seem to break some of the stereotypical role of the period. For example, Ophelia does listen to her father, however, talks back to Hamlet which during the Renaissance breaks the stereotypical role. Shakespeare was an early feminist because of his nontraditional female characters despite his weak female characters, Shakespeare still provides his female characters with some trait that follows a nontraditional role. I will focus on in this paper are King Lear, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet. I will use Hamlet to show that even the weakest of female characters have gender gap characteristics.A feminist is someone who is trying to advocate for the equality of women. I believe ... ...edAtkin, Graham. Twelfth Night Character Studies. London Continuum, 2008. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 13 Apr. 2014.Callaghan, Dympna. Shakespeare without women. Routledge, 2002.Jajja, Muhammad Ayub . Women In Shakespearean Comedies A Feministic Perspective. Journal Of Educational Research (1027-9776) 16.1 (2013) 112-119. Education Research Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.Orgel, Stephen, and Sean Keilen. Shakespeare and Gender. New York Garland Pub., 1999. Online text.Sharma, Pankaj. Depiction Of Woman As tender A Reading Of Excesses Of Feminist Readings Of Shakespeares King Lear. Language In India 13.12 (2013) 433-446. Communication & cumulation Media Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.Singh, Rahul. Shakespeares Plays Men Celebrated, Women Despised?. Language In India 14.2 (2014) 141-156. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014