The importance of women in Shakespeare:

• Women who have to fight against the authoritarian behaviour of their fathers and husbands.
• Women dressed as men.

We can see how the role of women in Shakespearian plays is very relevant. Because of the presence of the woman is very active. It’s important to notice that women in Shakespeare appear as figures able to take responsibilities, able to give orders, and able to lead with the most important functions of the plays. They take future decisions and they are going to appear upper than men in some occasions. They are the real protagonists.

But sometimes we find that those women have to fight with external elements to acquire their true happiness, or to obtain the affection of their lovers. These external elements most of the times are their fathers or husbands’ wills. And we are going to find it in a lot of the plays of the author, above all in his comedies, because as we have studied, the most important structure of a comedy is that it is going to begin as a tragedy, and events are going to get involved to change, to obtain a happy ending with all the things in their place.

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,

Ere I will my virgin patent up 80

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke

My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

(Hermia. Act I, scene i)

An example of this is the relationship between Hermia and Lisandro in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. They are in love, but Egeus, Hermia’s father, is not agreed with this fact, because he wants his daughter gets married with Demetrius, who is at the same time in love with her. Hermia and Lisandro decide to escape together and get married in secret.

And the same situation happens with Jessica and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice. Because of the fact that the couple can’t be together Lorenzo simulates the kidnapping of the woman to escape with her, carrying with them the jewels of

“I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed 31

How I shall take her from her father's house,

What gold and jewels she is furnished with,

What page's suit she hath in readiness”.

(Lorenzo. Act II, scene iv).

In both examples we have the figure of the father of the girl as an authoritarian person, who wants his daughter to do what he wants. But the feminine characters have their own thoughts, and they have a strong character to decide from themselves, and to reveal against the dictatorial figure of the father.

As we can see Jessica is who writes to her lover to inform him of her purpose of escaping, and the instructions he will may follow. She is who get the decision of revolting against her father and push ahead with her own decisions.

And Hermia doesn’t matter that the duke imposed her to do the will of her father under death penalty.

Portia is tied in any sense, because she can’t have either the lover she wants. Her father left her a difficult arrangement when he died, because there are three chests, and only one of them has her portrait. That one who succeeds to find her portrait in the correct chest will be the real owner of her heart.

“If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana 95

unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will”.

(Portia.Act I, scene ii)

In the end, Bassanio, who is in love with Portia and she is in love with him, gets the true chest. We can notice too that although Portia knows the correct chest, she’s loyal to her father’s will and she doesn’t tell it to Bassanio, because if he is her true love he will discover the portrait.

The lead chest is the correct election of Bassanio, in which this sentence was written: “Who chooses me must give and hazard all he has”.

Because love is one of the highest things, and people abandon everything for love.

Another important contribution of women is when they have to dress as men.

In Twefth Nigth Viola disguises her as a man becoming Cesario, a page of Duke Orsino, due to some circumstances in her life. At the end she falls in love with the duke, but she cannot tell him the truth because he thinks she is a man.

Things get very confusing because of the sex changes of the characters.

“If nothing lets to make us happy both

But this my masculine usurped attire,

Do not embrace me till each circumstance

Of place, time, fortune, do cohere and jump 245

That I am Viola. Which to confirm,

I'll bring you to a captain in this town,

Where lie my maiden weeds, by whose gentle help

I was preserved to serve this noble count.

All the occurrence of my fortune since 250

Hath been between this lady and this lord”.

(Viola. Act V)

When Orsino falls in love with Viola, as a woman, he still refers to her as a man, because he feels a real affection for “him”. She attains to get the love of Orsino even being a man, because he admires him for the way he is.

“Madam, I am most apt to embrace your offer. (to VIOLA)

Your master quits you, and for your service done him,

So much against the mettle of your sex,

So far beneath your soft and tender breeding, 315

And since you called me “master” for so long,

Here is my hand. You shall from this time be

Your master's mistress”.

(Orsino. Act V)

But there is a misunderstanding created with a love triangle made up by Olivia, Viola and Orsino, which produces one of the most important patterns of the Shakespearian comedies, the confusion. A confusion mainly created by the role of Viola dressed as a man, and her behaviour.

Portia is the female character who disguises as men in The Merchant of Venice. Her action is very important for the play since her great behaviour dressed as a man is which saves Antonio, the best friend of her lover. She is going to change her identity due to the difficulty of the circumstances that surround her environment, and we are going to see how she will be able to captivate the affection of the men, and the passion of the women with her behaviour and attitude.

She demonstrates to be an expert in the knowledge of laws, and everybody get impressed with her attitude (but they believe she is a man..). It was no very common that a woman had culture in that age.

“It must not be. There is no power in Venice

Can alter a decree establishèd.

'Twill be recorded for a precedent, 210

And many an error by the same example

Will rush into the state. It cannot be”.

(Portia. Act IV, scene i)

We are going to learn with this comedy that the intelligence of a woman is more efficacious than the men have. And that pity can help you more than violence.

In the judge Portia is going to appear superior as men with her attitude.

Women are going to play the most important functions within the play thanks to their astuteness and cleverness, and they are going to appear upper than other characters, because they are able of taking their own decisions, and they don’t need the help of men or their dependence. They will appear as heroines.

Shakespeare gave an important role to the woman because he believed in her possibilities, and because he though she was important to the world, and she would reach everything.

Bibliography:

Ø http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/merchant/

Consult date: 08/01/07

Ø http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice

Consult date: 08/01/07

Ø http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/merchant/

Consult date: 08/01/07

Ø http://absoluteshakespeare.com/guides/merchant_of_venice/merchant_of_venice.htm

Consult date: 08/01/07

Ø http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/twelfth_night/

Consult date: 25/01/07

Ø http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/merchant/

Consult date: 25/01/07