Second Collective Paper

Women in Shakespeare Comedies

By the Production Team: Vita Korolevych, Isabel Latorre, Vanessa Lorite, Julia Más, Rosana Torres, 

Daria La Barbera, Gabrielle Neuditschko and Xihong Liu.

Introduction

The aim of the present essay is to provide an overview of women’s role in the Elizabethan period through the analysis of several feminine characters belonging to Shakespeare’s plays.

After having taken the first collective paper as a starting point, we have come across with the preparation of the second collective paper. And we, as a team have considered dividing it into four main points.

The first point deals with the historical context, which has been developed by Gabrielle.

We have also found interesting, as well as essential, to provide a definition of a concept which is extremely related with the historical context: the ‘decorum’. This task has been assigned to Isabel.

Besides, we have talked about two different types of women: Elizabethan women, in which Vanessa has spoken about Helena, Hermia of Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Later on, Isabel has analyzed Bianca’s role in The Taming of the Shrew.

In the second part of point 1 Queen Elizabethan Women are represented by Kate of The Taming of the Shrew and Titania of Midsummer Night’s Dream and Beatrice of Much Ado About Nothing.

Regarding the second point of this paper, Rosana has introduced the themes of Disguise and Homoeroticism. Through Portia, Jessica and Nerissa, who are three characters belonging to The

Merchant of Venice, Vita has described how women’s role in Shakespeare’s plays is. Moreover, Julia has talked about the character of Viola in Twelfth Night, and Isabel has analysed Rosalind in As You Like It.

The third point deals with Eroticism and Xihong has introduced the theme. In addition, she has focused on the character of Titania of Midsummer Night’s Dream, in order to exemplify the topic of eroticism through this concrete character.

As for the fourth point of this paper, we have chosen seven pairs of women and we have analyzed the rivalry that exists between them. Thus, firstly, Isabel has described Bianca and Kate of The Taming of the Shrew. And she has also talked about Rosalind and Celia of As You Like It. Secondly, Daria has described Beatrice and Hero of Much Ado About Nothing , and  Luciana and Adriana of The Comedy of Errors.

Thirdly, Xihong has described Titania and Hipolyta of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Fourthly, Julia has dealt with the characters of Olivia and Viola, who belong to Twelfth Night. Finally,

Vanessa has analyzed Helena and Hermia of Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Having covered all these points already mentioned, we have reached the conclusion 

of this essay, which has been provided by Rosana.

1. Historical Background: The Role of Women during the Elizabethan Age

William Shakespeare wrote most of his works during the Elizabethan Era, the time associated with the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who ascended the throne in 1558 and reigned the United Kingdom as well as Ireland until her death in 1603[i]. The Queen refused to marry throughout her entire life, but was the head of Great Britain for a period of 45 years during which England increased in wealth as well as in power.[ii] Therefore, the Elizabethan Era is often seen as a golden age in history, the peak of the English Renaissance in which literature and poetry and all of the fine arts flourished.[iii] 

There is little doubt about the fact that the reign of a woman who counteracted all social norms of her time and yet was able to bring about an era of glory and wealth for her people also had a considerable influence on the way women and especially their role in society were regarded. Nevertheless, if we examine the way women were commonly treated during the Elizabethan Era, we come to the conclusion that the positive influence of the Queen on the role of women in her country was by far not as great as could be expected.

Generally, women were raised to believe that they were inferior to men and that they had to obey men without exception. Much of this belief was based on the bible according to which disobedience of a woman to a man was a crime. According to John Knox, a Scottish protestant leader, “[w]omen in her greatest perfection was made to serve and obey man.” Of particular importance was the concept of decorum, which is “defined as the dignified propriety of conduct, manners, or appearance” and “is by extension a social practice, part of the customs and observations of a polite society.” [iv]

Women could not be heirs to their father’s titles and wealth, which was passed on from father to son, but could only keep the money left to them by their deceased husbands. They did not have the right to vote until the 20^th century, did not have any say whatsoever in political matters and were excluded from University. All of them depended on their male relatives to support them. [v]

A woman’s life also depended very much on the social class she belonged to. As there were not schools for girls, royal and upper class women would sometimes have the advantage of being granted education by a private tutor, while girls from the lower classes did not get any education at all. The only thing a girl from the lower classes had to learn was how to govern a house, while the education of an upper class girl included languages as well as music, dancing and manners of etiquette.[vi]

1.3  Typical Elizabethan women in Shakespeare’s plays

• MISTRESS PAGE AND MISTRESS FORD ( THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR )

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a good example for the analysis of the character of the woman in this English patriarchal society, especially of the “married woman”. As it is well known, in Shakespearean times woman’s life and duties varied depending on her social class. Among the upper class, marriage was seen as a way of achieving a family’s political and social ambitions. It was a mean of productivity, not only a sentimental affair. In this comedy, the two main feminine characters, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford, are married to prosperous burghers, although in this case they have the control over their husband‘s money. But apart from the economic and political issues of the marriage, the importance of the concept of faithfulness and sexual exclusivity is also shown in this play. The comedy’s message is transmitted by Mistress Page: “Wives may be merry, and yet honest, too” (IV.ii.89)

 We see here not only a possible play on words (marry- merry), but also the concept of “honor” is introduced. In this period, the concept of a woman’s honor was related to the fact of being sexually faithful to her husband.

As we can observe, Mistress Page and Mistress Ford adopt a playful but chaste behavior through the play, but Ford’s doubts about his wife’s honesty bring up the medieval idea of the woman as an object of temptation. Ford’s behaviour represents the common male fear of being tricked by women, while Mistress Page and Mistress Ford represent the "perfect wife", respectful of and faithful to their husbands.

• HELENA AND HERMIA  (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM)

In the case of the characters of Helena and Hermia, both also represent perfectly the typical Elizabethan women role: their main interest is to get married. The only difference introduced here is that both Helena and Hermia want to marry for love, they do not just want a profitable marriage but they also look for happiness. This is an important point since the vast majority of marriages in this period were merely arranged for political, economic, or social benefit rather than from personal attachment.

Although it looks like both Helena and Hermia are represented within the play as romantic archetypes, since the plot contains romantic elements, such as the idea of not being loved in return or the concern about their feelings, as well as their lack of self-confidence, Shakespeare is manipulating the idea of true love, mocking the melodramatic behavior that love itself induces. Love was not necessary in marriage. Both Helena and Hermia are used by Shakespeare as instruments to ridicule the nature and the inconsistency of love.

The ending does not correspond either to the real Elizabethan world, since women could not choose their husbands and their opinion was insignificant in this as in many other matters. Nevertheless, as it is a comedy, it has a happy ending, and both Helena and Hermia marry the men they love. This unconventional and unreal idea of women‘s “freedom of choice” is developed through the play thanks to the fantastic and magical plot around this situation: everything is a dream and occurs in a magical world. In dreams everything is allowed, even the “absurd” idea of marrying for love in those times.

Moreover, in Helena‘s case, she also represents a sympathetic figure, a victim of Demetrius’ coldness. She represents submission to the masculine figure. Despite Demetrius’ cruelty towards her, she is loyal to him and continues being totally in love with him. Here the concept of women’s inferiority to men is also introduced, and the power that men had in those days over women, as we will comment in the next section.

• BIANCA  ( THE TAMING OF THE SHREW )

Bianca represents the decorum, the virtue, innocence and mildness a woman should show at the time. She learns Latin and music, she obeys her father, she is waiting to get married and she behaves in the way she was expected to. In Shakespeare’s plays characters speak and behave according to who they are and she is the sister of the “Shrew”, her function is to emphasize her sister’s bad behaviour by acting just in the opposite way. Although at the end of the play Bianca suffers an important change in her attitude, she is no more docile nor obedient, her sweet and soft manners were just the image she wanted to show in order to achieve a husband because she knew that was what she was expected to be. Her beauty and her submissive attitude are the main features which makes her attractive for men and also her decorum and good manners.

• HERO (MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING)

Hero could be one of the representative models of the conventional submissive attitudes of women at Elizabethan times. Hero represents women’s submission: she is sweet and docile and most importantly obedient to her father’s decision of marrying her to Claudio. She is almost voiceless in the play, however in act three scene one we can see her taking a assertive role carrying out the plan of getting Beatrice and Benedict together. This is the only occasion where she takes an active role, the rest of the play she agrees and obeys with no opposition to every single decision made by men.  According to criticism, Hero is considered a kind of ‘object’ as she was described by Claudio as a ‘jewel’, which could be interpreted as an object which has an owner: first as a possession of Leonato and later being Claudio her owner.[vii]

1.4  Extraordinary women in Shakespeare’s plays

• KATHERINE  (THE TAMING OF THE SHREW)

Katherine is doubtless a very unconventional woman for her time. She refuses to obey her father and upsets her sister as well as the suitors of Beatrice by calling them names and openly making fun of them. It is very clear that Katherine is a very strong character who knows clearly what she wants in life. This might also be the reason for her misbehaving in this extreme way. As she knows very well that she will never be seen as equal to the men surrounding her, even if she is more intelligent and has a stronger personality then them, she is frustrated and does not hesitate to display her frustration openly. In a way Katherine can be compared to Queen Elizabeth because like her she does not want to get married and believes to be strong enough to lead her life without a man to take care of her. But unlike the queen, who indeed manages to lead her life and in fact a whole country without the help of a man, Katherine changes in the course of the play. She is tamed and comes to think that it is indeed necessary for a woman to have a husband who takes care of her and who has to be obeyed in all situations. Thus we can conclude that Katherine, at the beginning of the play, is a very independent and strong woman, who does not act according to the social roles imposed upon her, but that in the course of the story she undergoes a dramatic change which converts her into a typical Elizabethan, obedient woman.

• BEATRICE ( MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING)

Shakespeare presents Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing as a rebellious woman playing an active role and protesting against the conventional submissive attitude of women at Elizabethan times. She is the woman who dares to argue and to be an equal to men. As Mary Cowden Clarke depicted Beatrice as a woman with “courage, loyalty, and witty outspokenness”[viii]

Beatrice is also considered, to some degree, a woman whom men cannot control. Here we have an extract supporting this idea: Leonato is trying to advice his niece instead of imposing a marriage upon her and this attitude changes immediately when addressing to his daughter Hero.

Leonato

 Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

Beatrice 

Not till God make men of some other metal than
earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be
overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make
an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?
No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren;
and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

Leonato

Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince
do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. (II.i.449)[ix]

For many women marriage was their expected objective in life; it was being a wife that gave her life meaning and reason as Leonato tells Beatrice “thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd with thy tongue” (II.i.414)[x]. He warns that unless she changes her ways she will have failed in her life’s main purpose. However, Beatrice has not behaved as a woman expected to behave:

-         - She has poured scorn on men in general and on the idea of marriage.

-        -  She has exchanged bawdy witticisms with men.

-        -  She has upheld strong personal opinions.

-         - And she has defended her position vigorously when urged to be more conventionally ‘feminine’ (Lawrence Green 27).[xi]

The similarities between Beatrice and Queen Elizabeth could be set up by the issue of marriage (we have to take into account that Beatrice was not officially married in the play). Elizabeth, one of the most powerful women of all time, refused the marriage sacrament opposing thus an entire patriarchal society of the 16^th century. This woman ruler was characterized by her immense intelligence, ability, and success. Elizabeth served England amazingly well in all but one respect. Since Elizabeth (the "Virgin Queen") never married, she left behind no Tudor heir. She completely and successfully challenged a dominating male world. Elizabeth the Great was a feminist long before the concept of feminism even existed.[xii]

• TITANIA  ( A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM )

The construction and manipulation of political iconography and idealized representations of sovereign power were a key part of Elizabeth’s strategy for asserting the legitimacy and integrity of her own identity as queen. Queen Elizabeth has been represented in many different mythological characters; these included the transcendental beauty-figure of Petrarchan or Neo-Platonic discourses; the goddess Astraea; the biblical heroines Esther, Judith, and Deborah; the Virgin Mary, or vestal virgin; and the chaste Diana or Cynthia figure. However, Spenser’s great romance-epic The Faerie Queene has been used as a central example of Elizabethan myth-making (Carole Levin 97).[xiii]

According to wikipedia encyclopedia,

“Titania, as the Queen of the fairies in Midsummer Night’s Dream could be, at some degree, identified with Queen Elizabeth. About Titania, we learn from the play that she is a married woman, although we notice that Titania’s attitude is quite similar to the authoritative character of Queen Elizabeth.

Titania is a strong-willed, intelligent, daring and a powerful woman in the play. She is characterized by being a dominating figure and a strong woman. The queen of fairyland is in the habit of having all her attendants at her disposal, therefore she is used to keep an authoritative attitude. All these features could be also applied to Elizabeth”. [xiv]

Titania as the wife of Oberon, she challenges and combats her counterpart arguing with him openly, without acting as the traditional submissive Elizabethan wife. Here we have an example of her rough response to Oberon:

Oberon:

Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.

Titania:

What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company. (II.i.429)[xv]

As Oberon describes her, Titania is a proud woman. Her authoritative role equals Oberon’s role as a man and as the king of the fairies: she does not give in  this marital war; she acquires an passive attitude towards the persistent wishes of Oberon and does not succumb his request for authority as her owner, her lord. On the contrary, she wittily changes the centre of the subject in order to favour herself accusing him to have been unfaithful:

Oberon:

Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?

Titania:

Then I must be thy lady: but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest Steppe of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.(II.i.432)[xvi]

Although Elizabeth is not a married woman, her attitude towards man is not submissive. On the contrary, she challenges a whole social tradition, she never married despite the social pressure.

We can conclude stating that both Elizabeth and Titania are powerful independent woman, both share the title of queen and both resist to succumb to male decision.

5. Disguise and Homoeroticism

As we have already mentioned, Elizabethan society was a society controlled by men. Men were given force and power while women had to content themselves to be obedient and submissive.[xvii] Portia, Nerissa and Jessica, the main female characters of The Merchant of Venice, disguise themselves as men in order to act freely. So disguise can be viewed as a means of liberating force that puts women on an equal level with men. It can also be viewed as an essential element to obtain a comic effect because we are talking about a comedy. In order to make his comedies more interesting and amusing, Shakespeare makes use of disguise to catch the audience’s attention. [xviii]

• JESSICA ( THE MERCHANT OF VENICE )

In Shakespeare’s times women were controlled first by their fathers and then by their husbands. Fathers are often described as tyrants and egoists considering themselves the masters of their daughters’ lives. In The Merchant of Venice we deal with such fathers. Jessica, a young Jew, suffers from the despotism of her father. He makes her life impossible. Authoritarian Shylock  does not allow Jessica to entertain herself. 

Shylock:

Lock up my doors; and when you hear the drum
And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
Clamber not you up to the casements then,
Nor thrust your head into the public street
To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces,[xix]

Besides, Shylock would never allow his daughter to marry a Christian. Jessica, like Portia, has no choice. They, being women, have to obey the law established by society. That is why Jessica by disguising herself as a page escapes the horror of living under the same roof with her father. Man’s clothes protect her from being recognized as a submissive female creature, help her improve her position and make courageous decisions. She does not only elope with Lorenzo and steals money and jewellery belonging to her father, but she pays her freedom and with the same money she buys a husband:

Jessica:

Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
For I am much ashamed of my exchange:
But love is blind and lovers cannot see
The pretty follies that themselves commit;
For if they could, Cupid himself would blush
To see me thus transformed to a boy. [xx]

And although she seems to be ashamed of her boy’s clothes, she is aware that by disguising herself as a page she can do whatever she likes. Jessica’s situation is very delicate because apart from being a woman, she is a Jew. It is like a double burden, for Jews were not assimilated into English society[xxi]. That is why apart from wearing page’s clothes, she has to adopt new religious beliefs, which will help her join the society as an equal member and not as an outcast.

o       PORTIA 

Talking about another female character, Portia, we see that she is also controlled by her father. She may “neither choose whom she would nor refuse whom she dislikes” (Act 1, Scene 2. lines 22-24. http://eamesharlan.org/tptt/merchant61.html). The situation is doubly ridiculous because her father is dead, but even so she must obey. Literally her will “is curbed by the will of a dead father” (Act 1, Scene 2, lines 24-25: http://eamesharlan.org/tptt/merchant61.html). Before his death, Portia’s father put her portrait in a leaden chest for  men willing to marry her to choose among 3 chests (made of gold, silver and lead). But the fact that he put her portrait in a leaden chest reveals something about her father. It is possible that he sought intellectual fulfilment for his daughter. And although she could not attend University[xxii] (because only men were allowed to do that at that time. In fact, not until the beginning of the 20th century  became it possible for women to obtain a university education[xxiii]), we see that he did everything he could to cultivate her mind. So in all probability he wanted Portia to have a place for herself within a masculine world. Maybe he chose the leaden chest as the most suitable because he wanted to avoid a marriage for convenience or maybe by doing this he wanted to prevent men from treating Portia as an inferior being or as means to obtain comfort, luxury etc[xxiv]. And although Shakespeare depicts Portia as an embodiment of perfection, intelligence and virtue, she is not in control of her life in general and of her decisions in particular. Only when she dresses herself as a man, Portia can decide her own destiny. What is more, she can decide the destiny of other people. By wearing man’s clothes, Portia establishes order: she manages to save Antonio’s life and to outwit Shylock. She is so successful, that Antonio and Bassanio dedicate a speech full of gratitude and enthusiasm to her which, of course, creates a comic effect:

Bassanio:

Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend
Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted
Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof,
Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,
We freely cope your courteous pains withal.

Antonio:

And stand indebted, over and above,
In love and service to you evermore. [xxv]

Disguised as a man, Portia also manages to take Bassanio’s ring. This ring is a symbol of his love for his wife, but he, in gratitude for saving Antonio’s life, gives it to Portia disguised as a lawyer. Thus we have seen that disguise performs a multitude of functions:  apart from being a liberating force enabling Portia to act freely, it is used to save Antonio’s life and teach Bassanio a lesson about the importance and inviolability of marriage. In conclusion, by wearing man’s clothes Portia is able to assume the control and position of which she as a woman is deprived. [xxvi]

o       NERISSA

Another example of a woman disguised as a man is Nerissa, an attendant or waiting-gentlewoman to Portia, who disguises herself as a lawyer’s clerk. From her remarks we can deduce that she is very sensible and wise. She, like Portia, assumes the control and position by wearing man’s clothes. So she disguises herself as a lawyer’s clerk in order to accompany her friend, Portia, to go to Venice to save Antonio’s life. This shows her courage and ingenuity. Nerissa, like Portia, teaches her husband a lesson about conjugal fidelity with the help of a ring. [xxvii]

Thus, the three female characters: Portia, Nerissa and Jessica despite being as smart as men can act freely only while wearing men’s clothes. Thanks to disguise they can challenge the norms established by the society: Jessica disobeys her own father and elopes with Lorenzo wearing page’s clothes; Portia decides destinies of other people disguising herself as a lawyer (together with Nerissa, disguising herself as a lawyer’s clerk) and which in Shakespeare’s time was the exclusive prerogative of men. As a result disguise is used to hint at the patriarchal structure of Elizabethan England and to obtain a comic effect[xxviii]. It contributes to turn the established conception of things upside down and makes the play a comedy.

• VIOLA ( TWELFTH NIGHT )

Twelfth nigh, or What you will plays brilliantly with these conventions. The comedy depends on an actress’s ability to transform herself through costume, voice, and gesture, into a young man, Cesario. The play’s delicious complications follow the emotional crosscurrents that Viola’s transformation engenders. Lost on a strange coast and bereft of her twin brother, the disguised Viola finds a place in the service of Duke Orsino with whom she promptly falls in love. When Orsino sends Cesario to help him with Lady Olivia, Olivia not only rejects the Duke’s suit but falls in love with his messenger. Discomforted to learn that she is the object of Olivia’s love, Viola reflects on the plot’s impassioned triangle (Twelfth Night.The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997.):

 My master loves her dearly,

And she, mistaken, seems to dote on me.

What will become of this? [xxix]

In this case we find the concept of homoeroticism in which a man, Orsino, falls in love of a supposed man, Viola, but as a woman, she cannot return Olivia’s. This situation creates a sexual mess with a clear homoerotic subtext: Olivia is in love with a woman, even if she thinks he is a man, and Orsino often remarks on Cesario’s beauty, suggesting that he is attracted to Viola even before her male disguise is removed.

Nevertheless, in Twelfth Night, clothes do not simply reveal or disguise her identity; they partly constitute identity- or so Viola playfully imagines- making her a strange hybrid creature. She understands perfectly well the narrow biological definition of her sex (though in the characteristically male-centered language of Shakespeare’s culture, she phrases the definition in terms of what she lacks) 28[xxx]

Consequently, Viola’s disguise is considered as a protection for young women into society. Indeed, according to the webpage <www.sparknotes.com>, Viola asks the ship’s master her plan to disguise her as a castrated man. Thus, the idea of an eunuch is significant in this play, on the grounds that it represents another symbol of gender uncertainty. 

VIOLA: […]

I pray thee- and I’ll pay thee bounteously-

Conceal me what I am, and be my aid

For such disguise as haply shall become

The form shalt present me as an eunuch to him. [xxxi]

[…]

It is also important to note the fact that in Twelfth Night the dark veil that Olivia uses, in order to represent her mourning of the death of her brother, has also an important meaning. This attire means that she is hiding the truth, and she is choosing her mood as she takes it on or off; although, she has taken an oath that no one will see her face for seven years.

Consequently, the transforming power of costume unsettles fixed categories of gender and social class and allows characters to explore emotional territory that a culture officially hostile to same-sex desire and class marriage would ordinarily have ruled out of bounds. In Twelfth Nigh, conventional expectations repeatedly give way to a different way of perceiving the world.  Thus, Viola, dresses up as her brother whom she presumes to be dead, so as to pass safely through this strange land. Olivia is so vulnerable, yearning and aware of her folly, that the audience cannot wait for her every appearance (William Shakespeare ,Twelfth Night. <www.wikipedia.com>). As a result,

of this, we find a double mirror between male and female characters.

       2.1  Disguise leads to confusion

The usage of the disguise introduces a significant feature in the play, the identity confusion. These misunderstandings are largely her creation, in the sense that they mainly derive from a disguise that confounds the distinction between male and female. “They shall yet belie thy happy years/ That say thou art a man” Orsino says to Cesario.[xxxii]

 This perception of ambiguity, rooted in early modern ideas about sexuality and gender, is one of the elements that enabled a boy actor to convincingly mime “a woman’s part”. It is a perception upon which Twelfth Night continually plays and that helps to account for the emotional tangle that the disguised Viola inspires. [xxxiii]

Therefore, when Viola’s womanhood is discovered, the uncertainty that her disguise has raised remains. For example, Orsino referring to Viola as if she were male, he declares:

ORSINO: […]

Cesario, come-
For so you shall be while you are a man;
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino’s mistress, and his fancy’s queen.[xxxiv]
 

As a consequence, although Orsino knows that Viola is a woman, he continues to recognize Cesario as a legitimate identity for Viola. Thus, mistaken identity is due to the disguises in the play, which can only be resolved when Viola and Sebastian appear together.[xxxv]

o       ROSALIND (AS YOU LIKE IT)

“Rosalind, the heroine of As You Like It, has more lines than any of Shakespeare's female characters. Cleopatra comes in second with 670 lines and third place belongs to Imogen (Cymbeline), with 591 lines.” [xxxvi]

Regarding the importance of identity confusion and costumes in Shakespeare’s plays we can speak about Rosalind, in “As You Like It”.

Rosalind is the daughter of the exiled Duke Senior who has been banished and has gone to the Forest of Arden. She and her cousin Celia escape from the Court  to the forest and Rosalind adopts a male disguise as a measure of security for her journey. She adopts the name ''Ganymede," this name in Greek mythology, belongs to an androgynous youth raped by Zeus. ( The name carries strong homosexual connotations).

When she arrives in Arden, Rosalind keeps her male disguise even though she is now safe and has no reason to do so. So Rosalind is a woman who pretends to be a boy. [xxxvii]

If we imagine the performance at the time this character was double disguised, the actor was a young boy who had to interpret a female character, but at the same time this female character is disguised as a man in the plot of the play.

Rosalind enters the Forest of Arden in search of freedom but the costume also gives her another kind of freedom because at the time it was a patriarchal society in which women were under male control so becoming a boy gives her a kind of freedom she had never felt before. In her boy's disguise, she escapes (for a time) the limitations of being a woman.

Her duplicity produces confusion in the play, for instance Orlando, who loves Rosalind,  doesn’t recognize her and treats Ganymedes as a male confidant and talks to him about his love for Rosalind. She teaches him how to woo Rosalind so it’s a funny situation. The disguise is very obvious to the audience but is unnoticed by the characters in the play, and at the same time, seeing a woman dressed as a man would be extremely comic at the time.

Rosalind’s male disguise also produces another confusion , Phoebe, a female character, falls in love with Ganymedes thinking “he” is a boy. [xxxviii]

Even though Orlando is supposed to be in love with Rosalind, he seems to enjoy the idea of acting out his romance with the beautiful, young boy Ganymede, almost as if a

boy who looks like the woman he loves is even more appealing than the woman herself. Phoebe, too, is more attracted to the feminine Ganymede than to the real male, Silvius (the real boy who is in love with her).

As You Like It is influenced by the pastoral tradition, which typically contains elements of same-sex love. In the Forest of Ardenne,  homoerotic relationships are possible.

 As You Like It explores different kinds of love between members of the same sex. Celia and Rosalind, for instance, are extremely close friends, they are cousins, and the profound intimacy of their relationship seems at times more intense than that of ordinary friends. Indeed, Celia’s words in Act I, scenes ii and iii echo the protestations of lovers. But we can’t assume that Celia or Rosalind possesses a sexual identity as clearly defined as our modern understandings of heterosexual or homosexual. [xxxix]

“As You Like It”, contains comic situations in which a woman poses as a man, a device that exploits the fact that in Shakespeare's day women's roles were played by boys. While the situations thus presented are heterosexual in terms of the story, the stage image of same-sex wooing and kissing may well have been titillating to those of a homosexual orientation, and while other dramatists occasionally used the same device, Shakespeare seems to have had an exceptional preference for it, using it in five of his plays.”  [xl]                                                           

6. Erotism

Sex in Shakespeare plays is a theme which has been consolidated in modern approaches. A great amount of critics consider those puns and symbolisms, present in many of Shakespeare’s plays, to possess hidden sexual undertones. The question here is, what about women? What kind of role are they given in this world of eroticism?

“Shakespeare’s women, whether virtuous or vile, are the most potent who ever walked the stage. Virtually every Shakespearean heroine from Rosalind and Viola to Imogen and Helena is endowed with pro-active sexual desire and has as well the courage and dedication to pursue her own erotic ends. It is left to anti-heroines, like Ophelia, Gertrude, Lady Macbeth and Cressida to act coy and submissive, tacitly denying their sexual autonomy along with their individual responsibility.”( Germaine Greer. Shakespeare and Sex – The Plays. 7 Dec 2006. 10 Dec 2006.  http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/warwickmagazine02/shakespeare2/?textOnly=true).

In this section we have analyzed two female characters from two of Shakespeare’s plays in order to provide an overall example of how women were presented through sexual roles. On the one hand, Titania from The Midsummer Night’s Dream participates in a “sexual intercourse” with Bottom, she has an active sexual role. And, on the other hand, we have Mistress Quickly from The Merry Wifes of Windsor, who takes a passive role hearing sexual charged conversations, without playing part in it. Let’s see how the sexual undertones surround both female characters.

6.1 Titania from Midsummer Night’s Dream

The role of Titania as a woman within the relationship between Bottom and her is unquestionable female dominance over male. Her first authoritative attitude can be seen when she falls in love with Bottom and orders him to stay in the forest:

Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
(MND. III. i. 73-77)

Bottom just accepts the situation and follows every single order and decision taken by Titania. When Titania says: 

“Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
To have my love to bed and to arise;
And pluck the wings from Painted butterflies
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.” (MND. III. i.86-96) [xli]

If we read between the lines the former extract, the sexual undertones cannot be denied: not even Titania can make 

Bottom arise so as to be purged of his "mortal grossness." It may surprise 

modern audiences when the many players choose to hint that Bottom and Titania are “hitting the hay” or having 

sexual intercourse offstage. In this case at Shakespeare’s time, it would be two 

men hitting the hay offstage, a man playing as male character and a man disguised as woman playing a female character.[xlii]

“The major bone contention of dream is sex”:

TITANIA: "Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
The moon methinks looks with a watery eye;
And when she weeps, weeps every little flower,

Lamenting some enforced chastity.
Tie up my love's tongue bring him silently." (MND. III. i. 111) [xliii]

Shakespeare presents Titania as all too eager to be raped, however, another interpretation could be her will to rape him, here “enforced chastity” does not refer to any gender specifically. [xliv]

In act IV, Titania asks Bottom to sleep, orders the fairies to “begone”. She says:

“Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
Fairies, begone, and be all ways away.

Exeunt fairies

So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
Gently entwist; the female ivy so
Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!” (MND IV. i. 23-28) [xlv]

Titania’s speech describing the properties of the “woodbine”, the “honeysuckle” and the “female ivy” conveys an extremely sensual and erotic moment.

The question is, “What kind of dream did William Shakespeare create? A romp? A nightmare? An erotic fantasy? In the four hundred years since the first production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the play has been staged in wildly varying shades of dark and light.”[xlvi]

MISTRESS QUIRCKLY (THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR)

The sexual charge in the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor is also brought up by a feminine character: Mistress Quickly. She misunderstands other people’s words and hears sexual charged conversations were there are supposed to be none.

EVANS:  What is your genitive case plural, William?

WILLIAMS:  Genitive case?

EVANS:  Ay.

WILLIAM:  Genitive: horum, harum, horum.

MISTRESS QUICKLY:  Vengeance of Jenny's case; Fie on her!

    Never name her, child, if she be a whore [xlvii]

As an overview analysis, here genitive may suggest “genital”, as well as “Jenny”. “Case” is a slang word which means “vagina” and “horum” has a really similar pronunciation to “whore”. There are many other examples that we could mention, but here the important fact is that the figure of the woman continues to be related to sexual connotations. Moreover, when the masculine character of Falstaff dresses up as a woman, we recognize a different pattern of sexual allusion within the play. Ford addresses a series of insults to whom he believes is an old woman: “a witch, a quean, an old cozening quean”[xlviii]. This sexual devaluation of a woman was common in those times. Old women were commonly considered as witches when they were not married, widowed or poor.

4. Women Rivalry

Analysing Shakespeare’s comedies we have come to the conclusion that the playwright constructs many of them around different kinds of opposite female characters. Shakespeare depicts women rivalry juxtaposing sharp-tongued, quick-tempered and resolute women with soft-spoken, sweet and docile ones, for example: Katherine-Bianca (in The Taming of the Shrew), Beatrice-Hero (in Much Ado About Nothing), Adriana-Luciana (in The Comedy of Errors), etc. There are many other kinds of opposites throughout  Shakespeare’s comedies. Each pair helps us, as readers or as an audience, comprehend more about each part, but also creates comic effects.[xlix]

• BIANCA Vs CATHERINE

They are sisters and their relationship couldn’t be worst. Since the beginning, Bianca is seen like the favourite daughter and her sister is placed second in her father’s affection and despised by all others .But Bianca, apparently gentle in her behaviour, is an unkind sister. She fosters her father’s attitude of favouritism for herself and dislike for Catherine by playing the part of a noble victim. Their attitudes are totally opposed, while Catherine is the “shrew” Bianca is the “angel” and at the end, when Catherine has been tamed, Bianca shows her real bad manners. [l]

o       ROSALIND Vs. CELIA

They are cousins and they get on really well but as wit and philosopher Rosalind plays a dominant role while Celia  is a flat character in comparison. Celia and Rosalind both show indomitable tongues when mocking Le Beau and confusing him when asking him the colour of his sport, and though Rosalind takes over the action when they reach Arden, Celia shares the stage at Court with her in equal degree, acting as a sister. Even in Arden Celia has a quite strong part, she ends up as being less vibrant than Rosalind.[li]

o       BEATRICE Vs. HERO

In Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice and Hero have different roles. Beatrice is described AS a rebellious woman that could be represented like a sort of protest against women’s submissive attitude. Her cousin, Hero, in contrast with her, is docile, sweet and obedient to her father’s decision of marrying her to Claudio. Beatrice decides who she wants to marry. She is Leonato’ s possession and then she becomes Claudio her owner.

o       ADRIANA Vs. LUCIANA

Also marriage is an important theme in the debate between Adriana and Luciana in The Comedy of Errors. Adriana asserts her independence and power within marriage, and she believes that women should have as much freedom as men.  Luciana thinks that men are naturally lords over their wives, and she wants to learn to obey. At the end of the play, Adriana is totally wrapped around her husband and Luciana marries a man who wants her to teach him how to think and speak. 

• TITANIA Vs. HIPPOLYTA

Titania is the natural enemy of Hippolyta. Both share the rule of nature, Titania is the queen of the fairyland and Hippolyta is the queen of the Amazons. Furthermore, Hippolyta is also the source of jelousy of Titania, she accuses her husband Oberon of loving Hippolyta.

Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons comes from a Greek mythology. Theseus mentions this story at the very beginning of the play:

Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling. [lii]

“The Amazons is a mythological society where only women could take part and men are excluded. According to Montrose “Amazonian mythology seems symbolically to embody and to control a collective anxiety about the power of the female not only to dominate or reject the male but to create and destroy him. It is an ironic acknowledgement by an androcentric culture of the degree to which men are in fact dependent upon women: upon mothers and nurses, for their birth and nurture; upon mistresses and wives, for the validation of their manhood.” (Montrose 1996: 108)[liii]

Here the Amazonian queen is under Theseus control since he won her love and she agreed to marry him. But there is another queen who opposes male rule: Titania.

Titania, the queen of the fairies, is a powerful and strong woman who refuses to give in in his marital war with Oberon. Oberon has not control over Titania however this situation changes from the moment that Puck applies the potion of love. During the enchantment, Titania as a proud and strong woman disappears to give way to a weak woman in love with an ass head Bottom. Her foolish and extravagant passion for a donkey and her display of her affection to this creature make a fool of herself.[liv]

At the end of the play, Titania succumbs to Oberon’s wishes and gives him the Indian Prince. At this point of the play, Titania is no longer an authoritative and strong woman, she finally gives in and reconciles with her husband, thus becoming a meek, submissive and humble woman. [lv]

This rivalry between these two queens ends up with Hippolyta´s marriage with a human. Hippolyta will continue ruling as a queen, but no as the queen of the woods, but instead as the queen of Athens. Therefore, the female power of ruling the woods would be left to Titania.

• OLIVIA Vs. VIOLA

The rivalry between Olivia and Viola in Twelfth Night is mainly due to their love, which is represented by an unsuitable triangle. Thus, Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola) but Viola is a woman who has fallen in love with Orsino. Therefore, Viola loves the man who loves Olivia creating misunderstanding between them.

Nevertheless, we cannot consider this rivalry as malevolent but as lovely because of the aim it contains. On the one hand, Cesario accepts to carry Orsino’s message to Olivia since, as she confesses to the audience, Viola loves Orsino and wishes she could be his wife. On the other hand, the ring that Olivia gives to Malvolio for Cesario shows her love towards him.[lvi]

As a result of this, we identify two different women who want to achieve the same purpose in a different manner. While Viola accepts to disguise herself as a man in order to meet Orsino; Olivia prefers restraining herself mourning her brother’s death rejecting any man’s love except Cesario. Both women use the disguise to show their personalities. Indeed, the webpage www.enotes.com/twelfth/s724 agrees with the following:

 “Olivia is a reasonable woman and perceives Viola to be a match for her in independence and wit, yet Olivia confuses Viola and Sebastian because of her deeper intuitive sense. […] the parallels between Olivia and Viola in Twelfth Night, regarding them as non-

genetic twins: their loss of fathers and brothers, their respective disguises, and their pursuit of unrequited love.” [lvii]

Consequently, although both women are desperately in love of men who do not correspond them, the method to acquire their aim is different, according to their personalities following the women’s role of the time.

o       HELENA Vs. HERMIA 

Although Helena and Hermia are portrayed somehow as rivals for the love of a man, they are not. At the

 beginning of the play we observe that they are good friends. It is just Helena’s obsessive

 love for Demetrius that changes the situation. Despite the fact that Demetrius is in love with Hermia but 

she is not even interested in him, since she is in love with Lysander, Helena in an attempt

 to retrieve Demetrius’ love, tells him about Helena and Lysander’s elopement, betraying Hermia.

Helena is jealous of her friend and acts with no other intention than to make Demetrius realise that Hermia 

is in love with Lysander, but it does not look like as if she wants to cause any problem to Hermia. On the 

contrary, if Hermia marries Lysander, Helena will have more possibilities of regaining Demetrius’ love, so 

he can realise that Hermia is not going to love him ever. She is disloyalto Hermia indirectly, although there 

is no bad intention on her part.

Conclusion

Thus, we can conclude this essay saying that women’s role in Shakespeare’s plays is extremely related to 

the epoch in which he wrote his plays. 

Indeed, we all agree with the fact that the concept of ‘decorum’ was attached to a certain women which 

behaved according to the rules. However, there were other women who were considered

 disrespectful, like Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. 

Nevertheless, if in the first collective paper all of us considered that Shakespeare was ‘feminist’ and very 

steeped in the way he treated and presented women in his plays, now we have gone 

further to reach the conclusion that he rather criticized the time in which a female character couldn’t be 

considered as an equal to her male contemporaries. 

Finally, we can not deny that Shakespeare’s main contribution is to make us think about what was really 

happening in Elizabethan times. And he is also questioning all the values, rules that 

governed

a society in which women were not in the same conditions as men. So, the only way Shakespeare uses to 

criticise that society is through his plays, and more concretely, in plays that are the 

performance of the dream of a drunken man. Or in plays that are just a dream. 

 According to criticism, he also uses the mechanism of the disguise as an instrument for women to overcome 

all the restrictions imposed upon them. And they can also be at the same social level as men. In addition, 

Shakespeare’s resorts to disguise in order to solve the fact that two people of the same sex, especially two

men, could be lovers on stage. Because in the Elizabethan theatre,“the main company usually consisted of

 a handful of regular players who were employed for particular pieces. In England it was forbidden for 

women to appear on the stage on grounds of immorality”.[lviii]  So, the fact of seeing two men or two 

women kissing on stage could have been considered a provocation and an attempt against the established 

order in the Elizabethan times.