English Literature KS3 / GCSE: Women in Shakespeare

Narrator:
In Shakespeare’s time, women had very little power or status, but were, obviously, an integral part of society.

As a result they provide key characters in his plays – like Lady Macbeth in Macbeth or Desdemona in Othello – raising really important issues.

Narrator:
Women were valued so little in society, Shakespeare often shows them as innocent victims in his plays.

When bad boy Iago wants to get back at his enemy Othello, he makes out that Othello’s wife Desdemona is having an affair. She’s done nothing of the sort – it’s a total set up - but she’s destined to suffer horribly.

Othello:
‘Yet she must die, else she’ll betray more men’

Narrator:
She tells her hubby she’s been faithful, but he doesn’t believe her. In this male dominated society, Othello listens to another bloke first, even a conniving one like Iago, before he’ll believe his wife. Despite being loved and totally faithful, Desdemona looks set to lose her life - because of lies.

Othello:
‘Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee,
and love thee after. One more, and this is the last:’
(kisses her)

Narrator:
Desdemona makes remarkably little fuss about the whole issue. Even on her deathbed she tells her maid she’s killed herself - to try and save her beloved Othello. But her husband, when he realises how badly he’s misjudged her, is so full of grief and remorse that he kills himself.

Narrator:
Elizabethan women were regarded as possessions. Owned first by their fathers and then by their husbands. Arranged marriages were common and marrying for love was rare. Husbands were chosen to ‘up’ the family status, pull in more money or cement friendships.

In Romeo and Juliet, when Lord Capulet announces to his daughter, Juliet, that she will be marrying his mate Paris, he won’t even discuss it with her.

Juliet:
‘Good father, I beseech you on my knees,
hear me with patience but to speak a word.’

Capulet:
‘Hang thee, young baggage, disobedient wretch!
I’ll tell thee what: get thee to church a ‘Thursday
or never after look me in the face.
Speak not, reply not, do not answer me.’

Narrator:
This is no idle threat. It could be lethal for women to defy their dads, and some controlling fathers would condemn their children, just to show who was boss.

In fact, Juliet is in more of a pickle as she’s already married Romeo in secret. Hmm.

Shakespeare does have strong women characters too – with a lot of power – and Lady Macbeth is up there with the strongest.

She and her husband are hugely ambitious and together they plot to become king and queen. Macbeth murders King Duncan, but then can’t bring himself to smear the drugged guards with blood – implying they did it. So Lady M steps in to do it herself.

Lady Macbeth:
‘My hands are of your colour; but I shameto wear a heart so white.’

Narrator: While she mocks her husband for his cowardice she also makes it clear that women aren’t ‘supposed’ to have the strength for such a bloody act…

Lady Macbeth:
‘Come, you spirits
that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
of direst cruelty!’

Narrator:
As a woman, she knows the way to get power and status is through her husband - planning together and willing him on with strength, and support but shaming him when he falters in their cause.

So, Shakespeare’s plays showcase the traditional roles of women – as possessions in Romeo and Juliet, and victims in Othello, but he highlights other realities too. Even hidden in the shadows of their husbands, they are a force to be reckoned with, showing passion, commitment and strength like Lady Macbeth.