Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Shakespeare, Women & Gender Expectations. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page essay that discusses women and gender within two of plays, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, focusing on the roles of Rosalind and Viola. The writer explores what these roles tell modern audiences about Elizabethan gender expectations and the writer argues that Shakespeare sidestepped such societal conventions through the device of cross-dressing. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khshwoge.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the Shrew, Katharina is regarded as unmarriageable due to her independent nature, hot-temper, and unwillingness to assume a properly subservient female demeanor. Similarly, in Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice is
pictured as a fiercely intelligent woman who can trade quips with any man and is willing to be considered as shrewish in order to maintain her own integrity and not
risk male rejection. As both of these plays suggests, "self-aware, skillful women" appear to be "both alluring and threatening" both to Shakespeare and his audience (Berek 359). Therefore, in
several plays, Shakespeare sidesteps the issues that surround gender by having women cross-dress and assume male roles. Catherine Belsey argues that Shakespeares cross-dressed heroines are able to express themselves with
more freedom than otherwise would be possible considering Elizabethan notions of gender identity (Belsey 166). Examination of Rosalind from As You Like It and Viola from Twelfth Night supports Belseys
arguments and shows that this is, indeed, the case. In both plays, female characters assume male identities. By doing so, both characters are temporarily released from the societal expectations
that govern what was considered to be proper female deportment. They can, for example, act in ways that are independent, intelligent, forceful and direct without violating Elizabethan sensibilities because, from
the perspective of the other characters, they are acting as men, not women. This scenario is intriguing for its points out, within an Elizabethan context, the artificial and constructed nature
of gender expectations. While dressed as men, these women obviously have the power to act in all ways that were culturally defined as masculine, yet they obviously retain their true
identity as women. From the beginning of As You Like It, Rosalind is portrayed as an endearing character, who is obviously "brighter and more self-aware than any other character
...