The final conclusion: The female influence on Shakespeare's writing

Throughout the semester, I have been developing the topic of women and Shakespeare, and I feel that I have researched, analyzed, and written a variety of posts that support my argument. My original ideas have evolved from my previous post to this much more developed and thought out....drum roll please...

Although Shakespeare has often been credited with writing strong, independent, and intelligent female characters (which has inspired much lively feminist debate), this issue has generally been analyzed only from a textual point of view. With this blog, I chose to research contextual and historical evidence as well.

Thesis

Shakespeare, because of his female audience, patrons, and familial relationships, was influenced financially and personally to write spirited female characters.

Evidence

1. Audience: I've looked at several important aspects of Shakespeare's female audience. First, that women made up a large percentage of a playhouse's audience, that there were women from all class distinctions, and that women often had power over their husband's opinions. Second, many playhouses had female patrons, such as Queen Elizabeth, Queen Anne, and Queen Henrietta. These facts help to prove that the female audience was substantial and had significant financial and societal power.

2. Education: Here I show that Elizabethan women were not as illiterate and ignorant as many Shakespeare scholars might assume. It was often necessary for middle-class women to read in order to run their households, as well as educate their own children. Also, many male writers were advocating for female education during Shakespeare's life, showing that there was some acknowledgment of women's intelligence. 

3. Relationships: I examined several of Shakespeare's personal female relationships, including his mother, his extended family and wife, and Queen Elizabeth, in order to show the influence they would have had on his writing. 

4. Character Analysis: I analyzed several of Shakespeare's female characters to show their independence and intelligence, traits he would have seen first hand from the women in his life. These include main characters such as Kate, Hermione, Lady Macbeth, and Portia, as well as minor characters like Paulina and Miranda. 

Conclusion

Shakespeare was above all a playwright, influenced by financial gain. Therefore, he could not afford to ignore the educated and opinionated women that made up much of his audience. However, it may not have been financial gain alone that fueled his writing. Because he grew up in a predominantly female world (his mother, aunts, cousins, wife, and Queen Elizabeth), it is probable that his childhood and female relationships inspired him to give his female characters qualities that made them independent, witty, powerful, and above all, appealing to the female world. 

The women's part: Shakespeare's feminist leanings

I'm going to start with some disclaimers about my thesis. My basic argument is that because of the influence of his female audience, patrons, and personal relationships with women, Shakespeare wrote female characters that were independent, intelligent, and strong. I will even go so far as to suggest he was a proto-feminist, since he recognized the worth of the female mind. I know there are some objections to this idea, which I will address here.


As brought up by Chris Welcker in a comment to one of my previous posts, Shakespeare wasn't always respectful to women. This can be seen in the case of his wife, Anne Hathaway. Anne (although not a complete pushover, as I discussed here) was apparently not an overly critical part of Shakespeare's life. There are few remaining records of her activity in Stratford, and none at all to suggest she had anything to do with her husband's business dealings at the theater. Phyllis Rackin thinks part of this may have to with Shakespeare's lack of trust and confidence in his wife. She states: "A possibility is that William did not trust Anne to manage the family property. Her absence from the legal records of all William's financial affairs might mean that Anne had an exceptionally passive role in the economic affairs of the Shakespeare family" (39). 


So although I admit that there is evidence for the idea that Shakespeare wasn't respectful to all women, there is also substantial proof that despite this, he was still influenced by the many women in his life. Whether he truly admired them or simply wrote the female characters for financial gain is something that cannot be known for sure.


Now that I've shared some opposing views to my thesis, I can approach my topic from a textual standpoint by analyzing the female characters in Shakespeare's plays. I've previously discussed Portia and Paulina, along with Miranda, as good examples of intelligent female characters. For this post, I've chosen two main characters from different plays to help prove my thesis.

Examples of women's wit and wisdom

So far, I've spent quite a bit of time focusing on the historical and contextual aspect of my main topic, women and Shakespeare, so this post will give a few textual references to support my ideas. I've examined women's roles in Shakespeare's audiences, as well as women's education and learning in 16th century England. Now, I'll discuss two female characters who exhibit the benefits of education. (I've included links to short summaries of the plays in case you aren't familiar with it.)

Portia

The first is Portia from The Merchant of Venice. Disguised as a man, Portia shows her knowledge and learning when she helps her husband through his money troubles, especially with her knowledge of law and finance. Observes Jon Crawford, "Albeit in a man's attire, a woman has saved the day and made not only her husband happy, but also herself" (66). Portia, by displaying her obvious intelligence, has defeated (at least in her own way) the stereotyped attitudes of the Renaissance, which suggest that women are lacking in wit.

A second short example of a woman using her education is Paulina in The Winter's Tale. Acting in the role of a mentor, Paulina is the woman who not only understands the people around her, but can logically argue and prove her points. For example, when Leontes acts unreasonably against his wife, the queen Hermione, Paulina is the one confronts him multiple times. She speaks only the truth to Leontes, logically showing him how his jealousies and tyrannies have caused his madness. Eventually, after the "death" of Hermione, Leontes realizes that Paulina is right. At the end of the play, everything does work out for the royal family, due in part to Paulina's ability to think rationally.

Just by looking at these two characters, it is clear that women of Shakespeare's time were not necessarily the weak and fickle creatures history makes them out to be. As Crawford argues, "A careful look at Shakespeare's drama demonstrates his recognition of Renaissance females as mentally bright and capable of leadership" (63).

Works Cited

Crawford, John. The Learning, Wit, and Wisdom of Shakespeare's Renaissance Women.  Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1997. Print.

Women on trial

As I was reading the scene from The Winter's Tale, I couldn't help but feel that Hermione was a type for all women of Shakespeare's day. Women were often seen throughout history as the originators of sin, because of Eve. It is very common to read about women as objects of desire, as disobedient wives and daughters, and even as witches. This makes Leontes' irrationality almost make sense: he's simply responding to centuries of prejudice against women. Obviously, we can't entirely excuse his tyrannical and jealous behavior, but I feel tradition gives him a reason to suspect his wife. Part of the fault lies with society.

Hermione, the perfect picture of innocence, chastity, and obedience, is representative of how women were expected to be. In the trial, however, she is made out to be exactly the opposite. Leontes falsely accuses her of treason and adultery, something the audience knows she is innocent of. In general, I believe that this scene perhaps demonstrates that women have been conceived of unfairly in history and in Shakespeare's day, and Hermione's and Paulina's lines give women the voice that they have been forbidden them for centuries. This is particularly interesting since eventually it is proven that Hermione is innocent, showing her true fidelity and obedience to the king.

Paulina's character was also very important to this scene, I believe. Once Hermione has died, there must be someone to defend the cause of women, and so Paulina rebukes the king for his actions (listing the people that have died or suffered because of him), and her speech includes some of the most powerful lines of the scene:

But, O thou tyrant!
Do not repent these things, for they are heavier
Than all thy woes can stir. Therefore betake thee
To nothing but despair. A thousand knees
Ten thousand years together, naked, fasting
Upon a barren mountain, and still winter
In storm perpetual, could not move the gods
To look that way thou wert.

Paulina tells it like it is, and receives no punishment for speaking her mind. She is told to be silent by a member of the court, and she herself immediately apologizes for the outburst, but no other punishment is inflicted. I feel that Paulina's speech and her sudden silence are also examples of how women's voices have been oppressed throughout history. She told nothing but the truth, something the king acknowledges when he states that "Thou didst speak but well When most the truth." However, although both she and Hermione spoke well, they were also eventually silenced.

What does this mean coming from a feminist standpoint? Hermione and Paulina are women who are oppressed despite their truthfulness, (Hermione by death and Paulina by the Lord) who are eventually recognized as honorable and steadfast. Shakespeare undoubtedly wrote many strong female characters that exhibit feminist qualities, but this is an example of plot that supports women in general as being true, constant, and loyal.

Miranda: chaste, silent, and obedient?

Knowing that there was only one female character in The Tempest, I decided to approach it from a feminist angle. When I began reading The Tempest, I thought I had a clear idea of who the characters were. Prospero was the wily magician bent on revenge (but with a softness for his daughter), Caliban and Ariel his indentured servants, Ferdinand the love-struck prince, and Miranda, the quiet and obedient daughter. While I felt most of these generalizations were relatively correct, my assumptions about Miranda's character did not ring true as I actually read the text. While she possessed the traits of Shakespeare's by now predictably naive, beautiful, and enamored teenager, she also surprised me with many other aspects of her personality that I didn't think would show through such a two-dimensional character. After researching a bit about critic's approach to analyzing Miranda, I was surprised to find so few that accepted her as a developed and strong female role. To me, even though she is a secondary character, the fact that she is the only female automatically places her in the running. Here are some of the facts that make me believe that Miranda should be given more consideration:

1. She is naturally intelligent. While Prospero is telling her of their personal history in Act 1, she constantly asks questions and makes insightful comments. Like in these lines: "And now, I pray you, sir - for still 'tis beating in my mind - your reason for raising this sea storm?" This also shows her intense desire for knowledge, undoubtedly inherited from her father

2. She has an incredible memory. I think I can safely say that most of us do not remember our lives before the age of three. It is remarkable that Miranda recalls memories from such a young age, and so specifically: "'Tis far off, and rather like a dream than an assurance that my remembrance warrants. Had I not four or five women once that tended me?"Even Prospero is surprised that his daughter can remember things from so long ago. He states that he doesn't think it possible for her to remember so long ago, and says, "How is it that this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else in the dark backward and abysm of time?"

3. She is educated. Prospero is a very intelligent and learned man, and in their twelve years on the island he has played the role of schoolmaster, instructing and teaching his daughter, making her "more profit than other princes." This gives Miranda, a young women, an equal (and even better) ranking with the best of her male counterparts.

4. She is a teacher. Miranda is knowledgeable enough to be able to share her learning with others, in this case Caliban. She (speaking to Caliban) "endowed thy purposes with words that made them known" and "took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or other."

5. She is observational. Not being in any contact with human beings besides her father and Caliban, she is confused when she first sees Ferdinand. "What is't? A spirit? Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir, it carries a brave form, But 'tis a spirit." She knows at first sight that the creature cannot be a spirit because of its form and nature, but yet she can only deduce that it is a spirit because that is all she knows.  However, the fact that she didn't simply assume he was a spirit reveals her skeptical mindset and observational skills.

There are more that I could discuss, but I want to share this great article by Jessica Slights entitled "Rape and the Romanticization of Shakespeare's Miranda." While I focused on Miranda's intellectual abilities, Slight examines other qualities. Slights rejects earlier commentaries that Miranda is simply a prototype: "the woman who is chaste, silent, and obedient" (361) She definitely shares my feminist viewpoint of Miranda, stating that "past and present readings of The Tempest alike have misread the play by emphasizing the nature of Prospero's relationship with the island of his exile without considering the alternative models of selfhood, moral agency, and community life posited by the magician's daughter" (359). This is a really great article for anyone who wants to look at The Tempest from a feminist lens. (I wanted to include a link, but it's from the BYU library so if you want to find it just search for it online at HBLL.)