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. 

Shakespeare's female influences: Queen Elizabeth

Because the timetable for this class was a little more accelerated than I thought, I'm only going to spend a moment examining Queen Elizabeth as an influence on William Shakespeare. I've already discussed Shakespeare's mother, Mary Shakespeare, and his other female relatives (including his wife) to prove that throughout his life the Bard was surrounded by strong and capable women.

Queen Elizabeth was one of England's longest ruling monarchs, and was to reign for most of Shakespeare's adult life. This fact alone displays the simple truth that Elizabeth was a remarkable woman. Her long reign was due to her extreme popularity with her people, as described by Phyllis Rackin:

"Queen Elizabeth brought exceptional political skills to her office, and during the years when Shakespeare was growing up, she was consolidating her remarkable and unprecedented popularity among the vast majority of her subjects.... Queen Elizabeth actively courted her subjects with annual royal progresses through the countryside, so the people who lined the roads could see and speak directly with their monarch during these slow processions." (30)

Besides her popularity, Elizabeth was a very capable politician, especially in regards to religion. After the tug-of-war between the Catholic church and the Protestants (instigated by Elizabeth's father Henry VIII and continued by her sister and predecessor Mary I), Elizabeth created was is called the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, a bill passed by Parliament that reaffirmed the Church of England's separation from Rome as well as allowing aspects from both Protestantism and Catholicism. Of all western European rulers during this time, she was the only one to solve this religious conflict. Says historian Richard Dunn, "This achievement alone is a good enough reason for nominating Elizabeth the ablest politician of her time" (Rackin 32).

Although this is a very brief look at Queen Elizabeth, even the barest of examinations show that she was undoubtedly a huge part of the culture and society of England during Shakespeare's life. Elizabeth was a patron of the arts (discussed briefly here), and Shakespeare would almost certainly have been influenced by her presence in the theaters of London, thus resulting in writing female characters that would have appealed to his queen.

For a more complete summary of Queen Elizabeth's life, visit the Wikipedia page.

Works Cited

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. 

Shakespeare's female influences: his family and wife

 My focus of the last week or so has been the influence of Shakespeare's female relationships in his writing (in connection with my overall theme of Women and Shakespeare). I began by discussing his mother, Mary Shakespeare, and will now focus for a moment on his female relatives, and how they may have had an influence on the Bard, especially during childhood.


1. More Women than Men

The first thing that should be explained is that the world that William Shakespeare grew up in was not an overwhelmingly masculine one. In fact, it was quite the opposite. Says Phyllis Rackin, "Because most of the women in Shakespeare's family outlived their brothers and husbands, the family in which he grew up was actually predominantly female. In addition to numerous sisters and female cousins, Shakespeare had eight aunts, including one who outlived her husband" (33). It should also be noted that Mary Shakespeare also outlived her husband, like most of the other women in the Shakespeare family.

2. Financial and Legal Independence
As mentioned previously, women in Shakespeare's day were not as powerless as they might appear. For example, "Sixteenth century legal records show that the women in Shakespeare's family controlled considerable property both in land and in money. They also bequeathed property, served as executors of wills, and engaged in litigation designed to defend and further their financial interests" (Rackin, 33). 


Specific examples of women in Shakespeare's family who served as executors of the fathers' or husbands' wills were "Joan Hathaway, the stepmother of William Shakespeare's wife, and Margaret Sadler, the sister of his neighbor and lifelong friend Hamnet Sadler" (Rackin 33). 


3. Anne Hathaway

Anne Hathaway

Although not as many records remain of Shakespeare's wife as of his mother, we do know that she was an independent and financially secure woman. Since her parents had died before she was married, she inherited a sum of money from her father in his will. Also, since she was an orphan, we can assume that Anne made the choice to marry William independently, proving her ability to make decisions for herself. 


What we can gain form this general knowledge of Shakespeare's family is that throughout his life, he was surrounded by women who were independent and strong. After growing up in such a predominantly female society, it seems almost unthinkable that his upbringing did not in some way influence his writing. Since Shakespeare often wrote such self-sufficient and intelligent female characters, it appears that this is the case. 

Works Cited

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print. 

Shakespeare's female influences: Mary Shakespeare

Continuing my examination of women and Shakespeare, this post will discuss William Shakespeare's mother, Mary, to show that she may have had an affect on his writing. The mother of England's most famous playwright was not an unknown or insignificant woman. In fact, it may surprise many people to learn that not only was she an heiress to her father's large estate after his death, but that she controlled many legal and financial aspects of the Shakespeare family's life.

1. Property and Law
Mary Shakespeare, even in Elizabethan times, was not the exception when it came to women's legal rights and practices. States Phyllis Rackin:

"Sixteenth century legal records show that the women in Shakespeare's family controlled considerable property both in land and in money. They also bequeathed property, served as executors of wills, and engaged in litigation designed to defend and further their financial interests. Shakespeare's mother, for instance, although she had nine older sisters and two older brothers, inherited the only freehold property her father bequeathed and served as one of his two executors. This was not exceptional. In fact, most of the executors of wills in Shakespeare's England were women rather than men, so much so that scribes sometimes mistakenly used the female form 'executrix' to refer to make executors of wills." (33)

2. Social Status
John Shakespeare (William's father), before being elected to the important position of bailiff in Stratford, was a tenant farmer on the land on Robert Arden, who's daughter he would eventually marry. Besides being a substantial property owner, "Mary's father also possessed an ancient and respected family name" (Rackin 34). Mary's inherited status would have been important to John. In fact, although she was a woman and "her legal status was subordinate to her husband's," as Robert Arden's heiress, "her social status was distinctly superior" (Rackin 34).

3. Economic Life
Mary would have been an active participant in the economic life of the Shakespeare household. There are two ways we can know of her involvement. First, legal records from the Shakespeare's finances show that Mary was fully included in the economic running of the household. This can be documented from records "concerning the sale and conveyance of various pieces of property and litigation about it in which Mary's name appears along with her husband's" (Rackin 34). Second, as discussed previously, women during this period were not uneducated and illiterate. Many housewives knew how to read and had a basic education in order to better run their households. Therefore, it can be inferred that women (and specifically Mary) played an active part in the finances of the family, which were among other wifely domestic responsibilities.

All these details of Mary Shakespeare's life help us to see that as a financially and socially powerful woman, she may have had enormous influence over her son William. Growing up with such a mother, it is possible that William saw women in a more generous light than many of his fellow Elizabethans, and that this influence of his mother's caused him to write female characters that were independent and strong.

Works Cited

Rackin, Phyllis. Shakespeare and Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Print.