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.

Elizabethan women: smarter than you think

Many students the Renaissance assume the worst for women of the period: unequal rights, inability to inherit, lower social status, and virtually uneducated. While these obviously stem from truth, there were many exceptions to the "rule," and not just in the noble and upper classes either. John Crawford, author of The Learning, Wit, and Wisdom of Shakespeare's Renaissance Women, observes that for many women of the middle-classes, literacy was a necessity. He writes,

A gentlewoman was supposed to read the Bible and conduct family worship in the absence of the father. A good housewife had to consult the almanacs for proper bloodletting time; to discover in the herbal handbook the best medicine for specific illnesses; cookbooks and sewing books were available. (6)

If women didn't have the skill to read, it often limited her abilities to perform her household duties. Therefore, girls (although not allowed at universities and local grammar schools) were instructed by their mothers in a manner similar to the boys. This instruction included religion, morals, manners, speech, and reading. Girls' educations were furthered by instruction in the economy of a household, food preparation, and organization. Also, observes Crawford, "Knowledge of herbs, often thought of as medicine, was sometimes associated with the women of the Middle Ages" (7). This was partially examined in an earlier post, describing Ophelia's madness in Hamlet and how her knowledge of plant life gave a significantly different meaning to the scene.

Besides the existing opportunities for female education during the Renaissance, there were also many writers, male writers, who advocated education for women. In Thomas More's Utopia, the author allows "the education of women on a equal basis with that of men," while Sir Thomas Elyot's The Defense of Good Women supports "the wise training of women in letters and in moral philosophy" (Crawford 10).

Thus we see the undeniable connection between Shakespeare and his educated, female audience. By the end of the sixteenth century, "the feminine audience had reached such proportions that many authors were making a definite and frank appeal to women" (Crawford 13). Not only did women make up a large percentage of the playwright's audiences (as discussed here), but by establishing that the women were literate and intellectually trained, it can be assumed that Shakespeare acknowledged, even respected, the minds and opinions of his women viewers, and wrote plays and characters that would appeal to their senses as well as the men's.

Works Cited

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