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. 

Literary Imitation

As I mentioned previously, to fulfill the learning outcome of creatively engaging Shakespeare through literary imitation, I want to write a short story from an alternate perspective. Right now I'm considering Katharina from The Taming of the Shrew (the final scene) or possibly Ophelia from Hamlet (either the scene with her singing and flowers or her drowning). I'm trying to focus on women characters since that's the focus of my blog.

Right now, I'd really like people's opinions on these two possibilities, or maybe even a suggestion for a different character. I obviously haven't read all of Shakespeare's plays, so if there are strong female characters that would make for an interesting short story, I would love any advice!

Also, besides writing my short story, just suggestions of independent and witty female characters would be very helpful for the next step of my research, which includes analysis of women in Shakespeare's plays. Thanks!

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. 

Fanfiction: a new digital mediation for Shakespeare

I decided to take a break from my serious research for this post and share my experiences with Fanfiction to take a shot at analyzing digital mediations. For those of you unfamiliar with Fanfiction, it's a website where you can post your own writing that you based on other books, plays, movies, TV shows, or even comics. Generally, you post in sections, or chapters, and other readers can leave reviews with helpful criticism or encouragement. There are thousands of writers on this site, and so you can imagine exactly how many reviews and new stories are being posted every day. Just as an example, the Harry Potter section has over 500,000 stories. These range from short stories, poetry, and even epics that literally take years to write.

When in middle school and high school, I have to admit that I was pretty obsessed with Fanfiction. I would spend hours reading other's stories, and then eventually writing my own. This was a major part of why I wanted to be a English major and then go on to be an editor or writer. It was amazing to be able to write and get feedback, as well as help others improve their own writing.

I decided that although I usually spent most of my time in the Harry Potter or Ella Enchanted sections (dorky, I know, but I loved it), I wanted to see what Fanfiction could offer fans of Shakespeare. I followed the links from Plays to Shakespeare, where the Bard has a respectable following of 1,762 stories (this is in comparison to Les Mis, 121, and Oedipus the King, 4). Just glancing through the first page of stories, I saw some really interesting ideas for creatively imitating Shakespeare. For example, one author puts a pirate theme on a female version on Hamlet:

 Hamletta » by Jenna Cassie Herdz

Her father dead, her uncle takes the title of Pirate King aboard the ship the Denmark. But when she finds out how her father really died, revenge fills her heart and mind.

Although this writer probably isn't the next Shakespeare, it's clear that she is very familiar with the text of Hamlet, and has creatively changed the setting and plot to make it her own. Fanfiction is awesome!

This has really inspired me to try and fulfill one of my other learning outcomes, literary imitation. In the next couple weeks, I'm going to write a short story about one of Shakespeare's characters, possibly from a unique point of view, and then post it on Fanfiction and see what kind of response I get. I think this will be a really fun way to creatively engage Shakespeare while also sharing my work with people outside our class. I know that lots of people in this class are doing some sort of literary imitation, and I think this would be an extremely effective way to share besides on our blogs.

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. 

Sick for the weekend

This is going to be a post full of excuses, but this last weekend I spent feeling very unpleasantly sick. I unfortunately don't have a post planned with specific details about my progress on my project, but I just wanted to let you all know that I'm still on track with my research on women and Shakespeare. This week I will be looking at the women in William Shakespeare's life, specifically his mother, wife, and Queen Elizabeth. My next few posts will explore these women's lives, and show how Shakespeare's personal experiences and relationships with women influenced his writing.

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.