Shakespeare's view of women

Answer 1

This is a complicated question. By today's standards, some might say Shakespeare was sexist, because of plays like "Taming of the Shrew" where a strong and independent woman is regarded negatively and must be "tamed" by a man, in order to be happy. But on the other hand, if we look at Shakespeare's time and its attitudes about the proper role of a woman (to be a submissive wife who obeys her husband), some of his female characters are depicted very positively, and display qualities like confidence and determination. Two who come to mind are Cordelia in King Lear and Portia in the Merchant of Venice.

Cordelia especially is respected by her husband and although she dies tragically (and her father realizes too late that she was the one daughter who truly loved him), she seems to have had what might be considered an egalitarian marriage. Further, she has a strong sense of ethics and refuses to lie, even when doing so would gain her a large sum of money from her father. Portia, although forced to disguise herself as a man to become a lawyer (a field closed to women in those days), has the legal skill and ability to use reason and logic that most in Shakespeare's day would have thought impossible for the average woman. Portia wins her case and impresses everyone. And while her reward is a husband, nobody in the play could confuse her for the stereotypic 'helpless female.'

And in the sonnets, Shakespeare repeatedly attributes a number of positive qualities to the woman he loves, including the ability to inspire him, encourage him, and cheer him up when life's problems seem overwhelming. While the concept of the beautiful woman who is the man's "muse" is not new, here again we see that for Shakespeare, the conventional view is not always the one he favors. In one Sonnet (My Mistress' Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun), he asserts that while his love (the word "mistress" had nothing to do with infidelity, but rather, was a word that referred to the woman he loved) may not be beautiful in the opinion of others, for him, she is perfect and he loves her as she is.

Thus, we can find characters in Shakespeare who fit the traditional stereotypes-- evil and manipulative like Lady Macbeth, or too independent and in need of a man to put her in her place like Kate in Taming of the Shrew; or we can find remarkably modern female characters, who possess qualities worthy of admiration, such as Portia or Cordelia.