Shakespeare and Misogyny: How Shakespeare Portrayed Women?

Shakespeare is the king of English literature. He was a great author, playwright, and poet of the Elizabethan Age. We all appreciate his work; however, his depiction of women was not that innocent.

During his time, women authors were not even a thing yet. Women were not free enough to be creative. Not just creating; they could not even play in Shakespeare's plays.

This already shows the role of women in literature. But the great male authors were not helping. Shakespeare, Marlow, Kyd, and Jonson—the greatest authors of the Elizabethan Age... Instead of helping, they portrayed women in a misogynist way.

In this article, I want to give you some brief examples of why I think Shakespeare's depictions are problematic.

The Taming of the Shrew:

In this comedy of Shakespeare, we see a man and a woman: Petruchio and Katherine. Katherine is an angry woman who needs to be tamed. In this book, Petruchio basically tries to make Katherine calm so that she can be worthy enough to get married. In the end, Petruchio gets what he wants. Katherine gets tamed and accepts to serve her man.

Othello:

In this play, Othello and Desdemona get married. They have many differences, but they try to share their lives together. However, in this play, Othello gets convinced that Desdemona is not loyal. This jealousy shows that men of the Elizabethan age believed that they owned women. When Othello questioned her loyalty, it was proven that he could not handle losing what he possessed. Desdemona needed to prove that she was loyal to her owner. Othello had the right to kill his wife because he believed that Desdemona cheated on him.

Hamlet:

Hamlet is a great work of Shakespeare, yet it is full with misogyny too. The main hero, Hamlet himself, is not respectful of women. He behaves harshly toward women, especially Ophelia. He does not hesitate to say bad words to her. Ophelia is always used as a tool. She is being dragged by her father or by Hamlet. While she tries to live between all these men who only harm her, she loses her mind. It is ambiguous, so we do not know whether she accidentally died or killed herself. No matter the reason, she dies. And Hamlet finally shows that he loves her after she dies.

These were 3 examples from Shakespeare's best-known works. There are absolutely many interpretations of his works. Some readers believe that he was criticising the misogynistic act towards women, while others believe that he was just a misogynistic man. I do not know which one he was.

In this blog, I talked about how Shakespeare portrayed women. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Stay safe, and I hope to see you in my next blog!