Dualism In Shakespeare's Views On Gender In His Comedies

Most of the female characters in Shakespearean comedy are created as prominent images occupying significant positions. The large amount of their dialogues and soliloquies sparkles with their wisdom, capacities and virtues. As the "new women" representing the humanistic ideal of Shakespeare, they try bravely and actively to shatter off the shackles imposed upon them by traditional values and pursue to have their own voice heard in both love and marriage. However, many Shakespearean scholars have laid too much emphasis upon this aspect as they focus upon the female characters, believing Shakespeare was the spokesman of Elizabethan women and advocated women's liberation and gender equality. Moreover, a comprehensive review over Shakespearean criticism on the comedies indicates insufficiency in the profound and systematic study of the male characters. It is quite reasonable to come to the conclusion that the study of Shakespeare's gender views is largely focused upon his viewpoint upon women which is often inadequate. This thesis will classify the male and female characters into different groups and analyze them respectively to prove the dualism in Shakespeare's views on gender reflected in his comedies, that is, within the social context of Elizabethan era and under the influence of tradition, Shakespeare showed both his transcendence of age, mainly reflected through the female characters, and his inheritance of tradition as well, mainly through the male characters.This thesis can be divided into five chapters.This first chapter is the introductory part, which first puts forward the literature review with thesis statement following close behind. Literature review presents the current research findings upon Shakespeare's viewpoints in his comedy both at home and abroad. In this part, the deficiency of these studies will be pointed out and analyzed and the originality of this thesis will also be put forward here. Firmly rooted in the text, this thesis tries to probe into Shakespeare's different writing techniques and styles that are employed and reflected in his male and female characterization, to interpret Shakespeare's gender views, that is, his gender views reveal both transcendence of age and inheritance of tradition.The second chapter will briefly introduce the economic, political and cultural environment in the Middle Ages and in the Elizabethan era. With this vertical and horizontal introduction of the historical settings, the exterior factors that exert significant influences upon the formation of Shakespeare's gender views will be thoroughly elaborated.Chapter three and four constitute the body part of this thesis. Chapter three tries to depict Shakespeare's dualism reflected upon his female characterization by examining specific comedies. This part will be highly text-oriented as the scenes and plot arrangement that obviously indicate the characteristics and personalities of the female characters will be picked out in order to observe Shakespeare's attitudes towards women. For example, Portia in The Merchant of Venice epitomizing the humanistic ideals of Shakespeare, and the French princess and her maids in Love's Labour's Loss directing the development of the plot, are the best images to vividly illustrate Shakespeare's transcendence of age. Yet some female characters also reveal Shakespeare's inheritance of tradition such as the two sisters in The Taming of the Shrew. Through the contrast between the two sisters, Shakespeare upheld the traditional values of female virtues.In chapter four, the focus is shifted to the male characters. The structures of chapter three and four are alike. First Shakespeare's inheritance of tradition reflected through male characterization will be clarified, for instance, through Proteus, the minion of fortune, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Bertram, the typical dandy in All's Well That Ends Well. Meanwhile, the hero Orlando in As You Like It represents a new man that demonstrates a fresh and unconventional male viewpoint of Shakespeare.Chapter five is the conclusion that will review the above-mentioned ideas on Shakespeare's gender views and reinforce the thesis statement. Moreover, limitations of this study are pointed out and suggestions for future research are also proposed in this part.