Webster’s vs. Shakespeare’s Women in Their Plays

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Comparison of Women in Different Plays
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

William Shakespeare and his late contemporary John Webster are two playwrights whose names imply the whole époque in the sphere of English drama and whose contribution to literature development one cannot overestimate.

W. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, The Taming of the Shrew, Richard 2, Midsummer Night Dream, and J. Webster’s Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil are brilliant examples of the authors’ playwright genii.

Along with the themes covered and the problems the plays focus on, they attract the readers’ attention by the depth and skill with which the characters are depicted. All characters of Shakespeare and Webster’s works are presented with the highest level of the authors’ proficiency and equally deserve the readers’ attention. But in the current paper, we will focus on the female characters of both of the authors. All the plays mentioned above involve women in one way or another, their role and importance in the plays are one of the points of the paper’s concern.

In various plays the female characters are not depicted in the same manner, the current paper will focus on the comparison of these plays and comparison of Shakespeare’s and Webster’s women in general. The female characters will be analyzed through various perspectives: depiction of women as intellectuals, depiction of women as pawns, depiction of women as strong creatures.

The comparison is expected to reveal the differences and similarities in the authors’ manner of depicting women and the way they influenced the overall message of the plays. We suppose that the female characters created by the authors contributed to the plays’ being called masterpieces of the early XVII century. To much extent, this is these characters’ skillful depiction led to the plays’ immortality and popularity for centuries long.

Comparison of Women in Different Plays

Depiction of Women’s Strength and Power

Shakespeare’s works have always been the source of controversy, one of the factors that influenced that was his depiction of female characters. Some critics claim that the way Shakespeare depicted women gives way to call him a feminist, others believe that he wrote solely for the purposes of male entertainment. This way or another, Shakespeare brought out women in a manner that was not typical of his male counterparts during the Renaissance.

Shakespearean women were cunning yet at the same time powerful. They were capable of predicting the actions of people around them. It was quite rare for women in his plays to appear weak. Most of these women were either crucial for understanding the main characters’ deeds or were the main protagonists themselves. In this sense, Shakespeare was a pioneer, as he predicted the equality of men and women that is typical for present days.

Because of the strength of their characters and the power that they possessed, women in Shakespearean plays were not typical of his time. However, Shakespeare also realized that power could be used both for good and for evil and this author’s understanding of power was reflected in his works.

If we consider Shakespearean Macbeth, we will see how women can become victims of power. Lady Macbeth wants to see her husband to the throne and acts accordingly. But things do not happen as she expects them to. Lady Macbeth starts to act going by her ambitions. This character helps Shakespeare to demonstrate that women are capable of engaging in acts that will secure the power, what is important, is that even the most immoral things do not stop them.

Macbeth represents the idea of lack of ethics which, when mixed up with greed, leads to immorality and even brutality. When a woman becomes a source of evil nothing seems to stop her in her malicious intentions, but this play shows that women themselves can become the victims of their cruelty. Influence and control do not necessarily mean happiness; one becomes a hostage of one’s power and never returns the feeling of one’s freedom.

Another example of a strong female character in Shakespeare’s work is Paullina from the Winter’s Tale. This woman is an embodiment of feminine virtue. She never hesitates to express her views despite the male oppression she constantly experiences. She is not afraid of calling the King, who terrifies everybody, a fool. Once she admits that she will never stop using the mouth she has and the strength from her bosom to express herself. Her openness and straightforwardness always cause much trouble to her but never question her will and determination.

The role of this character is crucial for understanding the author’s message in the play. Paulina is the one who brings life into the play. She stands for the oppressed in society and is not afraid of the patriarch. Paulina’s role in the play is symbolic. She stands to represent the following: she protects sisterhood; she tries to restore balance in society; she strives for equal rights of men and women; she epitomizes womanhood; she represents beauty in an artistic way.

The ideas that Paulina defended were not typical of her time, therefore, she is seen as an ideal character depicted by Shakespeare. This is her strength that the playwright admired and managed to render his feeling through the pages of the play. The reader cannot but share the author’s views on female strength and power and this admiration makes him or she reread the play over and over again.

John Webster’s works give an idea that powerful women were an anomaly in the XVI and XVII centuries. Indeed, during the early modern period, powerful women were not welcome in society, they were considered to be unnatural and dangerous. Female dominance could not be accepted as it symbolized social disorder then. The laws of the patriarchal society of those times stated that a male figure possessed supreme power; females’ role was to admire him and follow his instructions without doubting them. Therefore, if a woman appeared to be powerful, she was often denigrated and seen as dysfunctional.

Though the history of England had three instances of females reigning during the period, Mary Stuart, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth Tudor, the very thought of the women rulers agitated the humans’ minds.

To be successful and powerful during this time was not an easy task for a woman. For this, she had to embody contradictory qualities. She had both to combine the so-called male intelligence and feminine qualities like kindness, responsibility, tenderness, tractability, and the like. She had to be both tough and yet submissive.

Women in power could not go far beyond social norms during the period described in Shakespeare and Webster’s works. If the woman acted too subversively or radically, she was often punished severely. Therefore, a powerful woman had to manage to achieve her goals within the boundaries of social limits.

Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi suggests a story of a woman in power. A widow, the Duchess rules her duchy alone. When she falls in love with his steward Antonio, she secretly marries him. By choosing to do this, the Duchess neglects her duty to her people. When she gets pregnant, her people denounce her as a strumpet and lose their respect for her as a leader.

No woman of her rank had faced the same problem. The Duchess was not lucky to have friends, she had children to bring up alone, and moreover, she was not a mature person then. All these could have caused her demise, but she stood firm and demonstrated her strong will. Unfortunately, this resulted in tragedy.

To understand better Webster’s motivation to write the play, one should know some rules of the social and political environment of the times described. At that time, women who had never been married were not allowed to own property or even lease it. Their fate solely depended on their male relatives. Yet, women could not trust their relatives without reserve as they could easily be misinformed or exploited by the latter.

However, widows were an exception; they were allowed to own property and to conduct their businesses any way they preferred. Still, despite the benefits that remaining a widow brought to a woman, most women preferred to remarry. Webster’s Duchess was one of them. She lacked male love and tenderness; she needed a person near her who she could rely on and find the needed support from. She didn’t need the approval of her brother anymore. She believed that her value was like a diamond’s value – it becomes important only when placed on a man’s finger. The following lines show her choice of love instead of power:

If all my royal kindred/ Lay in my way unto this marriage, / I’d make them my low footsteps…Let old wives report/ I winked and chose a husband (Webster, a 339-40).

The Dutchess’s courage, ambition, strength, slyness, and passion skillfully depicted by Webster contributed to the character’s colorful image of a woman who strives for her happiness and does not fear to love and to be loved.

Another Webster’s play, The White Devil, also gives several bright examples of strong women. Cornelia, the mother of Vittoria, appears as one of the strongest and most influential women in the play. She represents the voice of reason here.

As for Vittoria, many interpretations of her conduct might appear. On the one hand, she can be seen as a powerless and weak woman. She cannot resist her father’s will to marry her to Camillo who is not the man she loves. Then, she is betrayed by her brother and by the faith she keeps to. Further, she is betrayed by the State, this is Francisco who represents it.

Another possible view of Vittoria is that she is a strong and selfish woman who cares only about her own interests. In many cases, Vittoria does not appear a weak victim and defends herself bravely. For instance, when Vittoria is accused, she does not simply submit to the will of the court. She defends herself and claims that one cannot be the same person acting as the judge and the accuser. We consider that this scene brings out the strength of this woman.

Therefore, both authors tried to figure out the mystery of female strength. Being the first in depicting women as strong characters capable of defending their interests the authors managed to impress the readers with the novelty of the themes described and the characters depicted. Much of the feminist ideas of the present day can be found in Shakespeare and Webster’s works created centuries ago. The authors’ contribution to literature in this respect is that they were the first among those who showed that women are not always submissive members of society but strong members of it who are not afraid of fighting for their place under the sun.

Depiction of Women as Intellectuals

The concept of power is a rather vague one and can be interpreted in various ways, but we are inclined to believe that no one would deny the fact that possessing power is impossible without being wise and intelligent. Along with depicting female power and strength, Shakespeare and Webster stressed on intellectual abilities of their characters. Let us consider some of the authors’ female characters who may truly be called intellectuals.

In his play The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare develops the idea of an ideal woman. Portia serves as the embodiment of perfection. She combines both beauty and intelligence. This character is not merely an ideal woman in Shakespeare’s eyes, but this is an ideal of the whole Renaissance period. Portia contributes much to reveal the main themes of the play due to her ability to use intelligence, her understanding, and loving heart, and the witty remarks that she often makes.

The author seems to put Portia on a pedestal that not so many can reach. Portia’s beauty, lively intelligence, quick wit, and high moral principles she was ruled by made her able to handle any situation. Also, Portia is able to defend her views in any situation. The woman is endowed with a sense of power which helps her to change the world around her, use multiple meanings and answer wisely and wittily to the men she deals with. Portia’s intelligence looks more appealing because of her loving heart.

We cannot but admit that the theme of appearance helps Shakespeare to depict Portia’s character. She says to her new husband:

You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand, / Such as I am… But the full sum of me / Is an unlesson’d girl, unschool’d, unpractic’d, / Happy in this, she is not yet so old / But she may learn; happier than this, / She is not bred so dull but she can learn” then dresses up as a man and releases Antonio from his bond with Shylock (Shakespeare, 2000 149-164).

Thus, she proves that even though she might have been perceived as “an unlesson’d, unschool’d, unpractic’d” girl, she is strong, intelligent, and experienced and this enables her to act firmly. Portia is a bright example of a woman who is capable of preserving her female charm and beauty along with strong will and determination. Portia’s soul stands above many others and makes her an immortal character that one cannot but admire.

In part, Shakespeare represented his female characters in this light because of the awakening that occurred right around the Renaissance time. The great playwright was quite aware that women of high social standing, for example, such as Macbeth, were capable of accessing private tutors. These women possessed significant power and this made their husbands turn towards them to find guidance.

Lady Macbeth was an eloquent lady that means that she was a well-educated person. Education was not typical of ordinary women in those times. The first Act demonstrates Lady Macbeth’s rhetoric abilities and her power to use caustic wording that reveals the masculine courage that she possesses.

Lady Macbeth considers crime to be the only way to take over the throne; what is more, she does not care about the morality of her affair. Nothing can stop Lady Macbeth in her ambitious desire to become more powerful. The tricks she resorts to speaks for her quick-wits and ability to act quickly without hesitation. These are characteristics of a smart woman and they made her dominant over her partner in her marriage.

As it is seen from the play, Lady Macbeth uses her strength in the wrong way; she just cares about satisfying one’s own interests causing much harm to surroundings. Actually, her passion for power and her unwillingness to notice others and take into consideration their wishes and interests led to her death.

It would be a mistake to think that Shakespeare’s aim was to denounce intelligent women. He had a much deeper intention – in his plays, he wanted to show the consequences to which a human intelligence used with evil purposes might lead.

The play The Taming of the Shrew teaches the reader not to be ruled by the first impression about a woman that one might get. At first sight, Katherina seems to be a feisty woman. But, in fact, she is candor and witty. Katherina was a rather intelligent woman ready to face the challenges that destiny prepared for her.

The kindness and intelligence of Katherina are clearly seen in her conversations with other characters of the play. The woman never failed to surprise her suitor Petruchio with her smart answers. Katherina’s witticism made Petruchio more and more interested in her. Depicting these relationships Shakespeare intended to demonstrate that women do not necessarily have to be submissive to attract the attention of the opposite sex.

If we come back to Portia’s character from The Merchant of Venice we will admire the way she uses her intelligence and quick wits to manipulate people and men, in particular. Portia is able to make Shylock realize that he was wrong in his actions. At the end of the play, one can even observe him asking for mercy for all misdeeds his life was full of. Using her wit, Portia proves to everyone that women can easily place themselves in men’s shoes and, moreover, they can feel quite comfortable there. Portia’s triumph that one can observe at the end of the play demonstrates that women are capable of having the same power as men do if they are educated in a proper way.

Shakespeare’s message is that male superiority has no firm basis, the satirical form of narration that he resorts to helps him to render it.

The White Devil by Webster presents the author’s view on unintelligent women. Lady Vittoria’s maid Zanche was constantly deceived by the men around her. First, she passionately waited for Flamineo who promised to marry her but never kept his word. Then, she fell in love with Francisco who killed many people. Zanche was not intelligent enough to read the dubious and deceitful nature of her beloved. Instead, she went ahead and told him about the murders of Isabella and Camilla in order to gain his favor. Further, Zanche failed to understand that Flamineo feigned his death. Little did she know about the arrangement between Francisco and Lodovico. Zanche’s trustfulness and inability to reveal others’ intentions and act accordingly ruined her life.

Thus, we can see that both playwrights admired women’s intelligence, wit, and power over the people around them and stressed these traits in their plays. Both authors showed that intellect always won. Intelligent women dominated their partners, foolish and naïve became their victims. Going by the great playwrights, intelligent women are not only capable of building up their own happiness but of influencing greatly the whole society as well. If women’s power is directed properly everyone can benefit from it, otherwise, only drastic consequences may be expected.

Depiction of Women as Pawns

The reality of life is such that women do not always have strong characters and often they stand out as fragile creatures incapable of defending their interests. Many women often fail to realize their right to be happy and do not attempt to change the situation for the better. When a woman cannot respect herself and her right to the happiness she will never find support from others, moreover, she will be treated accordingly in her society. Women of this type are often viewed as those who cannot take control over their lives and exist only being led by others.

This part of the paper is concerned with Shakespeare and Webster’s depiction of such women. The thing is that not all of Shakespeare’s female characters are in charge of their lives. By depicting women who did not seek approval from others, especially from men, the great playwright created an image of an ideal woman in his plays. But when his intention was to create a character that reflected the realities of those times he stated directly that a woman’s purpose in life was to please the men around her.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is just an example of his work where he depicts women of this type. The female characters that he created in this play are radically different from those we have discussed above. Most of his other plays romanticized the role and importance of women (Lewis 311) and this play brought out women in a totally different light. If normally Shakespeare elevates the role of women and depicts them as strong and vitally important for the central characters, in this play most of the women are shown as tools in men’s hands. Women in Hamlet are used by men throughout the play to achieve their own goals.

Presenting women in this light, the playwright rendered the atmosphere in which his works were created. Hamlet was written at a time when most men used women to satisfy their own needs. There was no difference in what relationships the women were with those men – whether they were relatives or lovers – they all treated women as toys they could not simply play with but use for their own purposes. Depicting women as pawns was a common thing for readers of the plays, as Shakespearean society considered such treatment of women to be quite normal.

Every step of Ophelia, the most attractive female character of the play, is controlled by her father and brother. Having affectionate feelings towards Hamlet this girl does not find any support from her relatives. In order to preserve her father’s reputation, Ophelia has to sacrifice her feelings.

We assume that the girl was used by Hamlet when he killed his uncle. Though the real reason for the murder was Hamlet’s revenge for his father’s death, he arranged it like a crime of passion thus hiding his true intentions. Ophelia did not have enough moral power to stand Hamlet’s behavior and her father’s and brother’s actions and she went mad. The girl’s decision to put an end to her miserable life by suicide was a direct consequence of the way men treated her.

Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, is also highly affected by the men around her. She cannot choose between her role as a mother and Claudius’s lover. When Gertrude’s husband passes away, Hamlet advises her to avoid marrying Claudius in such a short period after his death. At the same time, Gertrude’s lover tells her to ignore her son’s pleas and to listen to him only. Thus, Gertrude is to take a serious decision and to act according to one of the men’s advice. She is caught between her son’s and her lover’s intentions that all concern her own life.

Shakespeare has shown how restricted a woman might be in her decisions and in her striving for happiness.

If we consider Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi a lot of examples when a woman is used as a pawn can be found there. When the Duchess decides on marrying the steward, she faces strong opposition from her brother. Though her brothers ensure her of having certain liberties, once she tries to make use of them, they take away every possible freedom of hers.

Speaking of women’s submission, it is worthwhile mentioning one more character of Shakespeare, namely, Katherina’s sister, Bianca, from The Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare depicts Bianca as a submissive woman who never dares to doubt the behavior of her partner. The author does not give much consideration to this woman; instead, he focuses on a self-confident and willful Katherina. The playwright stresses the fact that though being equally brought up and educated, the sisters are diametrically opposite to one another. Being a shrew, as the title suggests, Katherina never hesitates to act against the norm. The reader can feel the author’s hidden support of those women who stand their ground and a bitter disappointment about those who simply follow the rules of society.

Katherina’s monologue in the last scene of the play presents considerable interest in understanding her character. There are several possible views on interpreting this monologue. According to the first one, it can be interpreted as proof that Katherina was not tamed. From this, it comes out that Shakespeare managed to mock the way men treated women during those times.

Also, the final monologue can be seen as Katherina’s deception of her suitor and her brother. The monologue was Katherina’s attempt to show that there were some men in her life that she had submitted her will to. Yet, somewhere deep in her heart, she knew that she remained faithful to her beliefs.

One more possible interpretation of the dialogue is that it is an indication of how ambitious and willful women like Katherina are silenced by society. Going by this interpretation we might assume that this monologue is a true indication of how vivacious Katherina was tamed. Indeed, there is enough evidence that the woman was tamed throughout the play. For example, after the wedding ceremony, Petruchio kept on repeating that Katherina had no longer belonged to her family, but to his one since then. Also, Petruchio prevented Katherina from eating and sleeping thus dominating over her.

If we assume that this interpretation is a reasonable one, then we believe that Shakespeare was trying to stress in such a way the limitations of the freedom of women of the sixteenth century. Most of the women were made to believe that they could gain a significant social status in the society where they lived, but soon they faced the hardship that the marriage presented them with. In most cases, women were repressed by their husbands. Katherina commented on her husband and marriage in such a way:

Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,/ Thy head, thy sovereign; one that cares for thee/And for thy maintenance; commits his body/ To painful labor both by sea and land, / To watch the night in storms, the day in cold, / Whilst thou li’st warm at home, secure and safe; / And craves no other tribute at thy hands / But love, fair looks, and true obedience– / Too little payment for so great a debt (Shakespeare, 2003 160).

The reader cannot feel quite sure about whether Katherina submitted to Petruchio’s will or not. But he or she can feel thankful to the author for giving an opportunity to reconsider one’s own views on the issues relevant to women’s role in society that remain burning nowadays.

Therefore, along with the strong female characters Shakespeare and Webster depicted those who were submissive victims of the power that men had over them. Because of the different reasons those women could not strive for their happiness and never experienced what it meant to be capable of making one’s own decisions and to be responsible for them. Some of the characters depicted by the authors were unwilling to realize the problem they had faced, others did understand that they were to change something but could not do it either because of the norms existing in the society or the weakness of their characters.

Still, the authors remain equally persuasive in their depiction of strong and weak characters. No matter what female character Shakespeare and Webster created, either powerful and intellectual or weak and unable to defend one’s rights, all of them strike with their truthfulness and realism of depiction.

Conclusion

Having analyzed the brightest Shakespeare’s and Webster’s female characters we conclude that both playwrights are quite similar in their depiction of women. Such character traits as strength, strong will, and determination, the ability to stand on one’s own and defend one’s own views are often sung of by the authors in their plays.

Both of them depicted various aspects of female existence – their characters are either strong, determined, and capable of building up one’s own happiness and influencing positively the society they live in, or they are weak submissive victims of their lovers, relatives, or the rules that reign in society. Depiction of woman’s strength and power was new to English literature, the authors are considered to be pioneers in this respect. The previous authors were not that persuasive in their depiction of women as intellectuals and never claimed that women’s intelligence does not yield to male’s one.

Both Shakespeare and Webster continued the tradition to depict women as tools in men’s hands. Their works reflected the real situation in the treatment of women in the XVI-XVII centuries and approached the establishment of another view on women.

Every reader irrespective of his or her sex finds a lot to derive from the playwright works and female characters’ actions in particular. Numerous lessons concerning preserving one’s own dignity and personality are taught by the authors. The female characters will not stop calling the readers’ interest, as their skillful depiction by the authors reveals the nature of a woman in all its modifications.

Works Cited

Kegan, P. The Duchess of Malfi: A Case Study in the Literary Representation of Women. Teaching the Text. Routledge Publishers, 1983.

King, M. Women of the Renaissance. University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Lewes, L. Women of Shakespeare. Hodder Brothers Press, 1991.

Looney, T. Shakespeare: Identified as Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. New York; Frederick A. Stokes Company Publishers, 1920.

Mackenzie, A. The Women in Shakespeare’s Plays. Garden City: Doubleday, Page and Company Publishers, 1924.

Marcus, L. Shakespeare and Gender: A History. Verso Publishers, 1995.

McKewin, C. The Women’s Part. University of Illinois Press, 1980.

Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Plain Label Books, 1997.

Shakespeare, W. Macbeth. Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Shakespeare, W. The Merchant of Venice. Penguin Group Publishers, 2000.

Shakespeare, W. The Taming of the Shrew. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Webster, J., a. The Duchess of Malfi. Nick Hern Books, 1996.

Webster, J., b. The White Devil. Manchester University Press, 1996.

Click Here To Order Now!