It has been said that in "The Winter's Tale" Shakespeare dramatises the contemporary struggle between masculine and feminine power. In light of this comment, examine the presentation of the relationships between men and women.

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It has been said that in "The Winter's Tale" Shakespeare dramatises the contemporary struggle between masculine and feminine power. In light of this comment, examine the presentation of the relationships between men and women.

Since the beginning of time a struggle for equality has been present between masculine and feminine powers. The biblical stories of creation have often been used as an excuse to mistreat women. The mythical story of "The Garden of Eden" has been used to display women being easily seduced into wrong doing "The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good the fruit would be to eat... so then she took some of the fruit and ate it"; how women corrupt men into wrong doing; "Then she gave some (fruit) to her husband, and he also ate it," this illustrates women's dependence on men, "made him cultivate the soil from which he had been formed". Also because the male was created first "God took some soil from the ground and formed man out of it" and is often thought of as being the perfection of creation, where as the female is a helper "he formed woman out of the rib (Adam's.)" Even