Discuss the treatment of gender politics in Romeo and Juilet(TM) and Antony and Cleopatra(TM)

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Discuss the treatment of gender politics in ‘Romeo and Juilet’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra’

The issue of gender politics has always been a prevalent theme for the basis of Renaissance literature with the traditional roles of men and women often being challenged.  The Renaissance era held strong ideals of how men and women should behave strongly defining the differences between the sexes; ‘history, society and culture shape though not entirely determine the ways in which men and women perceive themselves and are perceived by others’. Gender politics it could be argued bleeds into social construction which can be defined as ‘any institutionalized entity or artefact in a social system ‘invented’ or ‘constructed’ by participants in a particular culture or society that exists because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventional rules’. The study of Shakespeare can be described generally as a consideration of individual and society in the plays, but this is a clearly too vague a formula to stand by itself without close analysis. Focusing on Shakespeare’s, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ I am going to explore the notion that men and women’s gender roles is often shaped by the society in which they live and examine whether these publications challenge traditional gender roles.

Throughout Shakespeare’s plays the roles of the female protagonists varies greatly. In Elizabethan society the transcendental ideology of love was that women should remain passive whilst men actively pursue their hand in marriage. The patriarchal society in which they lived also meant that the father, head of the household, had the authority to choose the woman’s husband and ‘the Elizabethan elite marriage was marked by a protracted series of public rituals and social transactions’. Desire and sexuality was also frowned upon before marriage with shame framing the concept of erotic desire reinforcing the belief that women were not even in control of their own sexuality. Therefore through subconscious attribution women became morally defined by their sexual status. In Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, the powerful control of the patriarchal society is clearly identified in the character of Capulet. In act 1 scene 2 he refers to Juliet’s inability to choose a husband for herself when he states ‘my will to her consent is but a part’ (i.ii.15). He appears to be offering Juliet some leeway with her choice of husband but his power to force her into a marriage if he feels necessary is implicitly present which is revealed when he later states ‘as you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend’(3.5.191).  This emphasises the commanding force over women by the social structure of the family were ‘considering gender reveals critical differences in the family foundations of societies – varying from how marriages were contracted and ancestry calculated to how property was transferred and classes formed’. This paramount control by the head of the family is embellished further by the setting in Verona, Italy, where desires, rebellions and restraint are magnified by the exotic setting. In Renaissance society the head of the household was believed to know best, however, in many ways Shakespeare reveals Capulet to be indecisive character therefore contradicting his own authoritarian rule. This is exposed in Capulet’s wavering ideas of when Juliet should marry; he initially tells Paris ‘My child is yet a stranger to the world’ (1.2.8) but then contradicts himself by enforcing Juliet’s marriage to Paris. As argued by Coppelia Kahn ‘ by introducing the arranged marriage at the beginning , and by making Capulet change his mind about it, Shakespeare shows us how capricious patriarchal rule can be’, consequently revealing the irresolute divide between men and women in patriarchal society.  By defying the household authority figure Juliet seems to distort the traditional ideals of how a women should behave in Renaissance society.  Carolyn Brown argues that ‘Shakespeare reverses the gender roles, as he does in other parts of the play, and has Juliet assume behaviour typically assigned to men’. It could be argued that the play is based on a battle of wills between Juliet and her father which could be seen as resembling a duel normally associated between two men as in ‘the context of Shakespearean drama, moreover, female characters have been recognized as strong willed’. Although, their duel is not physical, (despite Caplet threatening Juliet with physical violence), it is based on domination and rebellion, with Juliet successfully evading her fathers authority.

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In many ways it could also be asserted that Juliet dominates, to a certain extent, Romeo, again challenging the ‘traditional view of Juliet as Romeo’s passive beloved by arguing that her languages and actions contain a deeper level of meaning’.  In Renaissance society a woman was required to take their husbands name yet Juliet asks Romeo to make this sacrifice required of a women when she asks him to ‘deny thy father and refuse thy name’. She is asking him to separate himself from his father, and base his identity as her husband. Therefore meaning that their marriage was ...

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