Women In A Midsummer Night S Dream Sex Gender And Social Norms Of Feminity In The Elizabethan Age And In Shakespeare S Comedy

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 0,7, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: The aim of the present paper is to examine the role of women in Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream". The first section investigates women in early modern England and is divided into the subsections "Sex and gender in early modern England" and "Norms of femininity". Section two explores the role of women in the sixteenth century comedy. More precisely, the emphasis here will be upon the analysis of female-female and female-male bonds of the characters in the play.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 0,7, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen (Anglistik), language: English, abstract: The aim of the present paper is to examine the role of women in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The first section investigates women in early modern England and is divided into the subsections "Sex and gender in early modern England" and "Norms of femininity." Section two explores the role of women in the sixteenth century comedy. More precisely, the emphasis here will be upon the analysis of female-female and female-male bonds of the characters in the play.

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Wuppertal, language: English, abstract: Women mistaken for men, men mistaken for women, disguised as men - this play with identity and gender does not seem to be a new topic for the theatre audience of the 21. century. But in Elizabethan England, where identity and the question of class were very important for society, these confusing relationships shown on stage must have been puzzling. Although confusions over identity are nothing new in comedy since classical times, it is Shakespeare who mainly focused on the issue of gender in his comedies. In 'Twelfth Night' he plays with the cultural constructions of his time, for example the question of gender and erotic attraction, even between partners of the same sex.

This study employs Jungian and post-Jungian hermeneutics to address psychological, social and political perspectives in A Midsummer Night's Dream, M. Butterfly, and Kiss of the Spider Woman. It should be of interest to theatre scholars and practitioners and scholars of popular culture.

In this study of A Midsummer Night's Dream, James Calderwood calls on psychoanalysis, feminism, anthropology and metadrama, to demonstrate the profound complexity of the play. He shows how Shakespeare explores the nature of human desire by exploiting the seriousness of high (and low) comedy.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Augsburg, language: English, abstract: Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus is his most gruesome play. It has been harshly criticized for its exaggerated cruelty and was certainly not among his most popular works. However, the play aroused a somewhat greater interest within the field of gender studies and the feminist approach to literature. The simplified, objectified and polarized depiction of the female characters virtually stares the gender-conscious reader in the face; this is an open invitation for closer inspection. Though the virgin-whore dichotomy was quite common in Elizabethan literature, it is carried to extremes in Titus Andronicus. In the following the construction of femininity and the female characters in the play, Lavinia and Tamora, will be analyzed against the background of the perception of femininity in Shakespeare’s time.