Bostick Chris 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper
The Difference in the Roles of Women in Shakespeare and Cervantes In the times of Shakespeare and Cervantes, women were held in a low social standing in society, and were subservient to men. Their traditional place involved not speaking out and always being obedient to men. Both authors created satirical works involving the customs of their time, mocking traditional values. Also in both of their comedies there is often a marriage plot where you find many characters matched up, seemingly to obtain a happier ending. This is evident in Shakespeare plays, such as Twelfth Night where only Antonio and Malvolio end up truly unhappy, and in almost every Cervantes comedy. However, while reading the works of Shakespeare and Cervantes you can see a difference in the representation of the role of women. Examining them it is evident that Shakespeare was the more liberated writer of his time, giving his female characters strong parts, while Cervantes held his stories to the status quo, keeping women in the role society held them. Looking at Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew, we are introduced to Katherine who busts out of all typical societal conceptions of women. She speaks on the same intelligence level as the male characters, and she insults them, which was an inconceivable action during the time period. She openly refutes her fathers wedding choices without hesitation saying, "I pray you, sir, is it your will/to make a stale of me amongst these mates" (Act I.I 57-58). Even more so, her overall role in the play constantly suggests her equality with the male characters. Although she is supposedly tamed by her male counterpart in the story, Petruchio, she still keeps her quick tongue intact. The fact that the play shows such a dominant presence in the form of a female character supports the argument that Shakespeare created his females without molding
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper
them to the norms of society. Instead he uses the play to create a defiant model of equality between women and men. He does this by modeling Katherine to be strong willed and outspoken, the antipodal of the ideal woman of the time period. Analyzing the play a thoughtful critic might say that in the end Katherine does submit by marrying Petruchio, and that her ending speech surrenders to male supremacy. However if you examine the speech you see that she is only playing the part of the submissive wife. Looking at Katherines words you can see the blatant sarcasm when she says, "And place your hands below your husbands foot/ In token of which duty, if he please/ My hand is ready, may it do him ease" (Act V.II 176-178). Charles Frey describes these strong women saying, "Such women manage to assert themselves, however in spite of the odds against them, as heroic exceptions to the more general rule of depressing male domination" (126). Hence Frey is illustrating how Shakespeare creatively manipulates male dominance with heroic females against the oppressive traditions against women. The ultimate demonstration of female emancipation from the norm can be found in Shakespeares Twelfth Night, where Viola plays the role of the male Cesario. This idea destroys the barriers by having a female capable of doing the task of a male without being detected. This was highly unorthodox for an author to consider by saying it is possible for a woman to do such a thing without serious repercussions. An author making this kind of statement could be ostracized as a maniac by his society, however, Shakespeare gets away with it by making it a comedy and therefore not serious, or at least to appear that way to the reader. I believe Trevor Nunns 1996 movie production of Twelfth Night: Or What You Will shows it best by having Viola do such things as playing pool, fencing, and fighting with Sir Andrew. All of these tasks would be considered inappropriate for a
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper
woman to take part in, yet Viola is allowed to do all of them in her ruse as a man. This freedom is shocking considering how it would be viewed by men during the time period in play form. Even at this time women were not allowed to act on stage, yet the play is showcasing a woman in a role of authority as a man. Valentine praises Viola as Cesario on her good work saying, "If the Duke continue these favors towards you, Cesario, you are like to be much advanced" (Act I.IV).This shows that a woman has the ability to accomplish what a man can do. Violas strong role shows that Shakespeare is a more liberated writer who creates aggressive women against the traditions of his society. Another Shakespeare play that places women outside of what would be considered acceptable behavior is A Midsummer Night Dream, where the female characters are outspoken and proud. Within the opening moments of the story we have a defiant female in Hermia, who is refuting her fathers commands to marry Demetrius. Hermias father, Egeus, complains to Theseus about his daughter not fulfilling her obedient role saying, "With cunning hast thou filched my daughters heart/turned her obedience which is due to me/to stubborn harshness" (Act I.I 36-38). If this occurred in society, a daughter would never dissent from her fathers choice of marriage under any circumstance. More significant is the fact that Hermia is rewarded in the end for her disobedience and is able to marry Lysander. Clearly, in this time period, it would be customary for a daughter to receive severe punishment for not marrying according to her parents wishes. Thus, Shakespeare goes against the beliefs of his time period by not punishing Hermia in the play for her disobedience. Another powerful female character exists in Titania who similarly defies her husbands wishes of having her "Indian boy". This is the opposite of what at the time was acceptable, for a wife would never second
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper
guess the wishes of her husband. These two examples show innovative depictions of females, leading one to discern that this is due to Shakespeares freedom in his writing from the norm. This shows that he obviously did not agree with all of the conceptions of women from his time and used his work as a medium to illustrate some of his thoughts. In looking at Cervantes views on women, Chesley Hutchings describes them saying, Cervantes ideas of woman are the conventional conceptions current in his times: the priceless treasure of chastity, the fickleness of woman, her frailty under temptation, her compassion, her fondness of finery, her susceptibility to flattery, her envy of rivals, the danger of unduly testing a wifes fidelity, the incompatibility of "December and May," the and inviolability of marriage. (319) All of these can be justified analyzing the stories, and we can see that the most important of these conceptions involve womens chastity, frailty, and fickleness. The value of chastity can be seen in The Power of Blood with the loss of Leocadias virginity due to rape and her attempts to redeem herself. An example of their frailty under temptations is depicted in The Jealous Old Man from Extremadura with Leonoras infidelity. The fickleness of women is shown in The Divorce Court Judge where the women no longer want to be married to their current husbands. It is these commonly accepted characteristics of women that Cervantes uses to generate his characters thus making them to societys will. When we look at Cervantes, he creates commonly accepted females. There were many sayings in Cervantes time that warned against female desire, providing that
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper
consequences will occur. In The Deceitful Marriage, this idea is upheld in the characters of Campuzano and Estefania. Campuzano is punished for succumbing to female desire. He marries the morally questionable Estefania, and he is tricked and given syphilis. Yet by being punished Campuzano is able to move forward and become an author. Estefania runs away and remains in her lying ways because of it. This is because Cervantes is depicting a model of the Spanish belief system, where there is no in between of virtue and corruption for women. Thus if they ever are morally unsound, they will be trapped in their wicked ways. Evidence of this is found in the fact that the last mention of Estefania is news of her fleeing with her lover: "I learned that dona Estefania had gone off with the cousin whom I mentioned being present at our wedding and who had for many years been her lover though thick and thin" (246). By running away Estefania is never able to redeem herself in the story. The story supports the Spanish beliefs perfectly, serving as a guideline to show the dangers of female desire. The storys overall theme of not trusting shady women serves to demonstrate that Cervantes cared about making the story in the mold of his readers beliefs. In addition, the female characters in Cervantes stories are held to traditional low standing roles in society. In The Jealous Old Man from Extremadura, Leonora plays the part of the female as conceived by men in Cervantes time. She marries an old man at her parents will with no resistance. Leonora does everything she is expected to do without complaint, thus upholding her role. This is shocking to the modern reader because of the fact Leonora is at oldest fourteen, while Carrizales is old enough to be her grandfather. In the end she is held liable for cheating on Carrizales because of almost being tempted into infidelity by Loaysa, even though the story makes it clear that no sexual actions occurred:
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008
Essay Final Paper Leonoras courage was such that, precisely when she had the greatest need of it, she was able to repulse the ignoble advances of her cunning seducer, which were inadequate to subdue her; he exhausted himself in vain, she was victorious in the struggle, and they both fell asleep. (ES 178)
Thus, even though she never actually committed a wrong, she accepts that, as a woman, she has done wrong. When trying to explain to her husband why she was in Loaysas arms she finds herself unable to clear her name: "As she began to exonerate herself and explain the full truth of the matter, she became suddenly tongue-tied and once again fainted away" (ES 183). Her typical female behavior demonstrates that the story depicts women in stereotypical ways in which a woman was not supposed to argue with her husband and accept that he is right. Therefore the modeling of the female characters in Cervantes work relies upon the societys beliefs of a womans place. Cervantes appears to hold his female characters to the status quo in the efforts not to offend his audience. Consequently by not offending his audience his female characters become models of what society holds them to be. G. T. Northup adds to this analysis saying, "If Cervantes accepts the view of his time that woman is a fragile and imperfect creature, it is only to draw the moral that it devolves upon men to maintain a virtue so easily compromised" (408). He is saying that Cervantes thought men had to protect the virtue of women because they could not defend it themselves. Though the writers come from a time period and society with similar beliefs concerning women, their approach to depicting them is different. English professor Barbara Hodgdon says it best talking about The Taming of the Shrew saying, "What are the conditions of readability for a play in which the ,,problem of woman is not her
Chris Bostick 3/30/2008 exclusion but her radical inclusion" (538). This theory applies well to all of
Essay Final Paper
Shakespeares comedies on their treatment of women. Shakespeare tends to create female characters that do not fit into the role they would normally play. In addition, these plays are successful because of such female characters. The Taming of the Shrew is a result of Katherines feistiness, A Midsummer Night Dream takes off because of Hermias refusal to marry and Titanias disobedience to her husband, and Twelfth Night triumphs because of Violas boldly accepting and manipulating the male role. The plays are a showcase that celebrates strong women and applauds them for not fitting in with the societal norm. In contrast to this, Cervantes supports his societys beliefs in his stories putting women in roles that match up to what they were expected to do. His stories were often created as guidelines for real life, such as warning against the dangers of female desire. If there is a woman who does not fit into her role as a woman in a Cervantes story, then other characters are usually punished for associating with them. I feel Cervantes lets us know his plans to hold up traditional beliefs when he says, "What I mean is that the amorous compliments that you will find in some of them are so proper and so tempered by reason and Christian discourse, that they could not inspire undesirable thoughts in any reader, whether careful or otherwise"(ES 4). As a result, he is unable to seriously push the limits of the Spanish belief system and stay true to his words. Thus, whenever a female character has any standing in a Cervantes story, by the end she will be brought back down to her rightful place, below men. However, Shakespeare never makes a claim not to offend his readers, so he is free to push the limits of his societys beliefs as far as he can, without experiencing serious repercussion.