Essay about Gender in Shakespeares As You Like It

Questions of Gender in Shakespeares As You Like It Throughout history, men and women have been assigned specific roles to which society prescribes standards and qualifications. There are certain tasks that have been traditionally completed only by men, and others that have been assigned to women; most of which are separated by the realm of the domestic sphere. During the period of the Renaissance, men and women were assigned very different roles within society. The value, social expectations, legal status, and rights of citizenship differed greatly between the sexes as well as among the classes. Many of these gender roles can be identified through careful readings of the literature produced throughout the Renaissance.†¦show more content†¦Such a life was impossible for women . . . because for a woman, a public reputation was dishonorable, a sure sign of immorality and scandal (Wiesner 12). Women were excluded from any position of meaningful authority in any realm of society. Men were even valued for their ability to classify an object or being as beautiful. During this period of great creative accomplishments, men may . . . have taken to commerce or to drink, but as a matter of fact they took to visible beauty (Putnam 164). They established beauty as an important quality of life, and only men had the capacity to differentiate between that which was beautiful and not beautiful. Women, therefore, were often valued for their physical features. In the Renaissance, . . . the beauty of woman is more praised and esteemed than any other beauty . . . [for] it appears to be the order of nature that what is lacking in one sex is supplied in the other, and since man is endowed with wit, judgement, and a mind almost divine, . . . woman is given bodily beauty that she may be superior to man in this respect (Camden 20). Women were object to be viewed with pleasing affections, not with any sense of worth other than their physical features; . . . the only positive demand of the woman was that she should be beautiful (Putnam 164-165). Women were also valued for qualities that define them as submissive and passive. A womansShow MoreRelated Gender and Social Norms in Shakespeares As You Like It Essay1670 Words   |  7 PagesGender and Social Norms in As You Like It      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Shakespeare based his comedy As You Like It primarily on three other works.   Its plot follows the basic structure of Rosalynde, published in 1590 by Thomas Lodge.   The Tale of Gamelyn, written by an unknown author in the mid-fourteenth century, is a violent Middle English narrative that was found among Chaucers papers and provides further details for Shakespeares work.   With the Forest of Ardenne serving as an escape for our main charactersRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Much Ado About Nothing768 Words   |  4 Pagesplays are produced for money and audiences. In Shakespeare’s time, a lot of plays were written to center around politics and retelling of historical England and Europe. Shakespeare’s plays are written in prose. Shakespeare’s plays were also performed at playhouses around England. 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