Shakespearean Heroines in the Chaos of Dominance and Submission

Parul Soni
Research Scholar
Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra
Email- parulsoni1709@gmail.com

"It is time that we all see gender as a spectrum instead of two sets of opposing ideals."
Emma Watson

Literature is the best way to get views of gender roles and social settings of different times and
culture. William Shakespeare´s tragedies are full of entertainment but along with it they also
reveal customs, traditions as well as beliefs typical of that period. Shakespeare wrote in the
Elizabethan age, when ‘feminism’ had not yet entered the academic discourse. Renaissance
society did not conventionally value the freedom of women. Shakespeare uses a specific style of
writing and an unusually wide register of human experience. Not only Shakespeare very cleverly
plays with a lot of cultural, literary and mythological references from different cultures and
periods but also the characters appearing in the plays are very diverse giving Shakespeare's
stories thrill and ambiguity. The characters were portrayed by the fact that the portrayal should
not give the spectators and readers a clear result, but leaves it up to the individual to make his or
her own opinion about the particular issue. He plays with the dynamics of every character,
setting a battle of binaries, the masculine world as opposed to the feminine one. He demonstrates
the complexities of human nature through the paradoxes of his leading male characters--
characters that simply cannot navigate these intricacies.

Shakespeare wrote at a time when women were believed to be both physically and intellectually
inferior to men. Shakespeare’s tragedies indicate the margin between men and women existed in
the social structure of Elizabethan society. As their responsibilities and positions were strictly
divided, men were given power while women had to be obedient and submissive. But, his plays
have portrayed female as strong and outspoken, which is quite a feminist approach for that age.
A number of his female characters are intelligent, brave and noble and demand equality. That is
why, women of Shakespeare’s plays are often studied from a modern perspective. Shakespeare
has projected the strength and ability of women in front of the late sixteenth and seventeenth
century’s patriarchal society, through his tragedies. The paper will discuss the character of Juliet
in Romeo and Juliet, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Ophelia in Hamlet and Desdemona in Othello.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet deconstructs the idea that masculinity and femininity are
exclusive to their traditional genders. Romeo and Juliet rejects patriarchal ideologies and
redefines gender roles as encompassing both masculinity and femininity. Juliet’s extreme youth
and sexuality contributes to the complication of the idea that it is a play that is representative of
idealized heterosexual love. Despite Juliet’s youth, the complexity of her character arguably
outstrips that of Romeo. One critic supports Juliet’s importance in the play with her remark that
“as critics look beyond [Juliet’s] youth, they discover not a reticent virgin but a multifaceted
character that transcends Romeo in maturity, complexity, insight, and rhetorical dexterity”
(Brown 333). One of the most perplexing and even disturbing aspects of Juliet’s character is that
of her age. In comparison to his other plays, Shakespeare devotes an unusual amount of attention
to Juliet’s extreme youth; her age—just two weeks from fourteen years—is not only defined in
the text, but is repeatedly and uniquely emphasized.

Throughout the play, the use of bird imagery and metaphors are repeatedly employed, with
Juliet alluding to Romeo as her pet bird in the lines, “Hist! Romeo, hist! —Oh, for a falconer’s
voice, To lure this tassel-gentle back again!” (RJ 2.2.161-162) and “'Tis almost morning. I would
have thee gone. And yet no further than a wanton’s bird” (RJ 2.2.179-180). By referring to
Romeo as her bird, Juliet is positioned as the assertive and dominant role in their relationship, as
she is effectively taming Romeo as her pet. Juliet demonstrates her autonomy and masculinity
through her words, as she endeavors to train and discipline Romeo, much alike the dominating
relationship between a bird and its trainer. This defies the gender standard for women by
revealing that women are able to identify with more masculine gender roles rather than being
weak and subservient. In the final lines of the play, Romeo and Juliet supports this idea through
the concluding rhyming couplet, which reinforces the tragic genre of the play: “For never was a
story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo” (RJ 5.3.325-326). Traditionally, as part of a
patriarchal society, it would be the man’s name that appears first when listed, however Juliet has
assumed this dominant and possessive role and Romeo becomes an extension of her (Brown,
1996). By positioning Juliet as the assertive role in the relationship, the patriarchal expectation
for women to be subservient is unhinged, exposing that women are able to identify with the
masculine gender role, as masculinity and femininity are not binary oppositions.

In Macbeth, the traditional definitions of femininity and masculinity as such become confused
and confusing notions, reflecting Shakespeare's own uncertainty about what constitutes either.
Shakespeare represents through Macbeth the struggle of the male to conform to an ideal of
manhood endorsed by culture and society. Lady Macbeth's determination and boldness as a
female evoke Macbeth's feeling of inferiority and lack. The view of man is summarized in Lady
Macbeth‘s speech when she senses her husband‘s indecision to take the life of his king and gain
the crown, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were,
you would Be so much more the man.” (M 1.7.50-52) In these few lines, true manhood is
defined by Lady Macbeth as a territory without boundaries and regicide as the ultimate act of
heroic manhood. Her translation of murder, violence and betrayal as the definitive qualities of
manhood do not appear alien to both the culture of the play and the classic heroic ideals
associated with manhood. Macbeth’s heroism becomes exemplary in the battlefield and his
loyalty uncontested. Macbeth not only confesses his weakness, but also a human aspect that was
not apparent in his bloody actions at war. Adamant, therefore, that he will not take action, Lady
Macbeth vehemently invokes the evil spirits to “unsex her” and fill her with cruelty from crown
to toe to be able to supplement her husband with the essential evil required to perform the
murder. Believing in her power over him, she is certain she will successfully pour her poison in
his ears and change his mind in favor of her plan. However, when she later sees his hesitation
again just before the murder takes place, she accuses him of cowardice, lack of ambition and his
hopes as “green and pale”. Lady Macbeth’s shame of her husband springs from her realization
that her evil soliciting and constant nurturing have dramatically failed to turn him into a
remorseless and fearless man. At this specific moment, Lady Macbeth’s remorse manifests itself
in her description of how any delight of life has disappeared. The tone of desperation and
weakness overwhelms the passage marking a unique transformation in the character of the
mighty woman who has dramatically failed to “unsex” herself. Her status has been reduced to
one of marginality and isolation like an outcast cut off from grace. Her guilty conscience seems
to communicate its agony secretively in the solitude of her room and of her sleep. The incessant
washing of the blood on her hands which she has been observed doing shows an obsessive
compulsive urge to wash off her sense of guilt but to no avail and her half-sleeping mind
recognizes that, "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (M 5.1.40-41).

Shakespeare’s most significant play “Hamlet is at once the most expensive and the most reticent
of Shakespeare's tragedies: full of digression and contradiction, amplification and ellipsis”
(McAlindon, 1991: 102). This Shakespeare play mainly consists of tragedy, revenge and
victimization of women. Ophelia does not deal with anything except men’s rules; she does not
have alternative thoughts. She does not have alternative voices. She does not know how to
decide on her own. She echoes what said to her. Ophelia is not able to build her self-hood; her
singularity and her language. Her self- hood and her speech are forbidden by the males. To hear
Ophelia, you must solve suppression of Ophelia’s voice when compared to Hamlet’s strong
voices and her father Polonius’ speeches so “hearing Ophelia requires a new set of critical ears”
(Fischer, 1990: 3). Hearing Ophelia represents otherness in the play because her utterances are
not free; she does not know how to think, what to think and how to use her language. Her
expectations are determined by the males’ rules in her society. The men around her are the main
influences. Compared to Hamlet, Ophelia is a lack of creatures. She or the other women in
Elizabethan period represent nothing: “I think nothing, my lord. That’s a fair thought to lie
between maids’ legs. What’s my lord? Nothing.” (H 3.2 116-19)

Ophelia represents weak, silent and passive woman. To Shakespeare, she needs men. Her life has
no direction without a man. Ophelia’s brother Laertes and her father Polonius treat her as a child
who does not have self –awareness, understanding and nervousness about the ways of the world.
“As Polonius speaks his truisms to Laertes, so Laertes gives his platitudinous wisdom to Ophelia,
establishing a chain of cultural dissemination and control.” (Fischer, 1990: 4) Ophelia accepts
this platitudinous as accepting Laertes’ advice: “Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I
have said to you.” (H 1.3 84-85) “Tis in my memory lock’d, And you yourself shall keep the key
of it.” (H 1.3 86-87)

Ophelia is encircled by Polonius, Laertes and Hamlet. However, all these three men vanish
because Laertes walks away, Hamlet kills Polonius, and both Polonius and Hamlet leave her, so
she cannot make any decisions, she does not have any choices apart from behaving according to
rules of three men. We know well that even her love is directed by her father, brother and
Hamlet. She cannot “understand that she is a play thing in the hands of” (Rahman, 2006: 33)
these men. She is unaware of the nature of her own feelings; these feelings are developing
without getting permission from Ophelia, so she does not have the strength to control them.
“That Ophelia lets others construct her is obvious” (Finkelstein, 1997: 6). Without any protest,
she allows herself to be used by these three men. She is silent and is deprived of her language,
for that reason she must use body language to communicate with people in Elsinore. Ophelia
forms different types to break her silence as loading meanings to flowers and singing obscene
songs. These are types of modifying and abstracting form of speech. Elaine Showalter explains
the image of singing Ophelia as “a potent and obsessive figure in our cultural mythology”
(Showalter, 1994: 221).

In Othello Desdemona’s character is brought into question as Iago plants unfounded seeds of
jealousy into Othello’s estimation of her. Even though Desdemona is innocent and wishes to be
obedient to Othello, the suggested perception of her outweighs her actual actions. The
complexity of Desdemona’s character is that she is forced into being weaker, and that actually
she is not strong enough to save herself and ends up not strengthened but wrongfully defeated
because of her submissiveness. Desdemona’s obedience is immediately addressed and a major
issue of contention, particularly for the male characters in her life. Desdemona’s potential suitor
Roderigo first presents the idea when he says to Brabantio, “your daughter, if you have not given
her leave…hath made a gross revolt by eloping.” (O 1.1.131-2) While the marriage itself may be
shocking, the lack of her father’s knowledge and consent of the match is what makes it a “gross
revolt”. Desdemona’s revolt is not merely an escape from Brabantio’s sphere of influence and
her obligation to him, but her desire in choosing an outsider such as Othello. She is constantly
being placed in a position in which she must make a decision about to whom to adhere. This
inevitably leads to the impractical task of being obedient to multiple people, placing her in a
position of having to let down or betray someone. After Desdemona breaks her obedience with
Brabantio, his place is supplanted by Othello. While this act showed Desdemona’s obedience to
Othello, it also provides him a situation in which his doubts about her faithfulness are founded.
After their marriage has been made public, Desdemona quickly becomes associated as another
piece of Othello’s property. Her identity is linked to Othello and his perceptions of her, which
slowly makes her vulnerable to whatever interpretations he forms of her. When the council parts
ways one senator says to Othello “Adieu, brave Moor; use Desdemona well” (1.3.292). This
implies once again Desdemona’s status as a possession for Othello to use. At the moment when
she finds out that Othello really aims to kill her, she begins to defend herself in a courageous
manner by proclaiming her purity and innocence. As the tragedy comes to the end, Desdemona
reconciles herself to the lost of her love. Nevertheless, she proves the never-ending loyalty to
Othello even in the moment of her murder. Being afraid of losing his love, she protects him
despite of the consequences of his action.

The many and varied versions of female power discussed point to two related conclusions: that
the potency of power is affected by the gender of its possessor, and that gender is a cultural
construct which has especially significant implications for female characters. The strengths, as
well as the weaknesses, attributed to female characters are part of the construction of gender. The
positive desire to endorse female power and find powerful women can collude in the
construction of gender. William Shakespeare is an author, who elegantly alerts the society to the
issues in women's studies and gender philosophy. Shakespeare’s comedies show that there was a
clear borderline between men and women. Responsibilities of men and women were strictly
divided at that time. Shakespeare dealt with every issue which was burning question of the time;
also he recognized the issues which were not even considered to be existed.
 Works Cited

Brown, Carolyn E. “Juliet‟s Taming of Romeo.” Studies in English Literature 36.2 (1996): 333-
355. Print.

Finkelstein, Richard. “Differentiating Hamlet: Ophelia and the Problems of Subjectivity.”

Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme XXI.2 (1997): 5-22 . Print.

Rahman, S. Muhammad. “‘Frailty, Thy Name is Woman’- How Frail are Women in the World
of Shakespeare?” IIUC Studies. 3(2006): 31-44. Print.

Rosenberg, M. The Masks of Othello. Los Angeles: University of California Press.1961. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Harper Press. 2011. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. New Delhi: Fingerprint Publishing. 2016. Print.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Noida: Maple Press. 2013. Print

Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Noida: Maple Press. 2013. Print.

Showalter, Elaine. “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of

Feminist Criticism.” In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Case Studies in Contemporary
Criticism. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford, Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin's Press. 1994.
220-40. Print.