The characters’ likings change in the play is troubling, where Lysander is intensely in love with Hermia at first and with Helena at another point. “Transparent Helena! Nature shows art that through thy bosom makes me see thy heart” (Shakespeare and Foakes Act II). The aim of the play is not to observe the nature of true love but reasonably to mock misunderstandings that love brings. Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are destined not to be romantic classics, but somewhat sympathetic figures thrown into perplexing situations of romantic farce.
The idea of internal conflict and disguises in Twelfth Night is essentially the basis for the story. One key example for the significance of disguise is Viola. The first time the audience realizes the disguise is when Cesario (Viola) is sent out by her master Count Orsino to try to win the love of Olivia for him. This becomes extremely complicated because Viola likes Orsino and he is sending her to win over Olivia for him. This becomes an internal conflict because Cesario likes Orsino herself but she is currently disguised as a man for safety, and is trying to convince someone else to fall in love with the object of her affection.
Hero, who is a nun and supports chastity, in general, can be seen being quite forward. The apparent contradiction of erotic love can be seen throughout the whole of the poem. According to the narrator Cupid “imagin'd Hero was his mother” (Hero and Leander line 40). Here the Narrator implies that Hero has a great similarity to Venus, the goddess of love and sex. This suggests the presence of sexual content later in the text while also drawing attention to the erotic being of Hero’s appearance although she is a nun vowing chastity.
Humour at the expense of women is also prominent in ‘Much Ado’ through the use of ‘vulgar’ pre-marriage language, favoured by Margret – another arguably unconventional woman of the Elizabethan society, who participates in sex outside of wedlock purely for pleasure, creating controversy and humour. “Seventy-five percent of Shakespearian plays have oaths they can’t keep” correctly states Paul McDonald. This regular form feature of Shakespearian comedies generates humour at the expense of women in ‘Much Ado’; in the form of Beatrice ironically being ‘manoeuvred into wedlock despite proclaimed repugnance for matrimony’: Beatrice: “Adam’s sons are my brethren, and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kinred”. Beatrice breaks her oath of “remaining a wild, unconventional woman who denounces marriage” by instead becoming a product of proper Elizabethan social convention - Beatrice: “It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you”. This submission to the patriarchal society is also a common form feature of
In both poems gender conflict is demonstrated between through the emotion of betrayal in a relationship. For example in Les Grands Seignurs she talks about “little woman” which could show the great depth of thought about how she feels towards men. The word “a toy, a plaything” suggests that’s once she got married she has became powerless and feels like she is a toy, this shows her betrayal as when you get married you expect the marriage to be fantastic and not to feel like a toy. In contrast, Medusa also demonstrates this when she says “wasn’t I beautiful?” this Is effective as I can infer that she feels insecure about her looks. It also suggests that she misses her past through the use of a rhetorical question which makes the reader feel sympathy for her.
"To His Coy Mistress, is about a man, who wants to sleep with a young woman, but is scared that he does not have a lot of time left. Both the characters aims are the same, but their motivations are different. The Duke is informing the envoy about how he expects his wife to be by talking to him about his ex-wife. This is because he is trying to finalise the deal of marrying the Count's daughter, and wants to make a good impression, this slips throughout the poem, and he reveals his real self. However this contrasts with the speaker, because he is trying to persuade a woman to sleep with him.
The creation of disruption is a key theme in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that Shakespeare uses frequently. This is mainly to portray the volatility of the relationships between characters. In Act 1: Scene 1, we are introduced to the disruption of Lysander and Hermia’s relationship by Egeus when he claims ‘and she is mine, and all my right of her.’ This is a disruption of the blossoming romance between the young couple, and of the desire they have developed to be with one another. By using the word ‘right’ Egeus is using the law at the time, along with social conventions, to get his own way and marry his daughter off to his chosen suitor, without any consideration for how she feels herself. This shows the context where marriage would be used to enhance a families place in society rather than for love.
In the third act of the play, Shakespeare has highlighted some issues which are of great interest for Feminists, such as gender discrimination, stereotyping, objectification (especially sexual objectification) and oppression of women. Emilia and Desdemona are the stereotype women of Elizabethan society. They are submissive and the main purpose of their lives is to please their husbands. Desdemona herself declares that ‘I am obedient’ (Act 3 scene 3), continuing to obey Othello’s orders from the early ‘happy’ phase of their relationship through to the later stages of his jealous ravings. In a monologue, Emilia says: “I am glad I have found this napkin: / … My wayward husband hath a hundred times / Woo'd me to steal it; / … I'll have the work ta'en out, / And give't Iago: what he will do with it / Heaven knows, not I; / I nothing but to please his fantasy.”(Act 3 scene 3) Emilia gives the napkin to Iago because she has been commanded by him to steal it.
The Nurse, similar to Mercutio, makes lewd references to the sexual aspect of love. The Nurse doesn't share Juliet's idea of true love, for her, love is a temporary and physical relationship, so she can't recognise the intense and spiritual love Romeo and Juliet share. When the Nurse brings Juliet news of Romeo's wedding arrangements, she focuses on the
For example, in the impossible love between Orsino and ‘Cesario’, Viola’s rather chancy silence creates a number of comical moments, such as mid-way through the play where, when asked what kind of woman Cesario loves, Viola almost lets slip her true feelings “Of your complexion”, “About your years”. Olivia’s love for ‘Cesario’, equally as impossible, also creates humour, in the absurdity that Viola is “the man” which Olivia is in love with! If Viola had not masked herself as Cesario, no love triangle would have arisen: the plot would merely revolve around an unrequited and inoperative love between Orsino and Olivia, and there would be nothing too amusing about that. Therefore, regarding the witty love triangle that is so pivotal in