Relationships Between Men and Women in The Winters Tale by William Sha

Relationships Between workforce and Women in The Winters Tale by William Shakespeare The Winters Tale was written in 1611, during the reign over of Queen Elizabeth I. The play is one of Shakespeares romance titles, though it could be much justly referred to as a tragi-comedy due to the instances of accusation, death, repentance and reunion. To successfully pack how Shakespeare presents relationships between men and women in The Winters Tale there are cardinal main relationships to examine - Hermione and Leontes, Paulina and Antigonus, Perdita and Florizel, and Leontes and Paulina. Shakespeares view of women, and generally the Elizabethan view, suggested that women had less competency for evil - can further assist in a mans decadence or downfall, evidence for this can be found by examining cross types of literature from this period, such as T.E. (?)s didactic The Laws Resolution of Womens Rights. Likewise in The Winters Tale, only to a lesser exten t, women can be seen as temptresses. Hermione was the mantic adulteress in The Winters Tale. Many would argue that Shakespeare depicted the condition of women inside a patriarchal system and created feminine characters, which in their richness outdo the limitations of his time. Shapiro, for example, goes so far as to claim that Shakespeare was the noblest feminist of them all. Though Shakespeare pays more(prenominal) attention to the roles that men play in society and many of the female characters are constricted in their experiences. They do not have the identical ability to be as fully human as the men. They do not learn by their experiences, except Paulina who is eventually chastised and pa... ...sion. It could be argued that Shakespeare only goes so far with the gender roles - the women are eventually silenced or pacified - because the suspension of disbelief can only be maintained so far - the traditional view of women was confined within rigid boundaries. In The Winters Tale all the women are badly treated - incidentally, at the hold of men. Our perspective of the actions of the men we believe to be harsh, though to Shakespeares contemporaries they were in all probability to be justified - in fact chastisement would probably be justified to a more brutal extent. There is heretofore small authentic evidence in the plays, that Shakespeare strove either to uphold or to subvert, however covertly, the established order.Works CitedShakespeare, William. The Winters Tale. Ed. J. H. P. Pafford (London Methuen, 1963).