莎士比亚喜戏剧中女性地位的分析自由与反叛.pdf

i Women's status analysis in Shakespeare's comedies: female images of freedom and rebellion A Thesis Presented to College of Continuing Education Shanghai International Studies University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Bachelor of Arts By Wang Ying Under the Supervision of Mr. Huang Hao November, 2013  ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Huang Hao, my supervisor, without whose help and guidance the completion of this present thesis would have been impossible. Without his enlightening instruction, impressive kindness and patience, I could not have completed my thesis. His keen and vigorous academic observation enlightens me not only in this thesis but also in my future study.  iii 摘要 莎士比亚喜剧中出现了许多聪明智慧的女性形象，她们敢于为争取自由、要人权及社会尊重而斗争，具有反叛性。

但由于历史及社会的局限性，莎翁在喜剧结尾处将女性塑造成了与社会传统习俗更为相符的形象 本文以莎剧女性形象为主题， 旨在反映莎士比亚戏剧中描述的伊丽莎白统治时期妇女的地位上升的趋势然后由于历史及社会的局限性，莎士比亚在戏剧结尾处将女性塑造成了与社会传统习俗更为相符的形象 文中讨论的是女性在莎士比亚戏剧中的崇高地位和优良品德莎剧犹如一面明镜，真实地再现了当时社会各阶层女性为争取自由、人权及社会尊重所做出的斗争 本文有三章组成，主要描述莎士比亚戏剧中女性的想象分析,从历史时代背景和社会地位等来描述此外，众所周知，莎士比亚从古典戏剧，尤其是希腊罗马喜剧中汲取了大量的营养 第一部分则详细阐述了莎剧中女性的统治地位，并用两节篇章，莎翁戏剧中的女性地位超越了她们的男性同胞，并在剧中最终占据了领导地位，这恰好证明了中世纪时期女性的传统角色及在英国文艺复兴时期伊丽莎白时代女性角色的转换 第二部分则从莎剧婚恋主题的角度来分析用两节来描述依附于丈夫独立地和受教育地，女性被赋予超过男性之上的品格与智慧 第三部分分析了莎士比亚剧中女主人公性格发展由于社会传统习俗而受到的束缚，在喜剧尾声部分，女主人公性格的突然转变即为最有力的明证。

关键词：莎士比亚，喜剧，女性，自由；反叛  iv Abstract In Shakespeare's comedy, appeared a lot of wisdom women they dare to fight for freedom, to ask human rights and social respect, at the same time, they also have rebellion. But due to historical and social limitations, Shakespeare described women as more consistent image with social customs. Taking Shakespearian female images as the theme, it reflect female images about Shakespeare’s works that is rising trend in the reign of Elizabeth women's status. Then due to the limitations of history and society, Shakespeare shape women become more consistent and social traditions in his play at the end. The thesis discussed the lofty position of women in Shakespeare's good character. This thesis consists of three chapters, which mainly describe the characters image of women during the social position and background age. In addition, as is known to all, the classical Shakespeare plays drew a lot of nutrition especially for Greek and Roman comedy. The first chapter describes the women's dominance in Shakespeare's, and with two chapters clarify women's status in Shakespeare's drama beyond their male compatriots, and finally occupy the leading position in the play, which just proves that the traditional role of women during the middle ages and the Renaissance in Britain Elizabethan women role conversion. The second chapter is to analyze from the Angle of Shakespearian marriage theme described using two attached to her husband. Independently and by education, women are endowed with more than men of character and wisdom. The third chapter analyzes the character of women development in the Shakespeare play because of their social traditions, The heroine character part at the end of the comedy and character of the heroine's sudden change is the most powerful evidence. Key Words: Shakespeare, comedy , woman, freedom, revolt  v Contents Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................ii 摘要.......................................................................................................................iii Abstract................................................................................................................ iv Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One Dominance of women ................................................................... 3 1.1 The history background of comedy ......................................................... 3 1.2 The nature of modesty and lively............................................................. 6 Chapter two Love and marriage theme ............................................................. 8 2.1 Attached to the husband ........................................................................... 9 2.2 Independently and educationally ............................................................. 9 Chapter three The constraints of custom for women ..................................... 11 3.1 The limitations of history and society .................................................... 11 3.2 Monarch autocracy................................................................................. 12 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 14 Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 15  1 Introduction In the year 1623, the First Folio of Shakespeare’s play was published in London, its name as Mr.William Shakespeare. From then on, the plays of Shakespeare had been accordingly classified into three categories: comedy, history, and tragedy. Later generations picked out those legendary plays written in the last period of Shakespeare, such as A winter’s Tale and The Tempest, and added one more form to the three former ones, romance, thus composing altogether four categories of Shakespeare’s plays. William Shakespeare occupies a unique position at the top of the hierarchy of texts in the canon of English literature, and is considered to occupy the same position within the large category of English culture. In his life, he accomplished 39 plays, 5 long poems, and 154 sonnets, which enlist him among the great giants of the world literature. He is so prominent and important that nobody can avoid talking about him when approaching English literature. As a young learner of Shakespeare, I am much impressed by the diversity of his characters, and my particular interest, in this case, lies in those intellective women in his comedies. In all his thirty-seven plays, Shakespeare produced various kinds of images: kings and queens, princes and princesses, merchants and peasants, witches and shepherd, scholars and knights, etc, covering a wide range of types and classes. In describing Shakespeare’s versatility, Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, praises his female characters as so accurate the “one would think that he had been metamorphosed from a man to a woman”. The reason for my choosing this topic for my thesis is that the different images of women in Shakespeare’s plays becomes a very interesting study in itself, and it would great likely yield important information about Shakespeare’s general view of the nature of women and their relationship with men; my interest here is principally in the features of woman characters in the comedies of Shakespeare.  2 Moreover, before we really observe the virtues and intelligence ammumed by female characters in Shakespeare’s comedies, there is still another problem to solve. As we all know, the beginning of comedy in England, in the sixteenth century, was the outcome of the breaking away from medieval forms and an approach to the models of Plautus and Terence. Although Ben Jonson in his commendatory verse for the First Folio declared that Shakespeare did not know much Greek or Latin, Shakespeare do incorporated a number of elements from earlier dramatic and cultural traditions, especially from the glorious Greek and Roman Comedy. Therefore, first of all, part one will make a probe into the development of female characters in the Greek and Roman Comedy Period.  3 Chapter One Dominance of women For the beginning of this part, the thing that needs to be clarified beforehand is the range of the comedies involved in the discussion. Since ten out of twelve comedies of Shakespeare was produced in his first writing period, that is, from the year 1590 to 1600, my analysis of women in Shakespeare’s comedies is centered with this period, where most of the illustrations are take from. If the dark realm of Shakespeare’s tragedies is essentially men’s territory, the pride of the bright panorama of his comedies must surely belong to the women. Exemplifying both the traditional role of the women of the Middle Ages and the changing role of the women of the Elizabethan Age in Renaissance England, women in Shakespeare’s plays surpasses their male compatriots and eventually take up the leadership of the play. In Much Ado About Nothing, the charm and whimsy of Beatrice of Viola is so strong that people’s interest on her take over the play, despite the fact that she is not an important branch in the original plot of this comedy. That’s the reason Mirianne Novy claims that in Shakespeare’s comedies “the women control the game” Then, many may ask, “Why did Shakespeare favor women-characters for the leading roles of his comedies, since women were still not treated as equals by the men in the society of the time?” This could be attributed to several reasons. 1.1 The History background of comedy Generally speaking, the development of the Greek and Roman comedy can be categorized into four periods, each with its own peculiar style of comedy and its representative authors. Therefore, our examination also consists of four parts, each starting from general traits of typical comedies and ending with the place of women in representative works of representative playwrights. The four periods, according to  4 time sequence, are of Greek Old Comedy, Greek Middle Comedy, Greek New Comedy, and Roman New Comedy. (1) Greek Old Comedy The Greek Old Comedy, dating from the establishment of democracy by Pericles, about 450 B.C. to the early fourth century B.C., is a highly topical form of comedy focusing on issues of the day. Under a government which ensures a complete and unrestricted democracy. the Old Comedy of the Greeks exercised a satirical censorship unsparing of public and private life, of statesmanship, of political and social usage, of education and literature, in a word, of everything which concerned the city, or could amuse citizens. Today, Greek Old Comedy is represented by Aristophanes, whose eleven surviving plays offer the best evidence for this genre. Because at that period no restriction was placed by the dramatist, the audience or the authorities to the license of words, gesture and subjects, the plot of the comedy ran to an excess that to modern play-goers would seem incredible. For example, typically Aristophanes’ comedies present a comic hero or heroine who protest against some element of contemporary Athenian culture and attempts to address to address the situation through some types of fantastic scheme. His comedy Lysistrata depicts the women of Greece, who, led by a contingent of Athenian women, stage a sex strike in order to compel their husbands to bring an end to the Pelopnnesian War. This is may be the first time that women arose to such a high position as heroine in the comedy, and more strikingly they are endowed with enough intelligence and strength to interfere with political affairs, although such interference is practiced not directly, but through their limited influence in the family life. (2) Greek Middle Comedy Emerging and flourishing in the first half of the fourth century B.C., the Greek middle Comedy is sometimes ignored for the lack of any complete surviving plays of this genre. Our knowledge of Greek comedy at that period merely comes from the last  5 two plays of Aristophanes, which begin to hint at a different approach to comedy, and one play written by the later Roman playwright Plautus, but may be based on a fourth-century Greek original. As a result, more deep research is hindered, and it can only be settled that one of the favorite topics of the Greek Middle Comedy seems to be the attacks on various sorts of “professional” types, among which we see the prostitutes, which are presented in broad caricatures as frauds and charlatans. (3) Greek New Comedy: In the latter half of the fourth century B.C., Athenian comedy undergoes another important transformation. The broader types of plot evident in the earlier part of the century now become arranged into a romantic comedy of manners. It is just from this period that we began to find features of the plot that are familiar to Elizabethan dramatists. The Greek New Comedy deals with “typical” Greek familiar and their domestic travails, with a particular focus on disputes between father and son, husbands and wives, etc. The most popular plots explore the domestic turmoil that results from a young man’s involvement with a young girl who is somehow either not eligible for marriage. For some instances, the girl is a prostitute; for another, she is not eligible for getting pregnant outside of wedlock. (4) Roman New Comedy Roman becomes a major political and military force in the Mediterranean in the third century B.C. In this period, various Roman authors began to adapt Greek literary forms to suit the tastes and interests of the roman audience. Athenian New Comedy of the fourth and third century B.C. become a particularly popular inspiration: the result is the genre known as Roman New Comedy. To conclude this section, in the above four periods of Greek and Roman Comedy explored, the women characters depicted are either prostitutes or source of domestic turmoil, sometimes even even the cause of regional disasters. For example, as a famous character in myth, also the fairest woman in ancient Greece, Helen of Greece has always been reminded in the Greek and Roman Comedy as the cause of the  6 Trojan War. In addition, although in many plays women were the love interest of the hero, they were usually a second-rate character with very little personality . 1.2 Nature of politely and lively Shakespeare is the master of Renaissance literature. He is known for portrayal of the characters. In his plays, we can see many kinds of personality characters. for example, the young man of brave and forthright, witty clever servant and so on. In these many images, In particular, it is important on the female image. Some people said that Shakespeare like perform women and also create women. First of all, women in Shakespeare's comedies are all has the noble and pure heart, serious in love. For example，they desire for the liberation of personality and love freedom, trying to get rid of religious asceticism and ethical restraints of feudalism. In these dramas, he creates many images of aristocratic women, describe they bravely struggle with feudal customs, feudal morality, feudal tradition. Finally, to gain the a happy love and marriage in the end. These women who have a lot in common which is the excellent image of women in the Shakespeare works. In his famous book in the Renaissance, at the same time he is sure that Reasonableness of love between men and women. Both can totally again, emphasis on chastity. Shakespeare's positive young female image is same, inside and outside the consistent, they all has the beautiful mind and noble ethics, but also has beautiful appearance. In Shakespeare's view, with the appearance should be unified. A virtue, beauty also have belongs; Beauty without virtue, also cannot exist alone. Again, women in Shakespeare's comedies have love as the only part of life, is love, this is reflected their thoughts on the simple side. As mentioned earlier, most of Shakespeare's comedies love life centered content, character image of the formation and development of personality is in love life. Therefore, for the women, love is their center of gravity in the whole life. These women, we can see Shakespeare advocates individuality, freedom, and equality.  7 There are also women, open personality with new ideas. In Much Ado About Nothing Beatrice is also a representative. She loves to smile, the bright laughter the new era of women characters. Another image of women is affettuoso, willpower and determination, confidence, contempt any secular concept. In Twelfth Night Olivia is a representative. She is a wealthy countess, not only looks outstanding and extraordinary talent but also sympathetically.  8 Chapter Two Love and marriage theme The love is at first sight in Shakespeare’s play, when they love each other, they will encounter various obstacles, they'll love of magnificent and victorious, fight for love, the pursuit of their pure love from now on. The comedy can be classified into idealism of love and love of aestheticism, among the play The Merchant of Venice is a representative of the idealism of love, the author through the image of Antonio, praise the spirit of friendship and love, and by Bassanio and Portia's love story, that explain the true love and earthy love. They are all conform to the idealized images of humanistic thought. It is all through the struggle and twists and turns to “Jack shall have Jill, all shall be well " . It embodies the spirit of Shakespeare's optimism. The author is not without see society of dark and ugly, but he thought that as long as adhere to the struggle, beauty will overcome the ugly, good eventually overcome evil. This fully reflects the ideal of Shakespeare's humanism thought. Another notable characteristics in his comedy is permeated with romantic atmosphere. Twelfth Night is the most can reflect its characteristics, Viola brave to pursue their own love, hinted her love to the duke, she said, "my father had a daughter, she fell in love with a man, like me, might fall in love with you, highness". Finally, “Jack shall have Jill, all shall be well ”. However, unfortunately there are still many women is the society that fail to win a position and love in his plays. In other words, Shakespeare confined the content of his comedies to the courtship relations and marriage activities of women of the middle and upper class, who were at leisure at their fathers’ and husband’s home. most of the women put the love supremely in Shakespeare's drama，As some suppose, women in the time of Shakespeare had no other ways than belonging to husband or to the Church, namely, becoming a wife or a nunnery.  9 2.1 Attached to the husband Shakespeare's drama is limited in the middle and upper class women, about their relationship and marriage， they no matter in family or in the husband's family, there are more a leisurely life. A large number of historical records show that with the changes of The Times and social change, the social status of women involved in the position. Show their unique wisdom. Some married women involved in the husband's business, to help or to an account in the shop. And while women cannot legally own property. According to Elizabeth period some legal terms, all rights in marriage, a girl, she became the property of their husbands like his horses or grain, listened to her husband, home, outside the family things to discuss with her husband. In fact a girl also can't have been not married. Women is an important part to build a harmonious family. Without their husbands, women are hard to survive, or by others gossiping. Shelley said that god created woman is too soft clay. Shakespeare also agree with this. In Macbeth Shakespeare the characters in the published such insights, dog respectively according to their instinct and value, human also is divided into levels. Men and women each have given by the creation features. Women are inferior to men. Their nature is weak and protected. The view embodies in his shape of women. 2.2 Independently and educationally In Shakespeare's comedies, the female has a profound knowledge, this is obviously through the education. Status lofty of social is influenced by the result of the education, so at that time, many humanists have insisted on the education for their daughters. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the humanists see boys and girls as equal. Their concept of education was founded on the old medieval premise that women were the weaker sex, but they gave it a new twist.  10 Influenced by such a society, Shakespeare's rebellious women and the conflict have the conflict about expectation of women. Shakespeare advocate of women's status, but also aroused the concerns of culture very much. Therefore, as a popular dramatist at the time, as a feudal aristocracy is under protection of dramatist, Shakespeare won't run the risk of damage to fame and wealth and to create for customs is too rough images of women. So in the end part of the comedy, he arranged with society for female characters more conform to the fate of the traditional customs. For example, in The Merchant of Venice, Portia is a rich nobleman's daughter. In order to aid her husband's friend, female disguised as men, as a legal adviser to appear in court. She is a learned, has the tutelage of a new era of women, elegant in speech, and wit brave, be courageous and knowledgeable. Her showed her wisdom and understanding in the court, and solved many men don't have solve the problem. We can see the new era of women from her. In spite of this, she had to obey his father's capricious, her future husband because he regulation is to choose in the three cases. And, though the case suggested that she have the best minds in the present, but also are not allowed to speak, because she is a woman. In conclusion, with the change of the times, more and more people are aware that women also need to accept the education, women also have the right by education, with the popularity of education, women gain knowledge and social experience. And have their own values and world view, and not all subservient to men. However, due to the long feudal society power and the ruling class, women were oppressed by the "tradition", they had to subordinate to men. Shakespeare's comedy is limited to establish the content of the harmonious marriage and family life. Considering the comedy in the women's rebellion and Social ties, in most of the comedy. Although women's rebellious personality and wisdom show extraordinary talents in th9eir linguistic behavior, but in the end they were out of the stage, and never leave it to the man.  11 Chapter Three constraints of custom for women 3.1 Limitations of history and society Religious and social prejudice of women in Elizabethan age, In the above paper we have talked about Shakespeare’s special favor to women in his comedies, which reflect the progressive trend in early Renaissance society. We have also discussed the reason of his favor from social, cultural, and religious aspects. The mark of humanism on Shakespeare was still very shallow in his first writing period, and the first things that Shakespeare acknowledged as humanism are love and kindness. Therefore, he regards the female as the embodiment of love, placing his anti-feudal hope on the female’s success over the thousands years of male-dominated society. That’s why in most of his comedies the virtues of women are constantly show in contrast to men’s falsehood. On the other hand, however, social prejudice, especially those shaped by the Church, was too tough to be moved by a spiritual movement such as Humanism. The time that Shakespeare lived and worked was when the Church was immensely influential in the society’s expectations of women. Look back through the 1500s to the beginnings of Protestant Reform, we can find that, although many changes were brought about by the religious revolution made by Henry Viii and his followers, at no time, did any monarch attempt to change or even question the Church’s attitude towards women. This attitude was the same one that had been doggedly maintained through the Middle Ages: women were the daughters of Eve, temptresses who would lead men down the primrose path to fornication. Their women’s bodies proclaimed that they were the living symbols of Man’s First Disgrace. This idea is due to the authority of the bible to consolidate, it is widely believed that man is the highest ruler of god, while women are inferior to men in all aspects.  12 Such kinds of views, reinforced by the authority of the Scriptures, became accepted as “fact” by both men and women alike. Although the strong, respected figure of Elizabeth herself and the lively heroines in Shakespeare’s plays show that there was indeed another side to the social picture, the official ecclesiastical view, up to and well beyond Elizabeth’s region, was that man represented the supreme height of God’s creation, while woman was secondary, inferior to him in every way. Although female roles in Shakespeare occupies the position of global rule, due to historical and social limitations. In Shakespeare's early creation, the humanism of his influence is still very shallow, he thought of humanism is kind and love in the first place. As a result, he put the woman as a symbol of love, put the feudalism to women for thousands of years of male dominance on the success in the society. This is why in most of his comedy, woman of good character is always error compared with men. 3.2 Monarch autocracy Renaissance refers to the late 13th century rise from city to city in Italy, future expansion to Western Europe, in the 16th century in Europe popular a ideological culture movement, lead to a revolution, science and art has opened the prologue of modern European history, Engels once spoke highly of this movement:“it was a human have never experienced the greatest, the progress of reform, is a giants and produced giants - in thinking ability, enthusiasm and character in the versatile and knowledgeable era of giants”. Shakespeare is one of the representative figure of the Renaissance. Author from feudal times, several major degree of feudal monarchy and the actual situation of women's status, analyzes the existed between the reciprocal irreconcilable, hopes to further strengthen the autocratic monarchy in feudal monarchy we must enlarge the gap between men's and women's status. Here we should clear the purpose of the feudal monarchy is not in order to make the women's status declined, its purpose is to maintain the absolute authority of the  13 rulers rule, then the feudal monarch to by Confucianism to bringing women's status is bound to have their "fully reliable". Which ignored the reason is that women's status and the feudal monarchy push-pull between the irreconcilable.  14 Conclusion So far, the thesis has presented a systematic study on images of women in Shakespeare’s comedies, by exploring in sequence the reasons of Shakespeare’s. Throughout Shakespeare comedies image of women, we can draw such a conclusion, Shakespeare tried to describe woman’s similarities and distinctive characteristics. In his comedies, because the author lives in the Renaissance era environment, kingship and economy have progress, so as inevitable cultural, institutional and ideological. We can see that women has a bourgeois humanist ideals. Ideas of bourgeoisie, his view of the world view and outlook on life has changed, which has affected the author's creation. The female image portrayed deep in their fight for individual liberation, love, freedom, and to fight the feudal ethics. Efforts to get rid of the shackles of feudal ethics has broken the feudal system and promote the spirit of humanism.  15 Bibliography Abrams M. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.Inc.1993. Clarke Mary Cowden. The girlhood of Shakespeare’s heroines.London:J.M. Dent & Co.；New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1809-1898 Russ M. 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