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The Role of Women in William Shakespeare's Roman Tragedies
Válková, Michaela ; Nováková, Soňa (advisor) ; Znojemská, Helena (referee)
THESIS ABSTRACT The thesis critically examines the historical and cultural circumstances of women in early modern England and the role of women in Shakespeare's Roman tragedies. In early modern England, men are said to have been participating in the public sphere of the political discourse and women were relegated to the domestic sphere; henceforth, the role of women in Shakespeare's Roman plays tends to be interpreted as supportive because of the plays' dominant political focus. To challenge the prevailing discourse, I consider female characters in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Titus Andronicus and Antony and Cleopatra. My thesis argues that even though the Roman plays focus on the political, public sphere which tends to be the domain of men, women mostly actively participate, or express desire to actively participate, in the Roman plays' plots, philosophical contemplations, and political scheming. Cleopatra, Volumnia, Portia, Calpurnia, and Tamora are such characters. Only the less central female characters may embody the passive ideal of a woman confined in the domestic sphere, as exemplified by Lavinia, Virgilia, and Octavia. The findings show that women were recommended to stay in the domestic sphere, but many of them, especially upper-class ladies, participated actively in the political...
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