The Role of Women in William Shakespeare’s Roman Tragedies

• Thesis title in Czech: Role žen v tragédiích Williama Shakespeara odehrávajících se ve starověkém Římě
• Thesis title in English: The Role of Women in William Shakespeare’s Roman Tragedies
• Key words: Shakespeare|Antonius a Kleopatra|Julius Caesar|Coriolanus|Titus Andronicus|ženy|Řím
• English key words: Shakespeare|Anthony and Cleopatra|Julius Caesar|Coriolanus|Titus Andronicus|women|Rome
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2021/2022
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: PhDr. Soňa Nováková, CSc.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 06.01.2022
• Date of assignment: 10.01.2022
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 13.01.2022
• Date and time of defence: 09.06.2022 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 08.05.2022
• Date of proceeded defence: 09.06.2022
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Mgr. Helena Znojemská, Ph.D.

Guidelines

The Roman tragedies narrate stories of some of the most famous men in the history of humankind. As Ancient Rome was not a place of equal opportunities for women and Shakespeare’s plays tend to focus more on men than women, it may seem that the female characters in these plays play the second fiddle (except for Cleopatra). Overall, this statement is true to a large extent; however, it does not mean that the roles of female characters are superfluous. Nor do they deserve less critical attention to be paid to them.
In Coriolanus, Volumnia and Virgilia portray a powerful dilemma between serving the state and gaining glory from it (Volumnia) and loyalty to one’s own family (Virgilia). Volumnia’s influence on her son is, of course, essential for almost every important decision that Marcius makes, and therefore, she is the driving force behind the main action of the play.
In Titus Andronicus, the two most important female characters also depict a polarity. This time, the passive, obedient Lavinia represents a synonym for a morally good person, whilst the active, scheming Tamura is a villain of the piece. However, both reach very unhappy endings. Lavinia is also present in the play to discuss the issue of rape. In some of the most shocking moments of the play, Lavinia is killed by her own father because she was defiled by Tamura’s sons. Meanwhile, Tamura is a character like Lady Macbeth – she tries to influence her husband, the emperor, and together with Aaron she is the most villainous character of the play.
In Julius Caesar, women are mostly absent. Nevertheless, when women do appear in the play, they tend to be the voices of reason. Caesar would have been wise to listen to Calpurnia’s advice. Even though her advice was based on the 'woman’s' gifts of emotions that had come from a bad dream, her advice was still reasonable. Similarly, Portia begs Brutus to confide in her. Had Brutus told her about the plan, it could not have gone worse for him than it ended up going. Despite women having only marginal roles in Julius Caesar, the little space they have, they use efficiently.
Antony and Cleopatra is, of course, a completely different case from the previous plays. Whilst in the other Roman plays, women play secondary or marginal characters, Cleopatra is the protagonist of Antony and Cleopatra. A fascinatingly complex character, Cleopatra has inspired a passionate criticism that has traditionally criticised her as a mere seductress. From such criticism, the criticism of Shakespeare himself arose as Cleopatra was seen as inconsistent in her characterisation because of her ruler-worthy behaviour by the end of the play in contrast with her seductive behaviour at the beginning of the play. However, such sexist criticisms are based on an old-fashioned argumentation that viewed women as black or white creatures and, therefore, could not see Cleopatra as both: a seductress and a powerful ruler. Such criticism contradicted one of the basic Shakespearian achievements: Shakespeare managed to depict the complexity of human nature in fascinating detail. In order to do so, Shakespeare had to write complex characters and Cleopatra is no exception. Her roles as a ruler, a mistress, or as a lover are all significant to the play and contribute to Cleopatra being arguably one of the best written and most complex female characters that Shakespeare had ever written.
The Roman tragedies present women who defy the patriarchal society (Cleopatra), women who do not question the patriarchy but nevertheless try to achieve as much as possible (Tamura, Volumnia) and women who submit (Octavia, Virgilia, Lavinia) as well as women who certainly possess reason and wit, but the society does not give them a chance to express themselves (Calpurnia and Portia). The Roman women in Shakespeare demonstrate that women (similarly to men) have many different personalities which do not and cannot be categorised as black or white.
Did Shakespeare create a diverse range of complex female characters in his Roman plays? Or are the fates of Roman women always intertwined with and decided by their male counterparts? Are these two questions mutually exclusive?

References

Bibliography
On Feminist Criticism and Female Characters:
Callaghan, Dympna, ed. A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. Accessed October 25, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Novy, Marianne. Shakespeare and Feminist Theory. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2017. Accessed October 21, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Novy, Marianne. Shakespeare and Outsiders. OUP Oxford; 2013. Accessed October 21, 2021. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xww&AN=597849&lang=cs&site=ehost-live.

On Cleopatra:
Cunningham, Dolora G. “The Characterization of Shakespeare’s Cleopatra.” Shakespeare Quarterly 6, no. 1 (1955): 9–17. https://doi.org/10.2307/2866047.

Fitz, L. T. “Egyptian Queens and Male Reviewers: Sexist Attitudes in Antony and Cleopatra Criticism.” Shakespeare Quarterly 28, no. 3 (1977): 297–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2869080.

McCombe, John P. “Cleopatra and Her Problems: T.S. Eliot and the Fetishization of Shakespeare’s Queen of the Nile.” Journal of Modern Literature 31, no. 2 (2007): 23–38. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30053266.

Logan, Robert A.. Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, and the Nature of Fame. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2018. Accessed October 22, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

On Roman Plays:
Coppélia Kahn. Roman Shakespeare : Warriors, Wounds and Women. Routledge; 1997. Accessed October 22, 2021.https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xww&AN=40473&lang=cs&site=ehost-live.

Hattaway, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's History Plays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL052177277X.

Horst Zander. Julius Caesar : New Critical Essays. Routledge, 2005. Accessed October 21, 2021. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xww&AN=134888&lang=cs&site=ehost-live.

Innes, Paul. Shakespeare's Roman Plays. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015. Accessed October 20, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

MacCallum, Mungo William, and T. J. B. (Terence John Bew) Spencer. Shakespeare's Roman plays and their background. London: Macmillan, 1967.

Traversi, Derek. Shakespeare: the Roman plays. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967.