About Arlene Schulman Expertise I have loved Shakespeare all my life, and as a Stage Director and Actor for over twenty-five years I have had the opportunity to study his work in intimate detail. I would be happy to share my knowledge of his plays. I can also help with acting Shakespeare, working with blank verse, character development, script analysis and interpretation. I don`t have as much knowledge in the area of his sonnets, but I can help to understand their meaning and language. I also have some knowledge of his life and of the Globe theatre where he performed his plays, as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company and his birthplace of Stratford-upon-Avon, and can point you in the direction of some wonderful websites on the subjects as well.
Experience
Organizations SSDC - associate member The Shakespeare Institute (MA Candidate - "Shakespeare & Theatre)
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas
The Shakespeare Association of America
Question Hi Arlene your interpretations of the play are great. Thank you for the insights. Now here is my hmm question or perhaps clarification. I am working on my senior thesis where I am trying to demonstrate that in Shakespeare's tragedies the women never live a happily ever after ending. My focus is on Lady Macbeth and Portia. Both posses manly powers but one is eventually tamed and the other one is not which is Lady Macbeth and she dies. Is this correct do you feel Shakespeare feared women in power will eventually take over.? Please helppp thanks a million.
Jessie
Answer Hi Jessie,
Interesting topic. However, by definition, NONE of the major characters in Shakespearean tragedy come to a happy ending, so I'm not sure if your thesis applying this to the women in the tragedies has a separate validity.
I am not sure what being "tamed" has to do with your thesis. Major characters die in the tragedies, tamed or not. And none of the tragedies are about taming women, so that criteria seems to be extraneous.
With regard to Lady Macbeth, yes, she dies before the end of the play. But then so does Macbeth, Banquo, Duncan and his pages, Lady McDuff (a very tame woman) and her son. Being tamed has no impact on her death, nor does being a woman. She is a major character who dies, as they all do in the tragedies.
Shakespeare uses the character name "Portia" more than once in his plays. You don't say, but I'm assuming, since you are speaking about the tragedies and not comedies, problem plays or romances, that you are referring to Brutus' wife in "Julius Caesar" not the major character in "The Merchant of Venice."
If that is correct, then these are really not comparable characters at all, nor is your conclusion about Portia accurate. Portia in "Julius Caesar" is only a minor character - having only one short scene. She is neither tamed nor untamed. She is a wife who is treated with love and care by her husband and stands up to him strongly in her concern for him. And, in fact, she dies before the end of the play, and her death is reported to Brutus on the battle field.
If, on the other hand, you are referring to Portia in "The Merchant of Venice," there is no comparison with Lady Macbeth at all. "The Merchant of Venice" is classified as a comedy, not a tragedy. By definition, in Shakespeare's comedies NO major characters die and the play ends with a marriage. So it happens in this play. Portia is, indeed, a major character. She is married at the end of the play but is hardly tamed, remaining the strong, independent woman very much an equal to her husband. And she does live happily ever after.
I am not sure just what it is that a comparison of these women proves. Shakespeare's attitude toward women in his plays is far ahead of his time. He writes strong, independent, intelligent, capable women in most of his plays and seems to hold a great respect for them. I do not think at all that Shakespeare feared women in power. In fact, he seemed to enjoy them. And I doubt, considering the times he lived in, that he feared they would eventually take over. The idea would have seemed totally absurd to someone living at that time. Men were very much in charge of their society by law and custom, even when dealing with strong women. Queen Elizabeth I was an exception rather than the rule, and she was looked on as something bizarre (if successful) for ruling without the benefit of husband. The thought of women taking over the world would have been unthinkable in Elizabethan society.
Hope your thesis goes well. If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them for you.
