DIFFERENT COLOUR FOR DIFFERENT DIMENSION: SHAKESPEARE’S FEMALE GALLERY

ABSTRACT

William Shakespeare’s delineation of women, and the ways in which is female roles are interpreted and enacted, have become topics of scholarly interest. Elizabethan England was a fiercely patriarchal society with laws that restricted what women could and could not do. Women were not allowed to attend school and universities. Women were also barred from voting. They did not have property rights. In addition to these legal restrictions, women were also bound by strict social expectation that did not apply equally to men. William Shakespeare’s delineation of women, and the ways in which female roles are interpreted and enacted, have become topics of scholarly interest. Shakespeare’s heroines encompass a wide range of characterization and types. Shakespeare as a champion of womenkind and an innovator, departed from stereotyped characterization of women to his contemporaries and earlier dramatists. Like an artist, Shakespeare used different colour for different dimension in his female gallery. It is claimed by modern critics that he was a feminist.

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