1) Shakespeare created dominant female characters like Lady Macbeth, Margaret, Volumnia, Goneril and Regan who challenged gender norms and pursued power and ambition in different ways. These characters inverted the traditional patriarchal order by being strong, ambitious and manipulative. 2) Lady Macbeth convinced Macbeth to commit regicide so they could gain power. Volumnia encouraged her son Coriolanus' military success to achieve honor. Margaret used her position as Queen of England to gain political power over others. 3) These characters demonstrated strength, intelligence and a willingness to commit violence that broke social conventions of female behavior in the 16th century. However, they were balanced by

1. KUNAL BASU ENGLISH IV MR. CABASCANGO NOV 21, 2008
SHAKESPEARE’S DOMINANT WOMEN: INVERTING THE GENDER DIVIDE
England in the 16th
century was a country divided by two antagonistic sides of the same faith. The
Reformation gave birth to a dissident Protestant faith and created a new Church and Bible– the Church of
England and the English Bible, amid much violence that ruined great seats of learning and gave rise to
popular prejudices and superstition. War and foreign invasion of England’s shores devastated the land and
the treasury. Religio-political enmities led to plots, violence, death and execution of sovereigns like Mary,
Queen of Scots, the Essex Uprising (1601) and the Gunpowder Plot (1605). Families and friends
splintered and treachery was rampant; executions were the norm than an exception. Attitudes toward
minorities and women reflected in The Book of Common Prayer that directed the priest to read, to the
newly married pair, a homily that quoted the well-known passage of St. Paul (Ephesians, 5: 22-5), “Ye
women, submit your selves unto your own husbands……….. For the husband is the wife's head,
………….. he is the savior of the whole body.” The patriarchal order of society made it clear that the man
was the leader of the house and the virtues of women lay in their being submissive, dutiful, obedient, and
predominantly silent, easy to manipulate and impress; therefore required strong men in order to protect
them and their chastity. In an era that had witnessed the destruction of seats of learning and women were
managers of the home and hearth, female literacy was inconceivable.
It was not until the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, that Elizabeth I emerged the as the
unquestioned Queen of unified England that also coincided with the English Renaissance. Exploiting
themes of treachery and deceit in a time of strife matched by people’s desire for peace and stability,
Shakespeare created dominant female characters like Lady Macbeth, Margaret, Volumnia, Goneril and
Regan, women who lusted for power and greatness, chose different routes (son, husband and sister) for
carrying their ambitions with varying degrees of success. Only future research can show whether this was
a comment on the efficacy of the then male aristocratic leadership (and the ascent of Elizabeth I to the
Tudor throne). For the insanity of Lady Macbeth, Margaret succeeded in her ambition; Volumnia’s fatal

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pride for an obedient son and the machinations of Goneril and Regan – it was as if the Bard was
attempting a balance between good and evil - peace of the natural order overcoming the strife and evils of
war and treachery. Moreover, such characters contrasted and were outnumbered by conventional others
that embodied contemporary medieval virtues. If for Volumnia there was Virgilia, for Goneril and Regan
there was Cordelia in the same plays. It was as if evil were not always so; rather it seemed an
intermediary instrument for a greater good. At the same time, persisting evil was not condoned,
eventually destroyed. Therefore, the need for severely contrasting characters arose and Shakespeare
effectively filled this gap. Low female literacy coupled with limited printing presses and little circulation
of the plays in printed form added to the exclusion of females from Shakespeare’s works and audiences.
Even male actors essayed female roles in feminine guise. Thus, the audience and actors were male and the
mode of delivery theatrical – a powerful medium with mass appeal and the genesis of a failed revolt too.
The central thesis of this paper therefore is that Shakespeare’s dominant female characters were
experimental inversions of traditional roles that were situation- and audience-specific rather than
possessed of any systematic ‘feminist’ foresight that would have gone against the traditions of a late
medieval and feudal society.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare portrayed Lady Macbeth as a woman who challenged traditional
patriarchal values of English society and established the female character as a significant and heroic
figure among his prominent male figures. Lady Macbeth played a pivotal role as dominant and
commanding mother figure that was independent and strong-willed in her approach to marital, maternal,
and societal involvement far ahead of her times. Her decisive and determined mentality drove Macbeth’s
journey toward tragedy and demonstrated her great concern with her husband’s weak countenance, “Yet
do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way” (Macbeth 1.5.
16-18). Lady Macbeth recognized that her husband’s impressionable nature left him vulnerable and she
had to convince him to perform the actions, which could provide them with lasting eminence. Macbeth
recognized her overwhelming intensity as being more attributable to males saying, “Bring forth men-
children only!/For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males” (Macbeth 1.7. 73-75).
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Lady Macbeth thus effectively challenged Macbeth’s manhood by employing traditional male attributes
in order to manipulate him with an intensity that was uncharacteristic of women in Elizabethan England.
Her characteristics crossed the gender divide and even made her inhuman as she called evil spirits to
assist her in her pursuit, “Come, you spirits…… And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst
cruelty! Make thick my blood; (Macbeth 1.5. 40-43)
Lady Macbeth continued to defy the traditionally prescribed female roles by her horrifying
description of killing her own infant that illustrated the major conflict of her own attitudes with traditional
maternal roles. Although she was willing to murder her own child, she realized the necessity of brutal acts
such as this in order to accomplish what was best for her family, “I have given suck, and know/How
tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me/ I would, while it was smiling in my face,/Have plucked my
nipple from his boneless gums/And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you/Have done to this.”
(Macbeth 1.7. 55-60). Yet she was not simply a domineering, insane wife who ruled her husband by
force. Her own rational response to Macbeth’s removal of the daggers from the King’s chamber
suggested her sanity and balance, transcending the gender roles of the time to establish herself as equal to,
if not superior to, her male counterparts.
Volumnia, in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, took on a similarly disturbing motherly role with her
desire to see her son attain great honor, although his life may be at peril in pursuit of such honor -
wounded but “thank[s] the gods on’t” (Coriolanus 2.1. 120). “Away, you fool! It more becomes a
man/Than gilt his trophy/The breasts of Hecuba/ When she did suckle Hector, looked not lovelier/Than
Hector’s forehead when it spit forth blood/At Grecian sword, contemning.” (Coriolanus 1.3. 40-44). Just
as Volumnia took pride in being Coriolanus’ mother, she relied on her son’s valorous battle victories in
order to establish her own honorable position in society as the mother of a great military leader, in a
complete reversal of motherly conduct. The manner in which Volumnia attempted to achieve her own
greatness through the military prowess of her son, “……………….that it was no better than picturelike to
hang by the/wall, if renown made it not stir—was pleased to let/him seek danger where he was like to
find fame. …….I tell thee, daughter, I sprang/ not more in joy at first hearing he was a man-child
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than/now in first seeing he had proved himself a man. (Coriolanus 1.3. 8-17) Volumnia and Lady
Macbeth, thus share a common strand – the path of violence in hopes of achieving greatness for their
“sons.”
In a parallel to Macbeth, Coriolanus recognized his mother’s superiority of character and gave up
his attack on Rome although this decision entailed his own destruction. Although Volumnia was a truly
admirable motherly figure who raised her son and established him as a prominent member of Roman
society, she also taught him magnanimity and loyalty to his mother – as if trying to balance contradicting
societal norms, viz. loyalty vs. ambition. This dispassionate and unemotional response showed a woman
who could not accept a menial place as a mother but strove to build a great leader and, therefore, provided
for her own honor and glory.
In Henry VI, Part 2, Margaret’s motive was her ambition. She used her marriage to King Henry
VI to pursue her lust for power. In her first meeting the king and his court, she immediately attracted
attention to herself by speaking in violation of the prevalent social mores, “Great King of England and my
gracious lord,/The mutual conference that my mind hath had,/By day, by night, waking and in my
dreams,/In courtly company or at my beads,/With you, mine alder-liefest sovereign,/Makes me the bolder
to salute my king/With ruder terms, such as my wit affords/And over-joy of heart doth minister.(p. 631,
ll.24-31). Her growing hunger for power was apparent in this speech and continued in Act I, Scene 3
when she overstepped her boundaries as queen and performed functions reserved for either the king or the
Lord Protector; she confronted the petitioners and decided for herself the outcome of the petitioners'
plaints, “What shall King Henry be a pupil still/Under the surly Gloucester's governance?/Am I a queen in
title and in style,/And must be made a subject to a duke? She graduated a step further and influenced her
husband's decisions about other issues. Although Shakespeare portrayed Gloucester the Lord-Protector as
a good ruler who was able to distinguish between falsity and truth (especially in Act II, Scene 1 in which
Gloucester said the claims of Simpcox are false), Margaret attempted to persuade Henry VI that
Gloucester was overly ambitious and harmful In Act III, Scene 1, she aided the Lords to convince Henry
VI that Gloucester's actions were detrimental to the nation leading to the arrest and eventual death of the
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Lord Protector, succeeded in power by Margaret, “With what a majesty he bears himself,/How insolent of
late he is become,/How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself?”
Shakespeare’s King Lear, even within its overarching themes of justice sought and denied, loss of
station and sanity, and the betrayal of familial trust, centered on the thoughts, designs and emotions of its
female characters. In Act I, Scene 1 Goneril and Regan, seeing both a threat and an opportunity in the
actions of their old father, decided to act together to further their interests. Lear forced his children to
express their love for him – the traditional picture of an aging patriarch asserting his authority by
commanding affection, “My love's more richer than my tongue."(Act I, Scene 1). After Cordelia was
banished for failing to react in the manner of her sisters, Goneril said to Regan: “Pray you, let’s hit
together: if/our father carry authority with such dispositions as he/bears, this last surrender of his will but
offend us.” If Lady Macbeth and Volumnia used their husband and son respectively, Regan and Goneril
exploited their father. Thus, a common strand of all the dominant characters was their propensity to use
close relatives to achieve power and greatness, even if that implied bloodshed and loss of life of a near
and dear one. At the same time, these characters contrasted with weak male characters due to
Shakespeare’s deliberate inversion of prevalent social mores.
In his Essay on Dramatic Poetry of the Last Age, John Dryden (1631 - 1700) aptly described
Shakespeare as “the very Janus of poets; he wears almost everywhere two faces; and you have scarce
begun to admire the one, ere you despise the other.” Shakespeare’s dominant female characters were
experimental inversions of traditional roles that were situation- and audience-specific rather than
possessed of any systematic ‘feminist’ foresight that would have gone against the traditions of a late
medieval and feudal society. Shakespeare dramatized his plays with stark contrasts by inverting the
traditional social patriarchal model of medieval England, projected the intelligence and potential of
women while, at the same time, was cautious not to upset the sensitivities of late medieval English
society; such strong characters also attracted audiences. Shakespeare’s characterization of strong women
and inversion also carried subtle sub-themes, psychological and sociological, political and cultural,
answers to some of which intellectuals from other disciplines have proffered.
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References
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
http://www.shakespeare-online.com
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/works.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/coriolanus/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/2henryvi/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/index.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1535
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1129
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/england.htm
https://www.msu.edu/user/kahlstep/shakes.htm
http://hubpages.com/hub/Shakespearean-Feminism
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-quotes.htm
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~yisheng/notes/shakespeare/mbeth_f.htm
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References
http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
http://www.shakespeare-online.com
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/works.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/coriolanus/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/2henryvi/index.html
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/lear/index.html
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1535
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1129
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/england.htm
https://www.msu.edu/user/kahlstep/shakes.htm
http://hubpages.com/hub/Shakespearean-Feminism
http://www.william-shakespeare.info/william-shakespeare-quotes.htm
http://web.singnet.com.sg/~yisheng/notes/shakespeare/mbeth_f.htm
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