Two Gentlemen of Verona
Feminine and Patriarchal Representation in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Throughout Shakespeare’s plays, early feministic critics saw women as less influential characters than the men who are portrayed, even including the male fools. The critic Phyllis Rackin brings to light this idea and its importance in love, sexuality, and gender in one of her articles of Shakespeare and his pieces. She says: “reminders that women were expected to be chaste, silent, and obedient probably occur more frequently in recent scholarship than they did in the literature of Shakespeare’s time; the connections between female speech and female sexual transgression are retraced and the anxieties evoked by the possibility of female power are discovered in play after play” (Rackin 44). Rackin’s point of view is representative within The Two Gentlemen of Verona in as much as the female characters make the work more substantial whether they are emotionally irrational or not. Modern feminist criticism suggests that The Two Gentlemen of Verona implies a quite feminist attitude taken by Shakespeare toward the gender identity and sexuality of women through the complex friendships and simple personality traits he created between characters; however, the ending of the play suggests the opposite, that patriarchy is sustained as a result of the silence and obedience of the women characters.
A look at the male friendships provides a great contrast to the females of this play. William Carroll previews the thought of male friendships being changed and transformed within the temple of marriage. He says in his introduction: “As with male friends, romantic love here interjects discord into the now past-tense ideal friendship; ‘two seeming bodies but one heart’ have now split apart, and at the end of the play the two couples will leave behind same-sex friendship for marriage” (Carroll 9).Valentine and Proteus uphold a very peculiar same-sex friendship from the very beginning of the play. Proteus says to
Throughout Shakespeare’s plays, early feministic critics saw women as less influential characters than the men who are portrayed, even including the male fools. The critic Phyllis Rackin brings to light this idea and its importance in love, sexuality, and gender in one of her articles of Shakespeare and his pieces. She says: “reminders that women were expected to be chaste, silent, and obedient probably occur more frequently in recent scholarship than they did in the literature of Shakespeare’s time; the connections between female speech and female sexual transgression are retraced and the anxieties evoked by the possibility of female power are discovered in play after play” (Rackin 44). Rackin’s point of view is representative within The Two Gentlemen of Verona in as much as the female characters make the work more substantial whether they are emotionally irrational or not. Modern feminist criticism suggests that The Two Gentlemen of Verona implies a quite feminist attitude taken by Shakespeare toward the gender identity and sexuality of women through the complex friendships and simple personality traits he created between characters; however, the ending of the play suggests the opposite, that patriarchy is sustained as a result of the silence and obedience of the women characters.
A look at the male friendships provides a great contrast to the females of this play. William Carroll previews the thought of male friendships being changed and transformed within the temple of marriage. He says in his introduction: “As with male friends, romantic love here interjects discord into the now past-tense ideal friendship; ‘two seeming bodies but one heart’ have now split apart, and at the end of the play the two couples will leave behind same-sex friendship for marriage” (Carroll 9).Valentine and Proteus uphold a very peculiar same-sex friendship from the very beginning of the play. Proteus says to
Cited: Carroll, William C. Introduction. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. By William Shakespeare. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2004. 1-135. Print. Frye, Northrup. “The Argument of Comedy”. Modern Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Alvin B. Kernan. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World Inc., 1970. 165-73. Print. Rackin, Phyllis. “Misogyny is Everywhere.” A Feminist Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Dympna Callaghan. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000. 42-56. Print. Shakespeare, William. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Ed. William C. Carroll. London: Arden Shakespeare, 2004. Print. Traub, Valerie. “Gender and sexuality in Shakespeare.” The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Ed. Margreta De Grazia and Stanley Wells. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 2001.129-46. Print. - - -.“Jewels, Statues, and Corpses: Containment Of Female Erotic Power In Shakespeare 's Plays.” Shakespeare Studies. 20. (1988): 215-39. Humanities International Complete. Web. 22 Mar. 2012.