LC Plays and Performance – Formative Assesment
To what extent are the plays you have studied on this module concerned with issues of gender?
Both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare are highly evocative pieces of theatre that have transcended the category of brilliance and have had a profound effect on the course of Western literature and culture. Both plays explore a broad range of themes, from the supernatural to comments on the power of religion in society. However, I have chosen to explore the ways in which they portray the theme of gender. Firstly I will examine the issues regarding gender in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in particular the oppression of the female characters. I will explore Shakespeare’s portrayal of Titania and Hermia and his ability to disguise the deeper feminist consciousness that is at work. I will then look at the way in which gender is presented in Miller’s The Crucible, ranging from the heroic depiction of John Proctor to the oppositional presentations of Abigail and Elizabeth.
William Shakespeare is a famously suggestive author in terms of highlighting issues regarding gender ideology. Although in some works, such as Othello, he reflects and arguably supports the stereotyping of men and women, he is also seen to challenge such representations. A Midsummer Night’s Dream dramatizes tensions between genders, from a young woman quarrelling with her father for the right to choose her own husband, to Theseus marrying Hippolyta whom he conquered through violence and even a bitter battle between Oberon and Titania which affects the order of the natural world. A Midsummer Night’s Dream often resonates with audiences all over the world as a tale of triumphant love however the play often flouts such conventions of romance. I believe that the play is much more than a boy-meets-girl tale, instead it is a complex work of literature that provides a commentary on issues of gender politics and oppression.
Ultimately the male characters in the play reign supreme over the females. For example, Theseus immediately makes it clear that he “wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries.” This connotes the idea of Titania being a ‘prize’ thus dehumanising her and diminishing traditional ideas of courting. The play opens in Theseus’s court thus the providing the patriarchal context of the subsequent action in the play. This setting exemplifies that altercations within the family in Shakespeare’s renaissance writing were “politicized: where the household was a microcosm of the state.” Egeus brings his daughter Hermia to the court in an attempt to supress her desire to marry Lysander. He repeatedly uses possessive pronouns, referring to her as “my child” and in response Theseus uses exclusionary phrases such as “the society of men” meaning that as a woman she must abide by the laws that have been established by those who oppress her. The “ancient privilege of Athens” allows Egeus to assert his male dominance over his daughter by subjecting her to this archaic patriarchal law and even death should she disobey him. It could be said that Shakespeare further objectifies the women of the play by giving them such similar and interchangeable names -the names of Hermia and Helena imply that all women are the same and therefore easily substitutable.
Shakespeare has chosen to orchestrate the female characters to appear as though they are obsessed with their physical attributes. Helena’s initial appearance in the play includes the lines “Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.” Through these lines, Helena is greeting her friend with contempt, citing Hermia’s beauty as the reason for resentment. Both women are driven by their desire to ensnare a man – a pursuit which resonates as especially important when considering the elevated status of the male characters within the play. The immature way in which the women act, only further works to highlight the ludicrous state in which the patriarchal Athenian society has forced them to become reduced to. Hermia, however, could be seen as a strong feminist character as she ultimately defies the laws of her father, her king and of her city so that she may marry Lysander. She defies the comforts and luxuries of her home for the uncertainties of a foreign land in exchange for love. The only possible criticism of Hermia is that she is willing to defy one set of patriarchal confinement to become the subordinate of another man. On the other hand, Helena is overwhelmingly desperate in her attempts to love Demetrius. She is too lowly to ask for Demetrius’s love, instead she begs to be in his presence saying, “I am your spaniel; Unworthy as I am to follow you.” These lines and the entire relationship between Demetrius and Helena provide the subtext of a sadistic and masochistic relationship. This connotation leaves little in Helena to be admired from a feminist perspective as she is so complicit in her own subjugation.
Titania is a particularly interesting character within the play, at the exposition of the play, she argues with Oberon with such rage that the natural world falls into chaos. She commands her own army of fairies and for the most part refuses to succumb Oberon’s threats to hand over her precious changeling boy. However, unfortunately she becomes a victim and is deemed fragile and easily exploitable within the play. She becomes vulnerable in her sleep and as soon as she is entranced by Oberon’s potion, she becomes the epitome of weakness. She becomes infatuated with a donkey and her displays of affection work as a means of public humiliation. Once she is awoken from the entrancement, she is immediately nauseated at the sight of Bottom and turns to Oberon in embarrassment at her actions as opposed to anger at his malicious fabrication of the entire ordeal. The subservient character of Titania that we see at the end of the play vastly differs from the powerful supernatural goddess who earlier fought so fearlessly, this is disappointing from a feminist perspective but also a poignant comment on the susceptibility of women to become manipulated by men in power.
Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible take an interesting stance on issues of gender. The play focuses mainly on John Proctor’s heroic actions as opposed to focusing on the real victims of the Salem witch trials – the women. The women made up the majority of the accused and their lives were shaped by the construction of their gender, from which suspicions of witchcraft were initially born. As opposed to calling these gender binaries into question, the play instead highlights female deceptiveness and overt-sexuality which provide a means of justification for their prosecution. Proctor’s ordeal is at the centre of The Crucible and echoes an archetypal theme of American literature: the victory of a masculine subject through a series of ordeals. Although the forces set in motion throughout the play ultimately lead Proctor to his death, he wins a victory of character and typifies the ‘ideal American.’
The obvious female protagonist of the play is Abigail who represents the ominous femme fatale, the ultimate symbol of male temptation. Her sexual desire circumvents all structures of the play, reducing the male human to an animal and abandoning previous divine structures for pleasures of a demonic kind. When she tempts Proctor, she is transgressing the order and institution of marriage. When she uses Tituba’s dark magic, she transgresses the boundaries of her Puritan religion. In Act One, Proctor outright tells Abigail that “[He] never give[s] [her] hope to wait for him”. Yet Miller orchestrates this to appear as though his rebuttal of her only galvanises Abigail’s conviction to be with him, she appears blinded by her desperation. Miller uses this to imply that women are slaves to their emotions and are subject to its every whim in many cases driving them to insanity. Abigail’s false accusations shape the rest of the play and the fate of Proctor. The hysteria in the play originates in her carnal lust for Proctor – she is described as “a strikingly beautiful girl.” Critic L.Moss has described her as a “malicious figure” whilst James Flanagan referred to her simply as “a whore” echoing Proctor’s exclamation of “I will make you famous for the whore you are!” Abigail’s beauty and assertion of her own sexuality allows Miller to project fault onto her and ensure that Proctor is still rendered a hero. In order to make Abigail’s seductive capability more believable and John’s culpability less pronounced, Miller has raised Abigail’s age from twelve to seventeen. He introduces us to the pair in the first act with John’s acknowledgement of her young age – “How do you call me child!” As readers we are already aware of Proctor having “clutched” her behind his home and “sweated like a stallion” at her every approach. Despite this knowledge, Miller is able to make Abigail appear like the aggressor in this scene, in keeping with the traditional notion of victim blaming. However, Miller offers no explanation as to how a seventeen year old Puritan girl, can be capable of seducing an adult male. We can only presume that Abigail’s knowledge of her sexuality is inherent to her gender, echoing the victim-blaming notion that unfortunately still stands today. There is also much irony in the fact that at the denouement of the play Abigail turns to prostitution. It would appear as though Miller is trying to ensure that the audience feel no sympathy for her, by assigning her to a traditionally frowned upon career that is driven by male desire. Such feelings toward the concept of sex are explored through Elizabeth’s character who is portrayed as an obedient yet frigid wife, the complete opposite to Abigail. Elizabeth is condemned because she denies sex, whilst Abigail is condemned because she gives sex away too freely as a means of manipulation. These skewed views steer away from the reality that women also have a natural and healthy desire to be sexual. The Puritan women are ashamed of their own bodies. A feminist reading of the cramps that Mary Warren suffers –“I thought my guts would burst for two days after” after Sarah Good tells of her displeasure at being turned away from Proctor’s door empty-handed is explainable as menstrual pains caused by the original sin of Eve. The women and men believe that females are inheritors of evil and their bodies serve as a reminders of this.
Overall, both plays are highly powerful and influential pieces of theatre that work not only to entertain an audience but also to highlight issues regarding gender that the playwrights thought important to shed light upon. The plays were written more than 350 years apart yet their similar themes work in parallel to emphasise the gender inequality and oppression that has clearly permeated society for centuries.
Bibliography: * Flanagan, James, Arthur Miller (New York: Ungar, 1987) * Miller, Arthur, The Crucible (London, Bloomsbury, 2010) * Montrose, Louis, The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) * Moss, Leonard, Arthur Miller (New York, Viking Press, 1952) * Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. by Peter Holland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)
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[ 1 ]. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. by Peter Holland (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1994), I.1. 16-17.
[ 2 ]. Louis Montrose, The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p.176.
[ 3 ]. William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ed. by Peter Holland (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1994), I.1.23.
[ 4 ]. Ibid., I.1.66.
[ 5 ]. Ibid.,l.1.41.
[ 6 ]. Ibid.I.1.181.
[ 7 ]. Ibid.II.1.203-207.
[ 8 ]. Arthur Miller, The Crucible, (London: Bloomsbury,2010) I.p.22.
[ 9 ]. Ibid.I.1.p.10.
[ 10 ]. Leonard Moss, Arthur Miller, (New York: Viking Press, 1952) p.60.
[ 11 ]. James K Flanagan, Arthur Miller (New York: Ungar, 1987),p.68.
[ 12 ]. Arthur Miller, The Crucible, (London: Bloomsbury, 2010) Appendix.p.135.
[ 13 ]. Ibid.I.1.p.23.
[ 14 ]. Ibid.I.1.p.22
[ 15 ]. Ibid.II.1.p.54.
