Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroines

Shakespeare's attitudes towards and portrayals of women have long been discussed and analyzed in many contexts, and often it seems as though sweeping generalizations are made about how he felt towards women. Based on such plays as Macbeth, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and some characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream, one might be able to conclude that Shakespeare generally did not view women as moral equals to men, and only that he viewed them as weak, manipulative, deceptive, submissive, or downright cruel. Also, in recent years, the women's movement has badmouthed his plays, claiming that even if the women he portrays are good and virtuous, they are always weak and under the control of men (such as Hamlet's Ophelia). However, statements like that become dangerous when his plays are looked at in a broader scope and when one is reminded of the time period that he wrote in. In fact, some plays actually (though somewhat subtly) end up having women as the most heroic persons in the play. And although these women do not rebel against wrongdoings in a militant and warlike fashion (as perhaps their male counterparts would), they successfully maintain their beliefs, convictions, and strengths in a quieter, but no less effectual, way. T wo women in particular who hold to this model are King Lear's Cordelia and Othello's Desdemona, not only because they remain strong, true, and righteous throughout, but also because of their similarity in the fact that their tragic downfalls (and subsequent deaths) only resulted as a consequence of their relationships to the tragic heros of the stories (King Lear is Cordelia's father and Othello is Desdemona's husband)—but not because of any flaws of their own. In contrast, the heros of both of those plays fall because of some "tragic flaw" that he has. Unfortunately, they bring these women down with them, but not without cause— in the end, the strong and virtuous characters of Cordelia and Desdemona eventually force Lear and Othello to realize where they had gone wrong. Of course, at that point in the play it is too late to save any lives, but their deaths come with a recognition of long-denied truths, truths brought about only because of the power, strength, and purity of the tragic heroines.